Everything The Light Touches: Inside Giorgio Armani Privé’s Shimmering 20th Anniversary Show

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For the 20^th anniversary of his haute couture line, Giorgio Armani took the arm of a beautiful model and walked the length of his runway, smiling and waving to his guests. While it’s usually commonplace for a designer to simply duck their heads in-and-out from behind a curtain post a show, the 90-year-old’s decision to thank everyone in every emotionally-charged room of this show was perhaps a signal of his gratitude to those who have kept him front and centre of this whole haute couture business for two decades.

The collection’s inspiration also spelt this notion out. With a focus and fascination placed on how light hits fabric, Mr. Armani dedicated this season to the “authentic, modern woman who has travelled widely.”

“Her path traverses the shapes and colours of China, the landscapes of Polynesia transformed into prints and embroideries with delicate watercolour softness, the opulence of India, the linear elegance of Japan and the decorum of northern Africa, all rendered with an intangible, barely perceptible lightness, like a brushstroke of light,” read the show notes.

Fittingly so, embellishments were aplenty. Tapered, tailored cropped jackets, long evening gowns, coats, skirts and evening bags were all trimmed in shards of amaranth, bronze and deep blue crystals. True to all his collections, pants were kept translucent, silky and flowing. Gowns, while long, were backless and strapless, while full circle skirts and vests were heavily embroidered. To finish, sequinned head pieces sat atop sleek, side-parted up-dos, framing fanned-out displays of mauve-grey eyeshadow.

In the crowd were the likes of Demi Moore and the director of her new film, The Substance, Coralie Fargeat. A few seats up sat the director of Angelina Jolie’s new movie, Maria, Valeria Golino. Writing for GRAZIA some years ago, Mr. Armani reflected on his love of cinema.

“I’ve often wondered what my life would have been without film. Surely I would not have become the man and designer that I am today,” he wrote in an essay for GRAZIA. “For me, films were not only a youthful passion that continued into adulthood, but also a constant source of ideas and inspiration, a mine of images upon which to draw on and build my world.”

Like what cinema is to the great designer, it is a pure pleasure for us to view this world Mr. Armani has built season after season. To many more full runway walks.

See the highlights from the Giorgio Armani Privé SS25 show below. You can watch the show here.