专访阿玛尼
'There are other ways to get attention'
I am waiting for Giorgio Armani. We are both in 11 Abingdon Road, a "modern European" restaurant in West Kensington, but he is actually in the restaurant, eating some sort of pounded meat and rocket with some colleagues, and I am in the bar/lounge, drinking water.
I had been warned by his communications manager that he might be late for our meeting because he had to do a "thing" beforehand. Given that this was two days before he was throwing probably the biggest event London Fashion Week had ever witnessed, not to mention the biggest event of his career, I wasn't surprised.
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Organising a triple fashion show/rock concert for 1,350 people - with celebrity guests Bono, Beyoncé and Andrea Bocelli on stage, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Ashley Judd in the audience - has to require lots of meetings. So I understood his being busy. I just hadn't expected him to be busy eating lunch.
"He's coming, he's coming," his reps kept assuring me. "Any minute." Then they sat down and told me about the special screens Samsung made just for the show, the most high-definition screens ever, so everyone would be able to see. And - "he's coming!" - the great mix of people from the worlds of art and film and fashion who would be there, not to mention the 300 or so loyal Armani customers. And - "he's coming!" - the way they had covered everything in the enormous concert venue of Earl's Court with midnight blue felt. And they promised me again he was coming.
It was nice but all the reassurance wasn't doing much to help me sort out my conflicted feelings about Giorgio Armani. Not the person but the brand, the designer.
On the one hand I have enormous respect, bordering on awe, for what he has achieved. He is the sole shareholder, chief executive and designer of the biggest private fashion company in the world, with sales of �5bn last year. There are more than 350 stores and multiple lines: Armani Privé, the couture; Giorgio Armani, men's and women's ready-to-wear; Armani Collezione, a slightly less expensive line; Emporio Armani, the diffusion line; Armani Jeans; Armani A/X, a licence directed at the teenage market; and Armani Casa, the line of home furnishings.
He has a deserved role in fashion history for his deconstructed power suit, which changed the way both men and women dress. And he has a place in the pantheon of pop culture for introducing Hollywood to high fashion and in effect creating the modern red-carpet experience.
On the other hand, as anyone who's read one of my reviews knows, for the last few seasons I've felt only confusion when I go to his runway shows. Women in bloomers (ready-to-wear, autumn/winter 2005)? Or in hats that look like upended ice-cream cones (rtw, spring/summer 2005)? Women in heavily pleated and diamante evening dresses (couture, autumn/winter 2006)?
I didn't get it, and I wasn't the only one. But here's the interesting thing: although he's often accused of living in a cosseted world, his own highly flattering version of reality, Armani kind of understands why we don't understand.
"I make collections for the buying public, not the fashion industry," he says, not dismissively but a little by rote, when he finally arrivesin his trademark tight midnight-blue T-shirt. (At 72 he is in astonishing shape and likes to show off his pecs.)
This answer could be interpreted as copping-out - if you don't get it, I don't care; you're not my customer anyway. But what he's actually saying is his goals are not the same as our goals: he is looking to move merchandise; we are looking for a story. Perhaps his aim is best achieved by tweaking a familiar look every season to give consumers an excuse to add to their wardrobe. He wants to eat; I want to report. Fair enough.
"Every designer is born into their fashion box," he says, "and if you try to change it the fashion world will say, 'That's not Armani. Armani is this, that and the other thing. I want to see that kind of Armani.'
"And yet I walk down the street in London and young people come up to me and talk about my work. And it's so different from what they're used to. There aren't any piercings. It's not nearly so eclectic."
This mutual appreciation ispart of the reason he decided to invest a huge, undisclosed sum of money in London via last week's giant extravaganza, as opposed to in his home base, Milan. The other part had to do with the reopening of his giant Emporio Armani store on Brompton Road and the opening of his first Armani Casa on Bond Street.
He has been coming here ever since the 1970s when his first job, as a buyer at Italy's most famous department store, La Rinascente, required him to visit Carnaby Street "for inspiration". He feels an affinity with the city's willingness to think out of the box, especially when it comes to fashion. "So many ideas start here. There's such a huge desire to make, create, try new things," he says.
Apparently Giorgio Armani, the most establishment of all fashion designers, house tailor to the chief-executive C--suite, billionaire owner of six homes, has always felt like an outsider. Sort of misunderstood. That's why he must always force everyone to try his new things.
He was born in 1934 in Piacenza, not one of Italy's famous fashion regions, and grew up during the second world war. After abandoning medical studies for La Rinascente, he went to work for Nino Cerruti, learned his tailoring skills and finally set up his own business at the relatively old age of 40. He was talked into it by his partner, architect Sergio Galeotti, who became his chief executive.
His men's wear, which took the stuffing out of the traditional business suit, was an international hit, thanks in part to Richard Gere and American Gigolo (1980). And ever since, as Armani points out, the world has been trying to freeze him in time at that moment.
"When I first launched women's wear [a year after he opened his men's wear business, in 1975], everyone said I couldn't do evening," he recites, clearly having gone through the litany before.
"When I launched accessories [in 2002], they said I wasn't an accessory designer. When I launched couture, they said there was no place for new couture." He could add that when Galeotti died, in 1985, everyone said he'd never be able to run the business side of the company and industrial vultures started circling.
Armani has, of course, proved everyone wrong regarding all the above, with his evening wear composing a large chunk of the Guggenheim's recent Armani retrospective and his accessories growing 200 per cent from 2003 to 2005. His couture is that rare thing - profitable. And his reputation has solidified as one of the toughest negotiators in the industry.
Department store executives shake their heads over his power to dictate how his areas look and are stocked. Various suitors, from private bankers to the French billionaire Bernard Arnault, have given up on the idea of acquiring his company.
"And the suits that sell the best, especially in London? The really out-there ones, with all the frou-frou," he laughs. "I think people respond to the fact that they are so personal. They are what I want to make, not what the fashion world says I should make.
"There was a time when I would make something off the wall just for the front pages of newspapers," he goes on, perhaps (I hope) in oblique reference to the bloomers. "But there are other, more interesting ways to get attention."
Case in point: the One Night Only event, wherein three very unshocking Armani lines (next spring/summer's Emporio, this season's women's ready-to-wear and autumn couture) were given rock 'n' roll trappings.
"There is a lot of pressure to create a spectacle - in the last 10 to 12 years it's become almost an obsession - and that's created problems for the smaller houses. Yes, a show should be a spectacle, but in the end it comes down to the clothes. I wanted to show you could do both at the same time: have a consistent aesthetic and an attention-grabbing event, be creative and commercial," he says. He wanted to show designers they could play the fashion game the way they wanted to.
"It's why I've always stayed independent," he says. "I have a lot of my own ideas and I want to make sure they're heard."
So does he think they are? "Sometimes." He pauses. "But then sometimes I feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. It depends how I've slept the day before."
专访阿玛尼
我
正在等待乔治?阿玛尼(Giorgio Armani)。此时此刻，我们俩都在伦敦西肯辛顿一家名为11 Abingdon Road的“现代欧式”餐厅，但真正在这里进餐的是他，正在和同事们一起享用一种用肉末和紫花南芥做成的菜，而我，则在吧台休息区喝着白水。
“他马上就到”
他的公关经理早已通知我，他赶赴这次会谈可能会迟到，因为在此之前他必须做“一件事”。鉴于他要举办“伦敦时装周”(London Fashion Week)历史上或许最重大的活动――自然也是他职业生涯中最重大的活动，因此，我对他的迟到并不感到意外。
为1350人――包括波诺(Bono)、碧昂丝(Beyoncé)和安德里亚?伯契利(Andrea Bocelli)等即将登台表演的名流嘉宾，以及莱昂纳多?迪卡普里奥(Leonardo DiCaprio)和阿什莉?朱迪(Ashley Judd)等台下观众――组织一场三重时装表演及摇滚音乐会，必须要进行许多会面。所以我理解，他非常忙碌。只是我未曾想到，他会忙着吃午饭。
“他马上就到，马上就到，”他的助手们向我保证，“一会儿就到。”然后，他们坐下来，告诉我有关三星(Samsung)专门为此次表演制作的特殊显示屏，那是目前为止清晰度最高的显示屏，可以让所有人都看到演出的盛况。以及――“他马上就到！”――许多来自艺术、电影和时尚界的人士将参加这次盛会，更不必说大约300名忠实的阿玛尼消费者。以及――“他马上就到！”――他们采用深蓝地毯，将伦敦伯爵府(Earl's Court)宽阔的演出地点全部铺满。以及，他们再次承诺，乔治?阿玛尼马上就到。
这很好，但所有保证都无助于我摆脱对乔治?阿玛尼充满矛盾的感觉。这些感觉并非针对他本人，而是针对那个品牌，和他的设计师身份。
另一方面，我非常尊重甚至有点敬畏他所取得的成就。他是全球最大的私营时装公司的唯一股东，兼首席执行官和设计师。这家公司去年的销售额达50亿欧元，拥有逾350家商店和多系列品牌：订制时装品牌Armani Privé、男士及女士成衣乔治?阿玛尼(Giorgio Armani)、略微便宜一些的(Armani Collezione)、二线品牌爱姆普里奥?阿玛尼(Emporio Armani)、牛仔系列Armani Jeans、面向青少年的市场的Armani A/X，以及家庭装饰系列Armani Casa。
经他解构的服装改变了男女着装的方式，他在时尚界的历史地位不容低估。他为好莱坞引入高端时尚，并在实际上创造了现代红地毯体验，因此，他在流行文化的万神殿中也拥有一席之地。
另一方面，任何读过我的评论的人都知道，在过去几个季节中，当我前去参观他的时装秀时，我只感到一团混乱。女士们将会穿着宽松的灯笼裤（2005年秋冬成衣展）？或头戴一个看上去像颠倒的冰激凌锥筒的帽子（2005年春夏成衣展)？或身穿打了很多褶子并镶嵌人造钻石的晚礼服（2006年秋冬订制时装展）?
我不明所以，而且我不是唯一一个。有趣的是：尽管他经常被指责生活在一个被宠溺的世界，他在这个世界里一味地表现对现实的奉承赞美，但他似乎明白我们为何不能理解他。
设计师和他的时尚框架
他终于来了，身穿一件标志性的午夜蓝紧身T恤（已经72岁的他，身材出奇的好，并喜欢炫耀他的胸肌）。他表示：“我为大众购买者制造时装，不是为时尚行业。”他的语气并不轻蔑，但有一点机械生硬。
这个答案可被解释为“用牵强的借口来逃避”――如果你不明白，我也无所谓，毕竟你不是我的顾客。但他实际上说的是，他的目标和我们的目标并不相同：他寻求的是商品流动，我们却在寻求一个传奇故事。实现他的目标的最佳方式，也许是每个季节都为产品更换一个熟悉的外观，好让顾客有借口给自己的衣橱添置货品。他想吃东西，我想做报道。这足够公平。
“每个设计师生来就陷入他们的时尚框架之中。”他表示，“如果你试图改变它，时尚界会说，‘那不是阿玛尼，阿玛尼是这样那样的。我想看到的是这种类型的阿玛尼。’”
“不过，当我走上伦敦街头，年轻人会走过来和我谈论我的作品。这和他们过去的习惯太不一样。没有任何辛辣尖锐的讽刺，也远非折衷主义。”
这种相互欣赏，是他决定在伦敦投入巨资（具体数目尚未透露）的部分原因――这次他在伦敦举行了盛大的时装发布会，而非其米兰总部根据地。另一部分原因，则与他在邦普顿路重新开设爱姆普里奥?阿玛尼店铺，以及在邦德街开设首家Armani Casa家居专卖店有关。
阿玛尼的成功之路
他从上世纪70年代起就来到这儿，当时，他的第一份工作是在意大利最著名的精品百货连锁店La Rinascente担任采购员，该工作要求他拜访卡尔纳比街(Carnaby Street)“以获取灵感”。他感到自己与这个城市乐于跳出陈规的思维方式产生了共鸣，尤其是在时尚领域。他表示：“太多创意始于此地。在这里，制造、创造和尝试新事物的欲望是如此强大。”
显然，作为所有时装设计师的权威楷模，显赫的首席执行官的家庭裁缝，拥有6所房屋的亿万富翁，乔治?阿玛尼总感觉自己像个外人。这里存在某种误解。这就是他经常一定要迫使人人尝试他的新产品的原因。
阿玛尼1934年出生于皮亚琴察――这里并非意大利著名的时尚地区，幼年经历了二战的炮火。长大后，他放弃了学医机会，进入La Rinascente工作。后来，他跟随设计师尼诺?切瑞蒂(Nino Cerruti)，学习裁缝技巧，最终在不惑之年成立自己的企业。他的搭档兼好友、建筑师赛尔焦?加莱奥蒂(Sergio Galeotti)鼓动他自立门户，后来还成为他的首席执行官。
他设计的男装（拿掉了传统西装里的填充料）在国际上大获成功，在某种程度上这也归功于理查?基尔(Richard Gere)和影片《美国舞男》(American Gigolo，1980年)。而正如阿玛尼指出的那样，从那时以后，全世界都试图把他冻结在那个时代。
“我像唐吉诃德挑战风车”
“当我刚推出女装的时候（1975年，他开设男装业务的一年之后），每个人都说我不能做晚礼服。”他这样回忆道，不过显然是在复述以前说过的长篇大论。
“当我推出配饰时（2002年），他们说我不是一个配饰设计师。当我推出高级订制时装时，他们说已经没有空间容纳新的订制时装了。”其实他还可以补充一句，当加莱奥蒂1985年去世时，每个人都说他绝对不是经商的材料，而业内的秃鹰们也开始盘旋，对他的公司虎视眈眈。
当然，阿玛尼已经证明，所有人都错了：在古根海姆博物馆(Guggenheim)近日举办的阿玛尼回顾展中，他的晚礼服占了很大一部分，而他的配饰业务在2003年到2005年间增长了200%。他的订制时装业务取得盈利，这在业内非常难得。而他那“业内最强硬谈判人之一”的名声也巩固了下来。
百货商场的高管纷纷摇头，对他从店堂设计到库存管理面面俱到的管理能力佩服不已。各色“追求者”，从私人银行家到法国百万富翁伯纳德?阿尔诺(Bernard Arnault)，都放弃了收购他公司的打算。
“什么衣服卖得最好？特别是在伦敦卖得最好？都是些真正‘全副武装’的衣服，带着各种装饰，”他笑道，“我认为，人们会认同这样一个事实：这些衣服非常个人化。它们是我想做的东西，而不是时装界认为我应该去做的东西。”
“有一次，我要做一些古怪的衣服，专供给报纸头版。”这也许是暗指女式灯笼裤（但愿我猜对了）。“但是，还有其它的、更有趣的方式可以引起人们注意。”
一个恰当的例子就是“无双之夜”(One Night Only)活动，在这次活动上，三个并不出奇的阿玛尼系列（下一季的爱姆普里奥春夏装，本季的女式成衣和秋季高级订制时装）被加以摇滚装饰。
他表示：“我面临很大的压力，要求我制造一个大场面――在过去10到20年里，制造大场面几乎成了一件让人着魔的事情――这就给较小的企业带来了难题。确实，服装秀应该壮观，不过，最后还是要归结到衣服上来。我想表明，你可以一举两得：举办一次自始至终具有美感而又引人瞩目的活动，既有创造性又有商业性。”他想对设计师表明，他们可以按自己的方式参与时装的游戏。
“这就是我一直保持独立的原因，”他说道，“我有许多自己的理念，我想确认人们能听到这些看法。”
那么，他认为人们听到他的理念了吗？“有时候。”他顿了顿，说道，“不过，我有时候会觉得自己唐吉诃德(Don Quixote)挑战风车。这得看我前一天睡得怎么样。”
