Giorgio Armani Fashions His Own Legacy with Succession Plan 

The 80th Venice Film Festival - Armani fashion show "One Night Only" - Venice, Italy, September 2, 2023 - Designer Giorgio Armani attends his event "One Night Only", a special fashion show to celebrate cinema. (Reuters)
The 80th Venice Film Festival - Armani fashion show "One Night Only" - Venice, Italy, September 2, 2023 - Designer Giorgio Armani attends his event "One Night Only", a special fashion show to celebrate cinema. (Reuters)
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Giorgio Armani Fashions His Own Legacy with Succession Plan 

The 80th Venice Film Festival - Armani fashion show "One Night Only" - Venice, Italy, September 2, 2023 - Designer Giorgio Armani attends his event "One Night Only", a special fashion show to celebrate cinema. (Reuters)
The 80th Venice Film Festival - Armani fashion show "One Night Only" - Venice, Italy, September 2, 2023 - Designer Giorgio Armani attends his event "One Night Only", a special fashion show to celebrate cinema. (Reuters)

Giorgio Armani has always kept a tight grip on the firm he founded, and the Italian fashion king's attention to detail extends to clear rules on how it should be run after his death.

Armani, 89, remains CEO and effectively sole shareholder of the business he set up with his late partner in the 1970s, which had a 2.35 billion euros ($2.5 billion) turnover last year.

With no children to pass it on to, there has been speculation about the long-term future of Armani's empire and whether, in an industry dominated by luxury conglomerates, it will be able to maintain the independence he treasures.

But a hitherto obscure document from 2016, held by a notary in Milan and reviewed by Reuters, sets out the future governing principles for those who inherit the group, while another details issues including protecting jobs at the firm.

The first document explains how his heirs should approach a potential stock market listing - though not until five years after his passing - and any potential M&A activity.

For the Armani look itself, the document commits them to the "search for an essential, modern, elegant and unostentatious style with attention to detail and visibility".

The document is the product of an extraordinary meeting that Armani called in 2016 to adopt new bylaws for the group which would come into force upon his death.

SUCCESSION PLAN

Armani's heirs are expected to include his sister, three other family members working in the business, long-term collaborator Pantaleo Dell'Orco and a charitable foundation.

The bylaws divide the company's share capital into six categories with different voting rights and powers, and were amended in September to create some without voting rights.

The Armani group, which as well as the CEO also represents the family members mentioned in the document, declined to comment on the document or its contents.

It is not clear from the document how the different blocs of shares will be distributed, but corporate governance experts say the guidelines should ensure a relatively smooth transition by giving the board a central role.

"It is an organization that reduces the margins for disagreement between the heirs," Guido Corbetta, professor of Corporate Strategy at Milan's Bocconi University, told Reuters.

Armani has a younger sister, Rosanna, two nieces, Silvana and Roberta, as well as a nephew, Andrea Camerana. Dell'Orco is also considered part of the family.

All are currently board members and, apart from Rosanna, all work for the Armani group.

Silvana and Dell'Orco are heads of design, working closely for decades with Armani, who dubbed them his "lieutenants of style".

The 2016 bylaws set the process for how the board will appoint future women's and men's style directors in a company known for its classic tailoring.

Roberta is Head of Entertainment & VIP Relations, while Camerana is sustainability managing director.

Other fashion groups including LVMH, Europe's most valuable luxury company, also have succession issues, with the five children of LVMH CEO and Chairman Bernard Arnault all having key management roles at brands in the empire.

LASTING LEGACY

Armani also created a foundation in 2016 which currently has a tiny symbolic stake but is earmarked to play a pivotal role in protecting the business he set up with Sergio Galeotti before going it alone when his partner died in 1985.

Its purpose is to reinvest capital for charitable causes and to maintain Armani's lasting influence over the group.

The foundation's bylaws, which were also seen by Reuters, call for it to manage the shareholding with the aim of creating value, maintaining employment levels and the pursuit of company values. The Armani group has almost 9,000 employees.

The arrangement has echoes of one adopted by Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf who left the brand to a foundation in 1960 that still owns the luxury watchmaker.

Armani has always defended his firm's independence and ruled out a merger, especially with the French groups that swallowed up Italian brands such as Gucci, now owned by Kering.

The group bylaws include a "cautious approach to acquisitions aimed solely at developing skills that do not exist internally from a market, product or channel point of view".

They also provides for the distribution of 50% of net profits to shareholders.

Any eventual stock market listing requires the favourable vote of the majority of directors "after the fifth year following the entry into force of this statute".

The Armani group declined to comment on a potential listing in the mid-term.

"The founding principles show Armani's desire to transmit and prolong his idea of a company, of business, there is a desire for eternity," Bocconi professor Corbetta said.

Despite his meticulous planning, whether Armani's aims outlast him will ultimately be beyond his control.

"They (the rules) could restrict the company a little and become incompatible with drastic changes in the market," Corbetta said.



Prada Offers Savage, Instinctive Menswear during Milan Fashion Week

 A model walks the runway during the Prada collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Men's Fall / Winter 2025-2026 in Milan, Italy, on January 19, 2025 (AFP)
A model walks the runway during the Prada collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Men's Fall / Winter 2025-2026 in Milan, Italy, on January 19, 2025 (AFP)
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Prada Offers Savage, Instinctive Menswear during Milan Fashion Week

 A model walks the runway during the Prada collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Men's Fall / Winter 2025-2026 in Milan, Italy, on January 19, 2025 (AFP)
A model walks the runway during the Prada collection show at Milan's Fashion Week Men's Fall / Winter 2025-2026 in Milan, Italy, on January 19, 2025 (AFP)

Miuccia Prada and her co-creative director Raf Simons described the latest Prada menswear collaboration unveiled during Milan Fashion Week on Sunday as raw and cinematic.

While the Milan Fall-Winter 2025-2026 runway was full of faux fur collars, Prada went the usual step beyond and created primitive detailing in shearling that looked almost torn from the beast and set askew on outerwear lapels, or patchworked into garments.

“Maybe, it reads as savage, primitive cavemen. I think that our aim was to make it feel warm and human and instinctive, but also kind of beautifully domestic in a way,” Simons said backstage.

Collection hallmarks Cinematic references were broad and not specific to any film, director or even character type, Simons said. Western touches included scuffed cowboy boots and knitwear mimicking a wrangler’s shirt - without creating characters or caricatures.

The silhouette mixed skinny trousers, often in bright rock-and-roll satin, with more ample volumes like pajama tops or slightly ratty sweaters. Suits required no shirts, as the designers advocated instinctive dressing.

One look seemed to distill the collection to its boyish essence: Straight leg jeans with a knit top featuring striped detailing, worn with floral-stamped cowboy boots.

Fashion as meaning

The designers said the collection was meant to offer hope in difficult times, proffering humanity as a form of resistance to whatever may be oppressing.

“It’s a bit of an answer to what of course is happening. We have to resist with our instinct, with our humanity, with our passion, with our romance,” Prada said backstage. Good work, she said, is also a form of resistance.

The message contained in the collection “has to be optimistic by definition and in principle,” Prada said.

The Setting The ever-transforming showroom inside the Prada Foundation’s Deposito contemporary art space was sheathed in Art Noveau carpet, and the runway was set on raised metal scaffolding. Simons said it represented contrasts, decoration and a work-in-progress.

Star power Prada's front row hailed from across the globe and disciplines, including British actor and musician William Gao, arriving with British musician Olivia Hardy, US actor Keith Powers, South Korean actress Kim Tae-ri, Chinese table tennis player Ma Long and British actor Louis Patridge. A crowd of fans waited just beyond a barricade to cheer them all.