Armani Privé / Fall 2012 Couture

In a season in which pants are making such a strong comeback, it made perfect sense for Giorgio Armani to remind the world what an authority he is on the subject. His couture collection was based around the image of nightfall, the colors of daybreak, sunset, and finally, the starry night skies. But it was the emphasis on trousers that first caught the eye as his models began to walk out, gracefully, on flat, pointed shoes. The cut of the pants, fluid and based in menswear without being mannish, served as a reminder of the revolution in soft tailoring for women that Armani set in motion in the eighties. It’s not that this show had a retrospective feel about it—just that the timing of that reintroduction is serendipitously in sync with the way a new generation happens to be feeling. Mr. Armani might not know it, but young designers are currently lionizing his early collections; this summer’s graduate portfolios have been crammed full of Armani inspirations.

That air of contemporary relevance—the sense of a designer being on his home territory—was threaded throughout the show, and not just because of the pants. Armani’s other claim to membership in the pantheon of greats is the position he’s carved out as a designer of eveningwear, the author of dresses which, when seen in the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs, never fail to lend their wearers self-assurance and dignity. On that level, this collection also delivered in depth. Towards the finale, he sent out graceful dresses in black velvet and midnight-blue sequin, on models whose heads were veiled in crystal-edged face-coverings—a vaguely Arabian Nights counterpoint to the fifties netting seen in other Paris collections this week. It lent a poetic finishing touch to one of Armani’s most convincing couture collections yet.

Photo: Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway.com
Source: www.vogue.com