HOME SWEET HOME: For the first time in 18 years, Giorgio Armani will show his namesake men’s collection for spring 2020 at his storied headquarters at 11 Via Borgonuovo.
The show is scheduled on June 17 at 5 p.m., closing Milan Men’s Fashion Week, which kicks off on June 14.
Armani took control in 1996 of the stately 17th-century building, Palazzo Orsini, named after the 12th-century family, but in 2001 the designer unveiled offices and his Teatro, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando on Milan’s Via Bergognone — in a former Nestlé industrial area, and effectively helping to revamp that part of the city.
The Emporio Armani show will be held at the Teatro on June 15 at 11 a.m.
The designer has most recently been experimenting with different formats and venues. Last September, he staged a coed Emporio Armani show at Milan’s Linate Airport — at the Hangar where the imposing Emporio Armani billboard has been placed since 1996. That was the first time a fashion show was held at that site and it was followed by a Robbie Williams concert.
In February, for the first time, Armani held a coed show for his signature line at Silos, the exhibition space he opened in 2015, opposite the Teatro, on the other side of the street.
On May 24, the designer will host his first runway show for a pre-collection parading the Giorgio Armani men’s and women’s resort 2020 lineups in Tokyo.
The show will be held in conjunction with the celebrations, that same night, for the reopening of the Armani/Ginza Tower in the city’s tony shopping district.
First unveiled in 2007, the Armani/Ginza Tower — covering about 65,000 square feet over 12 floors and two basement levels — featured the Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and Casa collections, along with the brand’s then-first spa, an Italian restaurant and a Privé bar.