Image Credit: Fashion Group International Night of Stars 2004
In a look back at Giorgio Armani and his imprint on our cultural conversation, he was a singular man, an intellectual mix of artful precision and thoughtful creative design, sophistication in modern simplicity and the essence of Italian style—the art of combining classicism with modernity. And (perhaps too) firmly rooted by his singular vision, as he stated in The Financial Times, “My greatest weakness is that I am in control of everything.”
Foreseeing issues of succession, Armani created the Giorgio Armani Foundation in 2016 (when he was 82) to ensure continuous guidance for the company’s future management and protect the values and principles that have always inspired the founder’s creative and entrepreneurial activities.
The Armani Legacy
The reading of Giorgio Armani’s will on 12 September laid out a few potential outcomes for the estimated €2.3 billion ($2.7 billion) Armani enterprise spanning fashion, beauty & fragrance, home and hospitality enterprise. Long known for his singular control and staunch independence, the Armani will instructs his heirs to sell 15 percent of the Armani Group within 18 months followed by another 30 to 54.9 percent to the same buyer, with priority given to LVMH or firms it already has a relationship with: L’Oréal or EssilorLuxottica. Alternatively (if the selected parties are not interested), an IPO should be pursued.
It’s clear that Armani’s strategy was forged in the crucible of individualism, very much an Italian phenomenon; they march to the beat of their own drum and are best as wholly owned individual enterprises. That said, the French have excelled at creating luxury portfolio powerhouses where scale and synergy rule. In Armani’s last wishes, LVMH has a handful of heritage fashion and jewelry Italian brands in its portfolio Berluti, Bulgari, Fendi and Loro Piana to name a few, and seems the obvious strategic fit. However, EssilorLuxottica has had ties with Armani for decades and was instrumental in the creation of the designer eyewear category.
But perhaps more logical is the formation of an Italian family of brands at Prada Group, where the April 2025 agreement to purchase Versace from Capri (subject to regulatory approval) rounds out the brand portfolio to Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s, Car Shoe, Marchesi 1824, and Luna Rosa. Combining the two groups would create a powerful Italian luxury conglomerate, providing financial, operational and consumer benefits, chief among them being opportunities to share logistics, marketing infrastructure, procurement and retail operations providing efficiencies and margin expansion while strengthening competitive position against the French global luxury groups.
The will states (according to a Reuters article) that the “Fondazione will never hold less than 30 percent of the capital, thereby acting as a permanent guarantor of compliance with the founding principles.” Armani is doing his post-mortem level best to continue to maintain control.
Armani’s Origin Story
Like Ralph Lauren, Armani’s career began in the turbulent 1960s when new dress, values and retail models were emerging. Beginning as a window dresser at Milan’s Rinascente in 1957 (after studying medicine) and gradually moving up to buyer, Armani created a one-of-a-kind lifestyle brand, marked by quality craft and comfort in a quiet luxury mode.
His early career took off at Barneys’ Chelsea flagship when Fred Pressman, impressed with a new vision for male dressing, bankrolled an Armani investment, securing exclusivity. In doing so, Pressman evolved Barneys into a fashion destination for discovering new and exciting fashion designers. Armani’s lure quickly spread across America in 1980 when Richard Gere starred as Lauren Hutton’s arm candy in American Gigolo, launching his career as a sex symbol and leading actor while raising awareness of Armani’s new unstructured business attire.
This unstructured elegance appealed to athletes and investment bankers alike and quickly became a sartorial code of sophistication and success. American Gigolo was the first of many (some 200) collaborations with Armani dressing actors for cinema, stage and the red carpet. It was a deliberate funnel marketing strategy to entice the masses with his fashion, accessories and beauty lines.
Armani’s Future
Given Armani’s complete control over his business, some disarray is likely in the immediate future, On the day of his demise, I was attending the 32nd Goldman Sachs Global Retail Conference and briefly caught up with Stefan Larsen, CEO of PVH who said that the Armani brand, “will endure” and he doubted that a brand of its significance could be built today.
Brands like Armani, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and even Gap remain relevant by adapting their unique brand style and codes to prevailing culture, absorbing the trends without being dwarfed by them. Today, with attention spans the length of a nanosecond and the multi-branded retail business model under siege, building a fashion brand that endures is tough. To endure, you must be more than a fashion brand. Fashion brands can and do outlive their creators, think Chanel and Dior. Armani was a visionary and built an enduring empire on more than couture fashion. The world of Armani spans immersive hospitality and services (spas, restaurants and hotels).
Succession Plans
The Armani Group’s financial performance broadly mirrored that of the global luxury market, with a muted sales performance in the past 12 to 18 months following the pandemic surge. In 2024, revenues fell 5 percent to €2.3 billion ($2.7 billion) and EBITDA declined 24 percent to €398 million ($430 million), representing a 410-basis point EBITDA margin contraction, to 17.3 percent of sales. Since 2019, the EBITDA margin has ranged from 3.5 percent in 2018 to 22 percent in 2022, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Foreseeing issues of succession, Armani created the Giorgio Armani Foundation in 2016 (when he was 82) to ensure continuous guidance for the company’s future management and protect the values and principles that have always inspired the founder’s creative and entrepreneurial activities. We expect the Foundation’s share of Armani will increase from 0.1% to something more substantial when the will is made public.
In any case, few doubt the longevity of Armani’s impact on fashion and culture. As designer Oswald Boateng said, “Armani has defined a look, and his name will forever be in history.”
Armani Box Scores
Key Armani firsts and notable milestones, from pioneering products and industry reforms to setting new fashion and luxury standards.
- Deconstructed Tailoring: Armani introduced lightweight, softer men’s suiting with relaxed form, defining a modern, masculine and feminine silhouette as elegant and comfortable and demolishing the stiff construction of post-war suiting.
- Hollywood Collaborations: Starting with American Gigolo in 1980, Armani went on to collaborate with nearly 200 films on costume design, starting and setting a Hollywood trend.
- Diffusion Lines. In 1981, Armani introduced Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans, and Armani Junior, creating new market segments and expanding his brand to a younger, broader audience.
- Time Magazine Cover. In 1982, Armani became the first fashion designer to appear on the cover of Time magazine since Christian Dior.
- Luxury Fashion to Eateries. Added restaurants and later Dolci (chocolates, preserves, teas—a mini-Italian Fortnum Mason) to lifestyle offerings with the 1998 opening of Armani/Ristorante in Paris.
- Guggenheim Museum Retrospective. Spanning the 25 years since the Armani Group’s founding in 1975, this solo exhibit was the first fashion exhibit dedicated to one designer at the Guggenheim.
- Ban on Underweight Models. First designer to ban underweight models from his runway shows following the death of a model from anorexia nervosa in 2007, and set a social-ethical stance for model health advocacy in the fashion industry.
- Armani Hotel Dubai. Opened in 2010, Armani was the first fashion designer involved in a branded luxury hotel project.
