OPEN LETTER
ARMANI. THE COURAGE TO TELL THE TRUTH
Dear Giorgio,
I remember like you when fashion, a small and little considered thing in Italy, began to grow and become a beautiful, big, ours, serious thing, which brought into play all hopes and creativity. We have seen it transform and create the made in Italy and we have given it the best. We, Flavio and me and our collaborators, from the magazines we gradually created and directed, Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue, Donna, Mondo Uomo, Moda... You, first with Sergio who we are still missing, and then with all the others your excellent first-time collaborators, Rosanna, Leo, Silvana, Irene, Giovanna and many others. You never stopped. Since you were already appreciated as an assistant of Nino Cerruti, and then from those few rooms in Corso Venezia that saw your first fashion show, to the already important venue in via Durini, up to your empire ...
Dear Giorgio,I remember like you when fashion, a small and little considered thing in Italy, began to grow and become a beautiful, big, ours, serious thing, which brought into play all hopes and creativity. We have seen it transform and create the made in Italy and we have given it the best. We, Flavio and me and our collaborators, from the magazines we gradually created and directed, Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue, Donna, Mondo Uomo, Moda... You, first with Sergio who we are still missing, and then with all the others your excellent first-time collaborators, Rosanna, Leo, Silvana, Irene, Giovanna and many others. You never stopped. Since you were already appreciated as an assistant of Nino Cerruti, and then from those few rooms in Corso Venezia that saw your first fashion show, to the already important venue in via Durini, up to your empire in via Borgonuovo and lately in via Bergognone, just sandwich with Superstudio 13 on one side and Superstudio Più on the other. I still see you on rare occasions, some fashion shows, your exhibitions at the Silos but also in our photo studios next door. It happened not long ago on a terrible rainy Sunday. Sunday. You were there, alone, with the photographer, checking everything for the shooting of the next day. Then I came to check on something else. I wasn't too surprised: your attention, your perfectionism are legendary and I know them well. Here it is. I read your open letter to WWD (the American newspaper Women's Wear Daily, April 3) to wish for a return to authentic fashion. I agree with you. We exaggerated with haste, with competition, with superfluous and sometimes vulgar luxury and fast items thrown away quickly as rags, because they are so cheap. Too much excess, too much glitter, too much appearance, no substance. Too many clothes in the closets, thank goodness that many end up in charity for those who don't have any.I remember with nostalgia when to publish a dress I had to find meaning, innovation, research, talent, originality, mastery. And quality. It took time to put all this together. Today even at the market you find things similar to those on the catwalks, or almost, shortly thereafter.Creativity is a precious gift, such as intellectual honesty, which perhaps is not lacking but is often overwhelmed by marketing, business, greed. That's enough. Let's take advantage of this moment of stop to do an examination of conscience. Let's take a step back, moving forward. It is time to put the prices, seasons, production, presentations and exaggerations back into order. Let's find a beautiful fashion, to be desired, not only to accumulate. We must find an obsolete value: a common good sense.Thanks Giorgio to have once again shown the way.Gisella
