Love: Designers Behaving Badly Part 2, Giorgio Armani

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Alexandra
Giorgio Armani, Menswear, spring 2012, catwalk shows

Giorgio Armani Spring Summer 2012: not exactly groundbreaking fashion, but it looks good.

Giorgio Armani is the other designer who has been mouthing off about some of his fellow designers. This isn’t the first time he has been critical of his competitors’ menswear brands, remember Trousergate? Anyway, WWD quotes him as saying that Prada and Dolce & Gabbana’s recent menswear collections are ridiculous. He then added that his business doesn’t need an IPO because they are independent and don’t have any debt (referring to Prada’s decision to make a stock exchange debut in Hong Kong.)

 

Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Menswear, spring 2012, catwalk shows

Dolce & Gabbana (left) and Prada (right) Spring Summer 2012. Frankly I wouldn;t be impressed if my husband wore sheer shorts over top hotpants, or those floral trousers that look like vintage store rejects.

Well, he does have a point. Dolce & Gabbana’s show featured a lot of unwearable pieces (sheer overlay on shorts, anyone?) and Prada’s show had a lot of garish, incredibly tacky prints (who wants a pair of bright floral print pants? Even the models look uncomfortable.) We often praise these shows for their creativity or their newness, however Armani is right. What guy is going to wear this? Not many. Whereas Armani’s sometimes predictable but almost always classic pieces would work on most men. Maybe that’s why his business isn’t in debt…

Read Designers Behaving Badly Part 1, Azzedine Alaïa.

Images from GQ.com.

This entry was posted in Fashion Quote, Menswear, Opinion and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Eve

    I’m very much enjoying  this moment in fashion where some designers are just saying whatever the hell is on their mind about the industry. Its not a  great number obviously, but I’ll take what I can get :)  

    At the same time, many of them are established enough that what they say (excluding Galliano of course) won’t really hurt their businesses, but I’m still happy to hear such sheer honesty. Also, you should check out the comments of blogs and online fashion publications that re-posted Alai’s interview; almost all of them were in support of the designer, so clearly many are sharing your sentiments. 

  • Astroglyde2001

    Never fear BryanBoy with snatch up both looks!

  • On9_lkh

    i feel like d&g’s dolce gabbana line always does spin off collections for their mens line.. like this collection is like prada’s mens collection last summer but done poorly and less chicly. and although armani’s main line has wearable and mostly boring pieces, that’s not what high fashion is generally about. prada’s collection has pieces that may as well be the same as the giorgio armani line such as the double breasted suits, but they also have creative though sometimes garish pieces that at the end of the day, leave and impression. ALSO prada actually has sales from their runway collections whereas armani i’m guessing mostly relies on the sales of his sub-lines. 

  • Anonymous

    I am pretty sure Armani makes money off his runway collections, probably more than Prada. I have no doubt that Prada makes money off their womenswear collections, which are beautiful, but their menswear is pretty out there. Who is going to buy those floral pants? They will probably sell 50 pairs, whereas Armani will sell thousands of suits. You are right, Prada probably makes most of their menswear money off the plain suits, most of which don’t even make it onto the catwalk.