Armani has to make do with fashion runway

By SUSIE RUSHTON in Milan


For Giorgio Armani, the red carpet of movie premieres and Hollywood parties is the ultimate catwalk. Yesterday in Milan however he had to make do with a fashion runway, where he sent out just the kind of dazzling crystal-encrusted gowns that actresses adore.

Those glittering frocks were the finale to a spring/summer 2005 signature collection which had in fact begun with more realistic clothes, such as fitted jackets and fluted trousers.

Armani is keenly aware that close links with Hollywood and its stars burnish his brand. Before his show yesterday he launched a glossy new book of candid photographs taken at Oscar night parties since 1929.

"Images of stars arriving on that fabled red carpet have fascinated me since my youth," said the designer.

Hollywood is where Armani's boyhood fashion dreams finally come to life. The connection also helps to drive sales for the company. Photographs of Armani-clad stars encourage customers world-wide to keep on buying affordable items from the brand, such as a pair of jeans or sunglasses.

Fantasy is always synonymous with fashion, but at a packed day of shows yesterday, it emerged more strongly than ever as a theme.

Marni, showing earlier in the day, appeared to have been designed for a pastoral idyll. As unlikely as it sounds, the label favoured by rich bohemians will swap winter's furs in favour of rough hessian sacking.

Balloon-shaped skirts were cut from the fabric usually reserved for potato sacks, while weather-beaten fabrics, belts made from parcel string and scarecrow-style jewellery all added to the bucolic mood. The tanned and tousle-haired models looked like they had just emerged from a roll in the hay.

However this was far from a down-at-heel collection. Ladylike tailoring such as round-shouldered jackets, cropped trousers and neat knee-length skirts are the real linchpins to the Marni look, created by cult designer Consuelo Castiglioni.

While sex hasn't figured too largely on the agenda so far in Milan, other pet fantasies of designers are being humoured. Exoticism and the fantasy of far-flung travel gripped Anna Molinari, the stalwart Italian designer who designs sugary sweet dresses for her label, Blumarine. Moroccan, Tibetan and Indian embroideries or prints decorated empire-line dresses and cropped jackets. This was a pretty flight of fancy.

One of French fashion's greatest fantasists, Christian Lacroix, was also in Milan yesterday, to present his collection for Pucci. The playful brand is known for a particularly loud style of multicoloured, psychedelic print.

While floor-length frocks with swirling prints could only be destined for a screening at Cannes, there were also turquoise-and-fuschia pink bikinis which would suit any beach next summer.

- INDEPENDENT