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It all began with the jacket. Giorgio Armani twisted and bruised the angular piece of clothing tearing out the padding, adjusting the proportions, moving the buttons until he was left with something supple as a cardigan, light as a shirt. “Removing all rigidity from the garment and discovering an unexpected naturalness,” as he put it years later. “It was the starting point for everything that came after.” His 1970s reimagining of the jacket a study in nonchalance was to be his statement of purpose as a fashion designer. Elegance, he argued, meant simplicity. That principle, applied to great acclaim over a five-decade-long career, would produce bestselling minimalist suits and turn his eponymous brand into a vast conglomerate producing haute couture, prt--porter, perfumes and home interiors. Known to industry admirers as “Re Giorgio” King Giorgio Armani became synonymous with Italian style, helping to dress a generation of successful women, as well as men who wanted less stuffy attire. He combined the flair of the designer with the forensic attention to detail of the executive, running a business that generated billions of dollars in revenue each year and helping to make contemporary Italian fashion into a global phenomenon. Despite being one of the world’s top designers, he carefully guarded his own privacy and kept a tight grip on the company he created, maintaining its independence and working with a small and trusted group of family members and long-term associates. Armani, a handsome man with piercing blue eyes and silver hair, often said that the point of fashion was to make people feel good about themselves – and he railed against the rigid, fussy lines that traditionally defined high tailoring. “That’s a weakness of mine that affects both my life and my work,” he told “Made in Milan”, Martin Scorsese’s documentary about him, in 1990. “I’m always thinking about adding something or taking something away. Mostly taking something away. “I can’t stand exhibitionism.” Armani has died, aged 91, the Armani company said of its founder and CEO on Thursday, without giving a cause of death. “He worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections, and the many ongoing and future projects,” the company said. The funeral would be held privately, it added. TO MILAN Giorgio Armani was born in 1934 in Piacenza, a town in the industrial heartland of northern Italy, close to Milan, one of three children of Ugo Armani and Maria Raimondi. His father worked at the headquarters of the local Fascist party before becoming an accountant for a transport company. His mother was a homemaker. Despite their limited means, his parents possessed an inner elegance, Armani told “Made in Milan”, and Maria’s sense of style shone through in the clothes she made for her three children. “We were the envy of all our classmates,” he said. “We looked rich even though we were poor.” As a boy he experienced the hardships of World War Two. In his autobiography, “Per Amore” (“For Love”), he tells of how he dived into a ditch and covered his younger sister Rosanna with his jacket when a plane began firing overhead. The family moved to Milan after the war. The city seemed very cold and big to him at first, though he soon came to appreciate its discreet beauty, he told Scorsese. It would be the start of a lifelong association. In Milan, he developed a love for cinema that later influenced his career. Eventually he would lead his fashion group from there, helping to turn the unglamorous, industrial city into Italy’s fashion capital. Armani studied to become a doctor, but dropped out after two years at university and then did his military service. He took his first steps in fashion which he never formally studied when he was offered a job at renowned department store La Rinascente to help dress the windows. His first big break came with an invitation to work for Italian designer Nino Cerruti in the mid 1960s. There he began to experiment with deconstructing the jacket. “I started this trade almost by chance, and slowly it drew me in, completely stealing my life,” he told trade publication Business of Fashion in 2015. ‘WORK IS A KIND OF ORGASM’ As a designer he quickly tapped into two important trends in Western society in the late 20th century – a more prominent role for women and a more fluid approach to masculinity. “I had the feeling of what actually happened – women getting to the forefront in the workplace, men accepting their soft side – early in my career, and that was the base of my success,” Armani said in an interview with Esquire magazine to mark his 90th birthday, in 2024. Armani debuted his first menswear collection in 1975 and was soon popular in Europe. Five years later, he won the hearts of the U.S. glittering class when he dressed Richard Gere for the 1980 film “American Gigolo”, beginning a long association with Hollywood. That same year, luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman became the first U.S. retailer to launch an in-store Armani women’s boutique, securing the designer’s transatlantic reach. In 1982, Time magazine featured him on its cover under the headline “Giorgio’s Gorgeous Style”. A self-confessed perfectionist, the designer oversaw every detail, from advertising to models’ hair. He often said he couldn’t wait for weekends to end so that he could get back to work. “I’ve never taken drugs, yet for me the surge of adrenaline I get from my work is better than any hallucination or artificial high. It’s a kind of orgasm (if I may use this expression),” he wrote in “Per Amore”. He told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper in October 2024 that he planned to retire within the next two or three years, having just turned 90. Hospital treatment for an undisclosed condition forced him to miss fashion shows for the first time in his career in June and early July of this year. ‘HE MADE ME SEE THE BIGGER WORLD’ Armani set up his business with his romantic partner Sergio Galeotti, whom he had met during a summer weekend at the Tuscan resort of Forte dei Marmi in 1966. “It was Sergio who believed in me,” Armani told GQ magazine in 2025. “Sergio made me believe in myself. He made me see the bigger world.” Galeotti, who had AIDS, died in 1985 at the age of 40, leaving a distraught Armani to run the business alone, with the help of his family and of long-term associate Leo Dell’Orco. “I did not hesitate, though it was daunting, and I knew I would have to learn new skills,” he told Britain’s The Times in a 2019 interview. “It worked out all right,” he added, with understatement. Armani, the company, was one of the first Italian fashion brands to expand into new makets, building a strong presence in Asia, and branching out with new fashion lines, such as the less expensive Emporio, to capitalise on an already famous name. Other fashion houses such as Prada and Dolce&Gabbana would eventually follow a similar strategy. Armani also diversified, moving away from thousand-dollar gowns to new products, spanning hotels to chocolates, as well as interior design pieces. As the business grew, so did the scrutiny it attracted. In 1999, the New York Times questioned the Guggenheim’s decision to host a retrospective of the designer’s work just months after he had become a major benefactor to the New York-based museum. The museum denied any quid pro quo. In 2014, the fashion house paid 270 million euros to settle an Italian tax dispute, newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported. Ten years later, an Italian court placed under judicial administration an Armani-owned business accused of indirectly subcontracting production to Chinese companies that exploited workers. Armani’s unvarnished statements also sometimes generated controversy. Speaking at Milan fashion week in 2020, Armani said: “I think it’s time for me to say what I think. Women keep getting raped by designers.” He clarified what he meant – that he opposed fashion trends that sexualised women and limited their style options. The use of the word rape nevertheless shocked many. ‘AN ARMANI AFTER ARMANI’ His work having made him fabulously wealthy, he indulged in luxury real estate. He had homes in Milan, as well as in nearby Broni in northern Italy, the southern island of Pantelleria, where he liked to spend August, and Forte dei Marmi. He also had properties in New York, Paris, on the island of Antigua, as well as in St. Moritz and Saint-Tropez. A sports fan, he owned the Olimpia Milano basketball team. He wrote that he trusted only a few people and fiercely guarded the independence of his business. Over the years the group received several approaches from potential investors, including one in 2021 from John Elkann, scion of Italy’s Agnelli family, and another from Gucci when Maurizio Gucci was still at the helm, but Armani always ruled out any potential deal that would have diluted his control of the company. He also refused to follow peers such as Prada into listing his company on the stock market. “Success for me has never been about accumulating wealth, but rather the desire to say, through my work, the way I think,” he wrote in GQ Italia in December 2017. That independent stance leaves a question about what will become of his business in a luxury industry dominated by heavyweight groups. Armani’s heirs are expected to include his sister Rosanna, two nieces and a nephew working in the business, long-term collaborator Dell’Orco and a foundation. Silvana and Roberta, the daughters of his late brother Sergio, as well as his nephew, Andrea Camerana, who is Rosanna’s son, worked with him in the Armani group. Dell’Orco is also considered part of the family. In “Per Amore” he vowed that his company would endure, curated by the people who had surrounded him. “There will be an Armani after Armani,” he wrote. Additional reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Elisa Anzolin Giulia Segreti and Keith Weir
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E-Commerce
Ever since 1988, when Walt Stack ran across the Golden Gate Bridge in Nike’s first commercial, Just Do It has been the tagline and philosophy that propelled Nike to become an iconic global brand. Now almost 40 years later, Nike is aiming to remind a new generation what Just Do It actually means. The brands newest campaign is called Why do it?, and it takes aim at the pervasiveness of cringe culture, which often frames earnest effort as uncool. Those three words mean so much to us, but we can’t just be holier-than-thou about it, says Nike chief marketing officer Nicole Graham. We have to make sure that those three words are resonating with each generation. Narrated by Tyler the Creator, the new campaigns marquee ad features LeBron James and Caitlin Clark, Philadelphia Eagles Saquon Barkley, Real Madrid and Brazil soccer star Vini Jr., skateboarder Rayssa Leal, and more. As these athletes line up shots, attempt moves, and push themselves, Tylers voiceover asks: Why do it? Why would you make it harder on yourself? Why chance it? Why put it on the line? With so much at stake. With so much room to fail. Why risk it? Why would you dare? Seriously, why?! You could give everything you have and still lose. But my question is, what if you dont? That last question is a valid one, and one Nike is looking to answer itself as it battles recent sales dips, and defends its top dog brand status among teens as competitors like On and Adidas continue to gain market share. Carlos Alcaraz [Photo: Nike] Competing with cringe Cringe has become a defining attitude associated with Gen Z. It takes traditional self-conscious uncertainty and injects it with the steroids of social media and meme culture. This is where Graham sees an opportunity to put new meaning behind Nikes holy words. Fear of failure and fear of trying, and terms like, Don’t be a try-hard, You’re so cringe, are all reserved for anyone who is showing passion for something, she says. So we wanted to take those three words and make sure were contemporizing the values of what they mean. Tara Davis-Woodhall [Photo: Nike] Asking “Why Do It?” is using the language of the brand to create new meaning, turning cringe on its head, and showing that earnest effort is actually not cringe at all. It has never been about a trophy or a win. It has always been about celebrating those who are brave enough to do it. It might mean just take the step out there. It might mean just lace up for the first time. It might mean trying to make the team, she says. We felt like it was time to just remind people to just take the step out there. Rayssa Leal [Photo: Nike] Shifting gears The Swoosh has been working on a major turnaround for the past two years, trying to reverse losses inflicted by a failed shift to direct-to-consumer back in 2021. Graham was named CMO in late 2023, and Elliott Hill was named new CEO in September 2024. In June, the company reported that 2024 Q4 sales dropped by about 12% to $11.10B from $12.61B a year earlier. Nike has said that 2025 would be a transition year for the company, and its stock is up by almost 2% year-to-date. Graham says this new campaign is just one part of a broader global effort, as the company shifts back to dividing itself into teams focusing on specific sports. Under former CEO John Donahoe, Nike’s strategy to grow its lifestyle business was to segment its business by womens, mens, and kids. The company announced on August 28th that it expected to layoff about 1% of its corporate staff, as a result of the realignment. Shreyas Iyer [Photo: Nike] I see already how quickly that success can happen, and the momentum right now is insane, she says. The running team was the first, and then the football team, now basketball and cricket. We have made this large company feel very, very small and intimate, so I’m incredibly excited and optimistic. Going deep on each sport is the lens through which the brands overall philosophy is filtered. Thats where this new campaign comes in. That attitude is meant to have what Graham calls three different gears: Showing up at live sports, being a part of big sport moments that are important to fan sub cultures, and being present in the communities where consumers live and play. This translates to everything from major leagues, to putting on local events like the recent One Global tournament in NYC or the Mamba League Invitational in LA. Or having fun in big moments, like taking the cupcakes out of Columbus bakeries to show that the Ohio State vs. Texas football game wasnt an easy, early season cupcake game. Nike has to be at the global stage, but we also have to be at the street corner at the same time, says Graham. You can start your new year with a cupcake, or you can put it all on the line. Texas and Ohio State know their choice. pic.twitter.com/Z8bArQq0WK— Nike Football (@usnikefootball) August 29, 2025 Everyday greatness Why Do It? has great potential to both combat the impacts of cringe. It could also help Nike create balance between celebrating the giants of sport and highlighting the heroics of the everyday athlete. After all, Walt Stack wasnt a household name. Some of Nikes most creative work hasnt featured a single pro athlete. For every Its Gotta Be The Shoes there is Jogger. The latter, narrated by Jude Law, is a 2012 spot that is just a kid jogging along an empty road. No hype soundtrack. No eye-catching visuals. Just the sound of shuffling feet, and a masterclass in advertising copywriting. Nike has always done an incredible job of intertwining everyday people into the fabric of its epic sports stories. With Why Do It? the brand has an opportunity to tap back into the emotions involved in trying a new sport, or lacing up day-in and day-out when no one is watching. We have to make sure that we’re heroing our biggest athletes and making them feel accessible, but we also have to take accessible individuals and make them feel like heroes, says Graham. We need to always be playing that balance.
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E-Commerce
Small businesses are committing more money to marketing this year than last, but surprisingly few have any confidence that their investment is paying offeven as more report using new tools like artificial intelligence to help boost their efforts. The latest State of Small Business Marketing report from Constant Contact finds that just 18% of small business owners are very confident that their marketing is effective, down from 27% in 2024. Thats despite the fact that 37% of the more than 2,500 businesses surveyed said they had increased their marketing budgets for the year. Small businesses feel optimisticand under pressure Small businesses are under real pressure to see positive results from their marketing, but many feel like they are doing more without getting more back, said Smita Wadhawan, chief marketing officer at Constant Contact, in a statement. Overall, the report found that the majority of small business owners in the U.S. are most likely to say they are not confident at all that their marketing efforts are producing results. The findings stands somewhat in contrast to the most recent NFIB Small Business Optimism Index: It found that small business sentiment in the country increased last month, with many owners expecting positive business conditions and opportunities in the coming months. AI may be case for optimism Those using AI may be faring slightly better when it comes to their marketing, however: The report found that nearly half of all the small businesses in the study are using AI to some extent in their marketing efforts, including using the tech to help with copywriting, emails, and creating visual content for social media feeds. And while some 50% of small businesses in the U.K. and Australia and New Zealand are deploying AI, only 37% of U.S.-based firms arethe lowest percentage of any country polled in the report. That finding syncs with other reports into how American businesses are using AIor perhaps more accurately, not using it. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC) recently released a report that found 44% of small businesses in the U.S. used generative AI in some fashion. Tech and financial services companies, unsurprisingly, had the highest levels of adoption. How to bridge the confidence gap So why arent more firms using AI to help reach more customers? Some possible explanations for the low adoption rate are a lack of expertise or guidance in using the tools, or a failure to see how, exactly, AI might be useful in a given setting or organization. Yet interest in AI and spending more on it to help with marketing is only set to grow among small business owners, despite the confidence gap. Small business owners are working harder than ever, said Wadhawan, but without the time, expertise, or data to guide them, many are still guessing about what will resonate with their customers.
Category:
E-Commerce
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