Giorgio Armani: Radical Gender

What characterize Armani's style and make it so contemporary and relevant are crossovers of identity and culture, as can be seen from the mannish taste that influences many of his recent collections. But what has marked out Armani's research and continues to set it apart is the ethics from which he derives his aesthetics. From his very first interviews, he has always explained his choices in terms of concepts like dignity, rigor, freedom and authority. A way of accentuating the qualities of strength in women that complement the courage to display sensuality and tenderness in men. This interpretation of the nature of cross gendering is the strongest indication of the contemporary nature of his creations: to illustrate this phenomenon thoroughly, going beyond what the success of the Armani jacket is usually attributed to, the book establishes connections between art, culture and society, for the Armani style is the representation of a liquid society, in which every boundary is crossed and redrawn. What emerges is a vivid, intriguing picture of society and its changes and of the man who, through fashion, has been able to interpret and even anticipate them.