Michelle Yeoh’s dress at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards is from the Spring 2025 Armani Prive collection. Photo: AFP
Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani died early this month, leaving behind not just a global fashion empire but also a visual legacy that spanned decades.
From Hollywood’s biggest nights to Cannes’ red carpet, his sleek tailoring and understated gowns defined the timeless elegance stars desired.
In a 2019 Vanity Fair interview Armani spoke about regularly dressing celebrities like Jessica Chastain, George Clooney, Jodie Foster, Anne Hathaway and Diane Keaton.
He said their devotion to excellence matched his own.
“This drive, this commitment, it gives a person an aura of specialness, which means they inhabit my clothes with a quiet and effortless assurance,” Armani explained.
Giorgio Armani’s sketch for Leonardo DiCaprio in 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'. Photo: Handout“My clothes are also quietly assured themselves – never overwhelming with unnecessary details or decoration, but instead, always framing in a flattering way that allows the personality to shine.”
Read more: A final bow: Milan honours fashion designer Giorgio Armani with love and style
Armani was also among the earliest designers to recognise the red carpet’s power as a global stage.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, one of his smartest moves was forging showbusiness connections in the early 1990s.
It paved the way for other designer labels like Versace, Valentino, Dior and Chanel to establish a regular presence on the red carpet.
Armani also designed costumes for films like American Gigolo (1980), The Untouchables (1987), The Dark Knight (2008), The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013) and many more.
He is a self-professed cinema enthusiast, stating in a 2015 Los Angeles Times interview that the cinema was his “aesthetics training academy”.
Armani took a cinematic approach to his fashion campaigns in this manner.
“Both in the photographs and in the commercials, I like to use a visual language, often in black and white, which goes back to the movies,” he said.
As it is, tributes poured in not only from the fashion community upon his death at 91 years old. Film stars spoke of his unfailing loyalty, his gentle precision, and the way he made them feel both powerful and at ease.
“Deeply saddened by the passing of the legendary Giorgio Armani, a true visionary, but so much more to me,” Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh posted on Instagram.
Martin Scorsese has even posed for a fashion campaign for the Giorgio Armani label. Photo: HandoutThe Oscar-winning Malaysian actress last wore an Armani Prive creation to the Screen Actors Guild Awards in February this year.
Read more: Giorgio Armani has passed, but what about the fashion empire he left behind?
Those in the film industry definitely recognised Armani as a visual collaborator who understood character through clothing.
One example is Made In Milan, a 1990 short documentary by Martin Scorsese – the first documentary and short film in 12 years by the legendary film director at that time, which captured the designer’s world and vision.
Currently available for view on YouTube, it tells the story of his life and work as a designer.
Last year, Scorsese even modelled for Armani in what marked the Giorgio Armani label’s first-ever collaboration collection, created with US fashion brand Kith.
“Like all great designers, Giorgio isn’t thinking of just outward appearance on a red carpet but also comfort in everyday life,” Scorsese wrote in a 2015 tribute for the 40th anniversary of the fashion house.
Armani’s death on Sept 4 came as the 2025 Venice Film Festival was drawing to a close.
The glitzy event has long been one of the designer’s most high-profile runways, so to speak.
“Cinema was Giorgio Armani’s first love, a passion that began in childhood and never left him,” organisers said in a statement.
