EA7 Emporio Armani Garden Live: Summer of Sport
Courtesy of Armani, Getty

It's going to be such a big and exciting summer for Armani – they're dressing the whole Italian olympic team and EA7 is exclusively dressing the Italian rugby team! So last night Roberta Armani hosted 'Emporio Armani Summer Garden Live' at their EA store in New Bond Street. The space looked great – all the clothes had been removed and the walls covered with a selection of photography taken from the book 'Faces of Sport' by Giorgio Armani. The back of the store opened up to a little garden where Armani had set up a stage for the occasion where Friendly Fires, Kyla la Grange and Delilah performed followed by a DJ set by Rizzle Kicks. It was, by far, one of the most fun brand events I've ever been to. Super stylish but completely relaxed.
The guest list was also top notch – Freddie Fox, Amber Le Bon, Douglas Booth, Tolula Adeyemi, Ben Grimes, Jamie Campbell Bower, Tamzin Merchant, Delilah, Max Brown, Greg James. I was in absolute awe of Roberta Armani, who looked even more beautiful in person.  Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones) and Holliday Grainger (The Borgias) were also there looking amazing. So I spent my evening in the best company, sipping Peroni and dancing around.

Check out all the pictures from the photocall here.

Emporio Armani's FW12 campaign video

Courtesy of Armani

After last week's teaser, today Emporio Armani has released their full video campaign for the FW12 season. It was shot by Alasdair McLellan in Tokyo featuring models Anna de Riik, Tao Okamoto, Paolo Anchisi and Alfred Kovac. I love the contrast of 21st century Tokyo and Armani's elegant silhouettes and I am thrilled that one of my favourite pieces from the collection – the multi-colour sequinned jacket – made it onto the video!

Click here to take a closer look at the Armani FW12 collections and to see my favourite pieces from the press day. You can see the print advertising campaign here.

A closer look at Giorgio & Emporio Armani FW12
Know Wear, Courtesy of Armani

This week I stopped by the Armani showroom in London to have a closer look at the Giorgio and Emporio Armani collections. It's brands like Armani whose focus is on subtle elegance that make press days worth it. Only up close you can see the incredible amount of details that all the clothes have.
I must admit that I was especially keen on all the orange pieces. Lately, Armani has a way of using very bold colours and making them so special. The knot dress to the right was a highlight as was the beaded jacket or the bag below. Speaking of which, GA's accessories were particularly strong this season with a lot of clean modern lines of architectural air.
I also loved the textures, which have always been an Armani signature. The velvet jackets and slippers (you know how much I love them at the moment) were some of my favourites. I also loved the colourful sequinned jacket, which would make an exquisite evening look even for the summer paired with simple black jeans and a t-shirt.

It is often that celebrities become the face of designer houses but they seldom collaborate to create the clothes themselves. Rihanna, who is the new face for Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans, is now launching a capsule collection in collaboration with both branches of the Armani empire.
I am usually skeptical about lines like this one because items that they come up with are often unoriginal and tacky. But that cannot be said of this one. I love most of the pieces from the capsule collection. My favourite are the cobalt blue lace underwear (which comes in pearl grey too) and the graphic white t-shirts. I absolutely love Armani's sketches and how they've managed to sort of integrate that kind of feel on the design. Ri-Ri's face with the soft grey leopard print background looks super cool!
The whole line has a great feel of rock and roll-meets-laid back. I love the idea of the skinny jeans with a bandana-motif scarf as a belt!
The Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear collections in collaboration with Rihanna will be available at Armani stores worldwide from this month.

Courtesy of Armani

Alejandro: the old and the new

The hype around every one of Lady Gaga's videos grows with the release of each one. I Have to admit I always get a little excited to see them for the first time but this time it was different. I can't remember how long ago it was when I read that Steven Klein, my favourite photographer, was directing her 'Alejandro' video but ever since then I literally couldn't wait. I won't admit to the number of times I have watched it since yesterday but, believe me, you'd think me a freak.
Anyway, the Gaga and Klein combination very much delivered. The video is, visually, one of the best things I have seen in music in a very long time. The Klein aesthetic covers every single shot and light choice and mixes influences that Gaga and himself share as well the ones ever-present in all his work.

Gaga's first couple of outfits consist of a black cape (top picture) and a lace outfit both custom made Alexander McQueen pieces as well as a Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen custom made hat. It is no secret Lady Gaga adores McQueen and we have often seen many of his pieces in her videos. This is brought to the maximum with Steven Klein, who was close to the designer (and Daphne Ginness) and who shot editorials (like the one above for W back in 2002) and adverts for him.

If you follow Klein, you'll know he is known for having a fixation with, among others, horses, Madonna, religion and sex. In 'Alejandro' the references to Madonna are endless. Gaga's "blasphemous" scenes from the video have so much in common with Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' video from 1989. crosses, rosaries and religious attire irreverently mixed with sex, custom made Atsuko Kudo (nun outfit), Hussein Chalayan (leather jacket) and custom made Jaiden RVA James (hooded dress).

'Alejandro' switches between Madonna eras mixing all the different aspects of the singers that characterise Gaga. Suddenly we're in the 'Vogue' video from 1990 where Gaga more literally replicates Madonna's black suit and famous (Gaultier) pointy bra. Once again, more genius styling from Mr. Formichetti -Dolce & Gabbana waistcoat, Fracesco Scognamiglio trousers, gun bra custom made by David Samuel Menkes and Calvin Klein underwear.

Again, the Steven Klein point of view is so present that many still shots of the video could very well be editorial pictures. The 'bed theme' has been such a recurrent one in his work, from Madonna's W editorial in 2002, to the Beckham's for the same magazine in 2007 or some of his more recent work. If you look at the 'bed dancing' scenes in 'Alejandro' you might even see some resemblance with Britney's 'Me Against the Music' video, a suggestion from Maddona?

Click here to enjoy the video in HQ. Here to go to Steven Klein's website. And here to check out Nicola Formichetti's blog.
I'm off.

PS. I really liked the Evandro Soldati cameo. Have a look at some of his work here.


[Credits: NicolaFormichetti.blogspot.com, Style.com, StevenKleinStudio.com. Screencaps from youtube videos.]

the Milan chapter

Men's Paris Fashion Week kicked off yesterday and new of my reviews for 212 Dressing Room will be coming up. Look out for Dior Homme sometime tomorrow and for Givenchy later on. In the meantime, have a look at Milan's highlights from my favourite shows.

There were plenty of massive knit scarves and jumpers, quite a lot of red and amazingly made suit pieces. Most designers have chosen simpler garments for this time of crisis and so clothes focus more on detail, craftsmanship and original silhouettes resulting in pieces any fashionista will name essentials for his wardrobe.

[Pictures credit: Men.Style.com]

I'm off.