Giorgio Armani’s New York Show Creates Intimacy in a Cinematic Setting

Giorgio Armani brought a star-studded crowd of 650 black-tie-dressed guests to the Park Avenue Armory Thursday night for his first destination show in New York since 2013. Leaning into his nostalgia for the city and his cinematic flair, he decked out the space to resemble his very own 1930s-era Grand Central Terminal and jazz club, creating an intimate runway experience that was a departure from his shows at Armani/Theatro in Milan. Even the clothes were closer to show goers, and models remained on the runway at the end to let the moment — and the beautiful collection — sink in.

The spring 2025 show and after party were timed around the opening of Armani’s new home at 760 Madison Avenue — which contains a grand retail boutique, residences and a restaurant with Art Deco touches that translated to the runway collection designed for the Big Apple. 

“This trip to New York carries a deeply personal significance for me, even more so than my last visit, as it coincides with two milestones: I have just turned 90 and my company is about to celebrate 50 years,” Armani told WWD ahead of the show. “I am approaching this journey like a cinematic experience, recalling the films that captivated me in my youth and shaped my aesthetic.”

The event drew a Hollywood crowd including Amanda Seyfried, Brie Larson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Cooper and Payton Koch, Penn Badgley and wife Domino Kirke, Allison Williams, Liev Schreiber, Orlando Bloom, Gemma Chan, Thomas Doherty, Steven Yeun, Brooke Shields, LaKeith Stanfield, Chase Stokes and Carmelo Anthony, all of whom mingled and sipped Champagne before the runway show commenced. 

Titled “In Viaggo” (meaning “on a journey”), the collection mined the travel theme from the start, with impeccably dressed porters opening the show with suitcases in hand, ushering the models onto the runway.

The first looks were strong on sportswear, including beige and greige unstructured men’s tailoring and summer linens that could have sprung from the brand’s 1980s and ‘90s ads. The designer’s trademark liquid-y women’s pantsuits and relaxed jackets added to the collection’s overall claim of quiet luxury. So, too, did a great-looking chocolate brown trenchcoat and khaki cropped version, as well as a strapless gray dress-over-trousers look.

Throughout, Armani classics were in conversation with the now, resonating through younger pieces that touched on some of spring’s biggest trends such as boho, sheer, pastels, femininity and fantasy. Even the designer’s bloomer shorts looked right in the context of the boxer short craze of the last two summers.

The bohemian spirit came through in easy, traveler-minded layers including caftans and wraps and in fringe and beaded embellishments. A palm motif decorating men’s shirts and artisanal accessories such as perforated flat leather boots and sandals, wrapped tortoise bracelets, oversized luxe knapsacks and headscarves contributed to the sense of exoticism Armani loves — like treasures picked up along the way. His signature neutrals transitioned to pastels on fluid skirts, bloomer shorts, sheer pants and blouses, and divine slinky embellished dresses with an easy femininity worn with flat sandals. 

From beginning to end, Armani grounded the fantasy and haute handcraft in reality, which has been the brand’s genius for going on 50 years, and should be for many more.