Is Dario Vitale going to Emporio Armani? Rather than Milan Fashion Week, it seems we're in Milan Gossip Week
Last week, industry voices had predicted that Adrian Appiolaza would leave Moschino, replaced by Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo in their post-Sunnei era. During Milan Fashion Week, another and perhaps even hotter gossip is circulating by word of mouth among fashion insiders: it is said that Dario Vitale could be the next creative director of Emporio Armani. The news, if true, would be a real bombshell but would perhaps represent a very positive development for the second label of Giorgio Armani’s empire. But why might a Vitale appointment make sense?
In Search of Youth
When it was born back in 1981, Emporio Armani was a more experimental and youthful diffusion line compared to the more composed and refined Giorgio Armani. Over the years this distinction has become increasingly blurred, with adjacent shows during fashion week and a style that has remained youthful but has grown ever closer to the mainline of the brand, which later evolved upwards with Armani Privé and towards the more popular market segments with the now-defunct Armani Jeans and EA7. Yet during the final years of the legendary founder’s life, it was precisely Emporio Armani that served as the experimental laboratory for collaborations that winked at the young menswear guys who populate Instagram feeds with their oversized jeans and leather shoes, through the link-up with Our Legacy, while the mainline had collaborated with Kith.
The point is that Emporio Armani possesses untapped potential in the world of fashion. With its archive rediscovered in recent years by Vinted explorers, its prophetic anticipation of that style suspended between poor opulence and Scandi-cool, and its enviable positioning as an ultra-established brand within the fashion system yet still separate from the historic main line, Emporio Armani has the strength to become, for the Armani empire, what Miu Miu has become for the Prada empire. A sort of younger sibling that turns out to be the winner of the family. And who better to lead it than the man who, for all these years, had designed Miu Miu itself?
The possible, desirable appointment of Dario Vitale (these rumors, as we know, are often inscrutable) would also be a very brilliant strategic choice by the brand’s team, combining a historic label that is currently like the “light under a bushel” of the Gospels with the hottest designer of the moment at large. And rightly so, after the much-discussed exit of Vitale from Versace—following a first collection that had set hearts on fire—his arrival at Emporio Armani would be, more than promising, practically a rebirth.
Armani After Armani
@nssmagazine Today, in an official statement, the Armani Group announced the passing of its founder and historic creative director, Giorgio Armani. Re Giorgio passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones. As always, even during periods of illness, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections we will see next month, and the numerous projects that have rewritten the history of Italian fashion and Made in Italy worldwide. #giorgioarmani #armani #fashiontiktok #tiktokfashion #intervista suono originale - nss magazine
Perhaps no designer in fashion history has taken more care of the posthumous destiny of his own brand than Giorgio Armani. After holding the reins with an iron grip over the creativity of all his many lines, and after expanding his empire like no one else into furniture, hotels, and lifestyle, Giorgio Armani planned with geometric precision what should happen next. By ordering to allow an external investor to enter the brand’s capital to add a buttress of stability to the colossal structure, the founder implicitly opened a prudent crack to the wind of change. And everyone felt it.
In the collections signed by Leonardo Dell’Orco and Silvana Armani (perhaps the great hidden talent in the house, who for too long remained away from the spotlight) one indeed perceives absolute fidelity to the brand’s principles and, at the same time, a lighter hand, a more mobile and modern flexibility and agility. In just a few collections, a new lightness has been felt, the excitement of wings taking flight, but above all a possibility has emerged: the monument built by the great Giorgio Armani is complete but not finished. New hands can raise it to new heights and unexpected directions. And perhaps those hands will belong to Dario Vitale. We can always hope.