Giorgio Armani's Emporio line showed over eighty outfits this Autumn/Winter 2012 season. Break that down to trousers, shoes, coats, jackets, t-shirts, hats and detachable peplums (sometimes doubled-up) and that's a mind-boggling array of product for anyone to mastermind, never mind factoring in the mainline Armani collection to be shown in 48 hours times, and the small matter of the Emporio, Giorgio and Privé collections he tossed off last month. The man is a powerhouse.
This season, Signor Armani alighted on the twenties, a motif that have been bubbling under collections for three or more seasons. Remember Gucci's 'Hard Deco' for spring? And remember the fact that Baz Luhrmann is currently putting the final tweaks to his interpretation of The Great Gatsby. Armani's in good company.
The twenties, however, was only part of the story. Its always a roam on the Armani catwalk, this time models strutting out two-by-two like a fashionable excision to Noah's Ark, some sporting minute berets and all, for some reason, clad in knee-length trousers, a cross between plus-fours and eighteenth-century breeches. As you can imagine, they worked well on some outfits - under frock-coats for a Dangerous Liasions feel for example, and beneath the more flapper of the drop-waisted numbers - while on others they felt superfluous. Could they add anything other than bulk to a pencil skirt with a peplum frothing above?
More than in any other season in recent memory, there was no single takeaway on this Armani catwalk. But amongst multi-hued furs, velvet dresses and jacquard coats, it could truly be said there was something for everyone, regardless of taste. Emporio Armani was Egalitarian Armani this season. But a touch of editing and a tad more focus wouldn't go amiss come Monday's Giorgio Armani show.
