Appreciating Armani 魅力無限亞曼尼
Fashion followers fortunate enough to be in Spain between March and August this year will surely not want to pass up an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in the northern city of Bilbao. Its subject is the work of a talismanic designer whose enormous appeal took a clothing label to unprecedented heights in brand-name recognition.
The exhibition, called simply "Giorgio Armani," covers the designer's twenty-five-year development and contribution to fashion and culture. Clothes from different stages of Armani's career are displayed in a loose narrative arrangement, and many of the designs feature his trademark color, the mixture of grey and beige that came to be known as "Armani greige."
Also on display are the romantic traditions of European fashion and selections demonstrating influences and fabrics from regions as diverse as China, India, and Polynesia. There is even a section containing movie costumes and outfits worn at the Oscars and other ceremonial occasions, illustrating the glamour and cultural status of the Armani brand. The garments are complemented by a selection of photographs and sketches.
The exhibition's appearance in Bilbao follows on the heels of an earlier successful stint at the New York Guggenheim, where there was some minor criticism among the acclaim. Art purists castigated the Museum for promoting commercial concerns, while others, who feel Armani's best days are behind him, pointed out that a museum is where his designs belong.
There is a strong popular association between the words "Armani suit" and the attainment of, or at least the quest for, material success.
It is a fashion item whose designer possesses an extraordinary ability to create a harmonious blend of seemingly contradictory elements: traditional and modern, East and West, casual and elegant.
Giorgio Armani was born near Milan, Italy, in 1934. His earliest foray into the fashion world was helping introduce Italian consumers to foreign styles when he worked as a purchaser for a leading Milanese department store. With no formal training behind him, he brought out his first line in 1964 while working for Nino Cerutti, one of the top men's fashion houses. He later left to start his own firm, and his clothes began appearing under the Armani label in 1975.
The Armani line was at first noted for loose, smart-casual blazers that provided a refreshing alternative to both the stiff, formal suits and the sloppy, laid-back hippie style of the previous decade. Though they were aimed at men, Armani's fashions proved so popular among women that he soon began designing for them as well.
The famous suits caught the mood of the power dressers of the prosperous 1980s, and a string of movie appearances by his designs, beginning with the wardrobe of Richard Gere in American Gigolo, enhanced his reputation to the point where he is now considered one of the undisputed icons of twentieth-century style.
流行時尚的擁護者們如果有幸能在今年三月至八月前往西班牙,一定不想錯過在北方城市畢爾巴鄂、古根海姆博物館舉辦的展覽。展覽的主題是一位設計奇才的作品,其無窮的魅力使一個服裝品牌打進名牌殿堂,到達前所未見的巔峰。
這個展覽簡稱“喬治亞曼尼”,它涵括了這名設計師二十五年來的發展和對流行文化的貢獻。亞曼尼在不同階段設計的服飾,分別不規則地呈現在各個主題區。他眾多的設計均能明顯地展示他的品牌色彩: 將灰色及米黃色調配而成的“亞曼尼米灰色”。
這場展覽同時展出的,有他沿用歐陸傳統浪漫風味的作品,以及深受中國、印度、波里尼西亞等地域影響,用當地紡織原料所精心制作的服裝,甚至還有一個區域專門展示他設計的電影服裝,以及專為奧斯卡頒獎典禮或其他隆重場合的出席嘉賓設計的服飾,這些都驗證了亞曼尼品牌的迷人魅力與文化上的地位。服飾旁邊還有精選的照片及設計草圖。
之所以能在畢爾巴鄂舉行這項展覽,要歸功于稍前在紐約古根海姆美術館的成功展出。在紐約一片喝采聲中,只有為數很少的批評之聲。藝術純粹主義者斥責美術館是在替商業行為做宣傳,但是也有人認為亞曼尼日后必定會取得非凡的成就,他的作品應該陳列在博物館里。
提到“亞曼尼西服”,不得不令人聯想到他在服裝界的卓越成就,和對成功的追求。這句流行辭匯源于一位擁有超凡能力的設計師,他能把乍看之下相互矛盾的元素充分調和:傳統與現代,東方與西方,通俗與高雅。
喬治亞曼尼1934年出生于意大利米蘭。他首次接觸時尚界,是為米蘭一家著名的百貨公司當銷售員,向顧客介紹異國的服裝風格。之前從未受過任何專業訓練的亞曼尼,在1964年為一家頂尖的男士時裝品牌“尼諾塞洛提”工作時,畫下了他設計生涯的處女作。后來他離職自己組建公司,他所設計的服飾,于1975年正式以“亞曼尼”之名問世。
亞曼尼的設計最初以輕松、時髦又隨意的上衣而著稱,它開創了一種新穎的風格,擺脫了之前十年一直風行的兩種樣式:正式卻死板的西裝和過于隨便的嬉皮風格。雖然起初亞曼尼的時裝是專為男性設計的,結果發現它們也受到女性歡迎,于是不久后他也開始為女性設計。
這些出名的服飾到了繁榮的八十年代,開始引起了權威服裝造型師的興趣,從設計李察基爾在“美國舞男”里的全部戲服開始,亞曼尼設計的服裝在一部又一部的電影中登場,他也因此更加聲名大噪?,F在他已成為舉世公認、開創二十世紀風格的代表人物之一。