King Giorgio, The Story of Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani was born in 1934 in Piacenza, a province city 80 kilometres south of Milan.

His family was a low bourgeois family, his father was a public “yuppie” and his mother was coming from a family of home makers.

Life in Piacenza was easy and his family taught him the values of politesse and décor.

During the war, when Piacenza became one of the objectives of Allies bombings, Giorgio Armani almost lost his life when a friend playing with a bomb made it detonate killing one child and burning Armani all over his body. He had to spend more than a month in the hospital but luckily he was recovered.

After the war in 1949 his family moved to Milan and Giorgio who just finished his high school studies had quite a shock moving from quiet Piacenza to the crowded and noisy Milan.

As he stated “It was hard to leave the nature, the smell of the countryside, of the grass and of the courtyards”.

Driven by this sense of nostalgia Armani decided to follow medicine studies, determined to become a countryside doctor.

But when he was called to military service and had to spend two years in a military hospital he understood that being a doctor was not his path.

Returned to Milan he accepted a job as an assistant photographer in La Rinascente, a central Department Store in Piazza del Duomo.

After this experience he was moved to organize the windows and after a really short time he was already in chief of a menswear store.

In 1964 he was hired by Giorgio Cerutti to design the collection of Hitman the menswear brand of the firm.

After 9 years in Hitman Armani decides to leave and opens an atelier with his friend and boyfriend Sergio Galeotti with whom he will share his life until his death in 1984.

After 2 years they open the Giorgio Armani S.p.A. with a capital of 2500000 liras (approximately 800 pounds).

Since then Armani starts to experience a growth that year after year leads him to reach the nick-name of Re Giorgio (King Giorgio).

In 1979 he received the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award and founds the Giorgio Armani Corporation, the first step into the American market and launches a series of brands such as Mani, Armani Junior, Armani Accessories and Swimwear.

In the 80’s Armani sings the costumes (that he calls dresses) for a series of Hollywood cults such as The Untouchables, American Gigolo.

The link between Armani and Hollywood leads to enormous success and in 1982 Times dedicates his first page to the Italian stylist with the title: “Giorgio’s gorgeous style”.

In the 80’s Armani also demonstrate an outstanding entrepreneurial spirit by expanding his operations to Japan and by signing agreements with L’Oreal for the perfumes and Luxottica for the eyewear.

The basis built in the 80’s will lead to an incredible expansion of the brand Armani which in the years 2000 starts a process of renovation which leads to the creation of Armani Prive’, and an Armani Teathre.

In 2001 he also makes an important strategic decision for the company when he decides to acquire all the steps of the production line, to focus even more on the Made in Italy.

But Armani is not stopping and is planning to open the first Armani Hotel in Milan soon......

At the present time Armani has an estimated capital of 4.5 billion dollars.

Armani is our second example of stories of excellence and shows us further more how excellent creativity linked to excellent management can lead to a truth story of excellence.