Eccentrico, exhibition by Giorgio Armani
Just for one night, Giorgio Armani became “Eccentrico” or “Eccentric”, in keeping with the title of his exhibition/event which is slated to become itinerant on account of featuring a wealth of several of the designer’s wildest items. However, for the time being, the exhibit, unveiled after the signature brand’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection during Milan Fashion Week, served as a single celebratory moment.
Diversity generates creativity. Diversity from all current ideas, from convention, from that which appears obvious and repetitive. Diversity that gives us insight into unexpected, “never-seen-before” areas and sides of a designer known for his coherency. Hence, Giorgio Armani the purist, Giorgio Armani the inflexible who, during the fitting of a garment, removes, re-removes and removes again to achieve a formal purity, Giorgio Armani, the minimalist who, in this exhibition of garments and accessories dating from 1985 to today, reveals a fantastic aesthetic dimension, a lavish vision that appears to change the very essence of things. Magical beetles, shiny dragonflies, iridescent fish, crabs, butterflies, dolphins and proud-beaked birds comprise a spectacular zoo, transformed into brooches, clasps for pochettes, necklace fasteners and decorations for handbags.
The working of precious materials are the focus of a series of fabric-like, statement-making necklaces, the result of surprising pairings with velvet, silk and tulle that cover the stones to give them a mysterious consistency. And, while the stones show vaguely obscured reflections that seem to accentuate their hardness, revealing all their matter-like substance, the use of fabrics is reminiscent of the origins of the Armani world.
The exhibition showcases garments from the Giorgio Armani collections and the Giorgio Armani Privé: 51 elegant creations which, with their evocative beauty, are an ode to the atmospheres in which they were created. In a triumph of colours and patterns, the eye alights on long evening gowns, richly embroidered with vaguely gypsy-like floral motifs, together with luminous suits in which the bold graphics of jackets stand out.
The underlying theme is sophisticated eccentricity, visible in either the designer’s black velvet dress, illuminated by striking red roses, or in the series of perfectly constructed garments, whose edgy proportions draw one’s attention, like a close-up shot, to shoulders featuring geometric, almost futuristic cuts. Accessories, created in 2006, also showed the designer’s experiments with surrealism, a fusion of art, fashion and design, restrained by a bizarre play of colours. Because what subsequently becomes a fashion trend, often starts in the collections designed by Giorgio Armani.
