ITALY: Celebrities attend designer Giorgio Armani's spring/summer 2001 womenswear fashion show in Milan

Record ID: 231070

  • Title: ITALY: Celebrities attend designer Giorgio Armani's spring/summer 2001 womenswear fashion show in Milan
  • Date: 4th October 2000
  • Summary: VARIOUS: HIGHLIGHTS OF FASHION SHOW (6 SHOTS) SCU SOFIA LOREN AND ROBERT DE NIRO WATCHING VARIOUS: MORE OF FASHION SHOW (10 SHOTS) SV: ARMANI ON STAGE SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DESIGNER GIORGIO ARMANI SAYING "The basic idea of the collection is that I have returned to my love the thing that i love. Really its as though I am starting again from the beginning, for 25 years until now I have evolved, changed things and recreated things and at the end one re-finds their origin and my origin is this image a bit ironic, this modern woman who doesnt want to be made fun of even by the designer, a woman who wants to have a personal choice." SCU DE NIRO AND LOREN IN AUDIENCE SV: PHIL COLLINS GIVING AUTOGRAPH CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHIL COLLINS SAYING "This is the second show I've been to and I actually like to see clothes that can be worn by people. Today I saw more clothes that can be worn by people, albeit a certain shape of people. To me it's an event that encourages press but it's what you see in the shops that's important to me." WS: AUDIENCE
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MILAN, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Business,Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA7G6FON0MM9VJ8W3GPZY88GTXP
  • Story Text: U.S. actor Roberto De Niro, Italian Oscar-winner Sofia Loren and singer Phil Collins flew into Milan to catch Giorgio Armanis Spring/Summer 2001 womenswear show and toast the opening of the designers new superstore on Wednesday.
    The sleek new three-floor Milan flagship store is a playground for adults, including three Armani boutiques, two restaurants, and an entire floor of Sony gadgets and goodies in the basement.
    Armani is celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his privately-held fashion empire this year, which had more than one billion U.S. dollars in retail sales in 1999. New Yorks Guggenheim Museum is marking the occasion with a retrospective exhibition.
    Workmen toiled round the clock on Tuesday night, and even Giorgio himself looked like he hadnt slept all night when he threw open its doors for a rather sleepy group of journalists early on Wednesday morning (October 4).
    But Armani said his reasoning behind the store had not been to make more money. "I wanted this to be a new thing for Milan. Its not just to make money, you need money because if we didnt have it we could not do anything, but that was not my wish and not the reason for my work. I wanted to be remembered as someone who had created something more than just a skirt or trousers the designer said whilst working around the shop."
    A star-studded audience showed up to view his spring/summer 2001 collection later in the afternoon. Actor Robert de Niro, actress Sofia Loren and Bond girl Maria Grazia Cucinotta joined musician and actor Phil Collins to watch the show which Armani hoped was a return to his roots.
    "The basic idea of the collection is that I have returned to my love the thing that I love. Really its as though I am starting again from the beginning, for 25 years until now I have evolved, changed things and recreated things and at the end one re-finds their origin and my origin is this image a bit ironic, this modern woman who doesnt want to be made fun of even by the designer, a woman who wants to have a personal choice," Armani said at the end of the show.
    The simple lines and unfussy shapes seemed to be a hit once more for Armani. Even Phil Collins who proclaimed himself ignorant of the fashion world liked the collection.
    "This is the second show I've been to and I actually like to see clothes that can be worn by people. Today I saw more clothes that can be worn by people, albeit a certain shape of people. To me it's an event that encourages press but it's what you see in the shops thats important to me," Collins said.
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