MILAN – Despite his international success and recognition as a fashion Maestro, Giorgio Armani was reluctant to accept the Pinacoteca di Brera’s offer to display some of his archival looks alongside masterpieces of Italian art from the Middle Ages to the 19th century by the likes of Andrea Mantegna, Caravaggio, Raphael, and Piero della Francesca.
“He would never have dared to imagine his clothes within the Pinacoteca,” said Anoushka Borghesi, global communication director of the Armani Group. “He was offered the opportunity last September and he agreed after much coaxing. He wanted the location and the visitors to the museum to be respected, making sure his designs would not hinder the view of the masterpieces.”
During a preview tour on Tuesday of the “Giorgio Armani: Milano, Per Amore” exhibition running at the Milan institution from Wednesday to Jan. 11, 2026, Borghesi admitted she was not used to speaking in Armani’s stead and shied away from the additional visibility. “I was always used to standing behind him but I wanted to bring a testimony of Mr. Armani here today,” she said.
The designer, who died Sept. 4, worked on the exhibition until the very last, she said, and Angelo Crespi, director of the Pinacoteca, admitted that the inauguration was an “emotional moment, after one year of preparation, with its very high cultural and human value.”
Crespi said this was the first time that “fashion has been included in the educational mission of the institution, but fashion is central to understanding societies at all times.”
From the start, Armani said he wanted “a dialogue with the colors and the beauty of the masterpieces, the atmosphere they created in the rooms and he aimed to seek a certain assonance with the works, never overshadowing them,” said Chiara Rostagno, deputy director of the Pinacoteca di Brera. She recalled how Armani had been named an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1993 “for his attention and devotion to the arts.”
Cue the beautiful intense lapis lazuli blue gown from the fall 1998 season that Juliette Binoche wore at the 2016 edition of the Cannes Film Festival near Giovanni Bellini’s “Madonna col Bambino,” where the Virgin Mary is painted wearing a mantle in the same color.
The fiery red dress from the fall 1993 season that Katie Holmes wore at the Met Gala in 2008 celebrating the “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” exhibition, during which Armani was the honorary chair, stands out in the Bernardino Luini chapel depicting Saints Gioacchino and Anna Vergine.
Giorgio Armani’s fall 1993 dress worn by Katie Holmes at the Met Gala in 2008.
An exquisitely embroidered pantsuit from the spring 1994 collection surrounded by other equally embellished designs flank a Canova statue of Napoleon portrayed as Mars the Peacemaker.
There are some pop-culture tidbits, such as an androgynous jacket worn by Grace Jones on the cover of her 1981 album “Nightclubbing” photographed by Jean-Paul Goude that is seen in a pin-striped version.
Opening up the museum was also seen as a way “to be closer to society and people and stimulate creativity,” said Rostagno.
Giorgio Armani designs near a Canova statue of Napoleon portrayed as Mars the Peacemaker.
Conceived to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Armani’s company, the director underscored the strong relationship between the designer, Milan and in particular the city’s Brera district, “choosing his headquarters around the corner. He supported the Pinacoteca’s restorations for years and he represents one of the highest pinnacles of Italian creativity, expressed in the essentiality and rigor of form, a rigor that evolved from his aesthetic and permeated his way of living and working.”
Armani, he continued, is also “the most emblematic expression of the culture of Brera, a unique place in the world where art, research and innovation have been practiced for 500 years.” For this reason, Crespi believed it was only right to mark Armani’s anniversary highlighting “his extraordinary talent and inimitable style.”
At the entrance of the exhibition Armani’s words in his autobiographical book “Per Amore” stand as a welcome. “An exhibition can be seen in two different ways. On the one hand, there’s the immediate satisfaction of the creator’s ego. On the other, there’s the educational value, the unique testimony that is offered not only to the public through your work, but above all to young creatives: it is a feeling that lasts and is gratifying. I’m interested in this second aspect.”
