With the passing of Giorgio Armani, a defining chapter of Italian fashion comes to a close. Founder of his eponymous maison in 1975, Armani redefined the very idea of elegance with a style both essential and rigorous. His name is most often linked to unstructured jackets, neutral palettes and fluid fabrics. Yet there is a lesser-known chapter to his story: his relationship with leather. Few realise that leather marked his debut as an independent designer, in a collection that today reads like a forgotten manifesto — but was then already an act of avant-garde. It was here that Armani made his first gesture in leather, an intuition that foreshadowed his aesthetic revolution.
The first gesture in leather
Armani took his first steps in fashion working for Nino Cerruti, where he honed both his style and his vision. But the turning point came in 1974. Even before founding his own maison, he signed his first freelance collection: Armani by Sicons. A line devoted entirely to leather, born of his collaboration with Sicons, a company specialising in calfskin and nappa. At a time dominated by stiff tailoring and rigid silhouettes, Armani defied tradition. It was at this moment that he first began to reveal his signature style. That inaugural collection featured supple jackets, unstructured trenches and suede trousers. At times, Armani chose to work leather without linings or visible seams, transforming it into a sculptural material.
A second skin
In his Autumn/Winter 1981 collection, he returned once again to leather, remarking: “Leather has sex appeal; it falls and shapes itself to the body like a second skin”. A philosophy that anticipated the aesthetic revolution destined to erupt the following year, with the creation of Giorgio Armani S.p.A. For Armani, leather at this stage was no mere material. It was the medium through which he began to speak of masculine and feminine sensuality, of quiet power, of urban elegance. It was the first step towards an aesthetic that would change the face of international fashion. And it was in leather that Armani appeared on the cover of Time in 1982 – the first Italian designer to achieve this recognition.
The evolution of a style
From Armani by Sicons onwards, leather continued to weave its way discreetly yet consistently through the designer’s vocabulary. If at first it was the medium of his earliest creative gesture, in the 1980s it assumed a bolder role. It became central to power dressing, with black leather jackets, minimalist trenches and suede trousers that accompanied Armani’s rise as a global icon. Through the 1990s and 2000s, leather evolved further. It grew more technical, more refined. It appeared in details, in accessories, in outerwear. Within the Emporio Armani line, in particular, it became a defining element of biker jackets, bags and sneakers — always balancing elegance with modernity. Leather may not be the first thought when one speaks of Giorgio Armani. Yet it was his first creative gesture. And perhaps for that very reason, it deserves to be remembered as the material that helped shape the legend.
Image: Armani Archive
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