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A hallmark of Elizabethan theatre is Shakespear’s infamous adage: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”. This line from As You Like It mirrors the crux of Emporio Armani’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection; a panoply of relaxed glamour to wear as you plot life’s movements.
This mode subverts codes of performance by thrusting the wearer into the spotlight and injects them with a heavy dose of ‘main character energy’. “When staging the everyday, Giorgio Armani consistently suggests clothes that bring out the person, not the character,” the Italian luxuritate revealed at the time of their collection presentation, hosted during the Fall/Winter 2023 season of Milan Fashion Week.
Looking at the culture of performing arts, Emporio Armani supposes the visual medium of dressing as one innate to our sartorial psyche. Rather than serving as a mask to hide behind, these clothes envelop the wearer and becomes a part of their unfinished script. Similar to the events revealed on the stage, humour becomes crucial to this collection, with an infliction of irony part of Emporio Armani’s lexicon.
Look at the prevalent shirt dress motif. With a crisp collar and row of silver buttons, the wardrobe staple takes on a new form when crafted from gossamer silk organza and scattered with hand-embroidered sequins that reflect and enchant like the sun’s fingertips touching the water’s edge at sunrise.
Or, the oversized liquid-velvet rosette brooch that recontextualizes the signature dandy boutonniere as something far less comical than originally perceived. Elsewhere, velvet is employed to fashion a pair of elasticated waist trousers featuring a leg flap. The playfulness is both intrinsically feminine and yet mysterious, allowing the wearer to craft the conclusion of their story with every step. Transparent resin bracelets also bear this collection’s theatrical flair, with lucid shapes clouded by high-octane hues to create a barely-there surrealist silhouette.
Notes of subtly evident pervasiveness enrich this collection with tones of reality in an otherwise whimsical suite of looks. Here, theatrical expressions of the everyday result in an elevated exuberance. Familiar, yet without feeling untoward banality. Sumptuous, underpinned by inspiration and the evocative ephemerality only discerned in the setting of a theatre.
This collection is a showcase of Emporio Armani’s song to the siren. The fabled women who breathe life into Mr. Armani’s clothing through their intrinsic stage blocking. In this performance, Emporio Armani has made us showstoppers of us all.
DISCOVER THE EMPORIO ARMANI AW 2023/24 COLLECTION HERE
CREATIVE DIRECTION: DANÉ STOJANOVIC
PHOTOGRAPHY: ESRA SAM
FASHION DIRECTION: ANNA CASTAN
HAIR & MAKEUP: RICKY MORANDIN
MODEL: YARLIN MATEO / UNO MODELS
THIS FEATURE IS PUBLISHED IN THE 15TH EDITION OF GRAZIA INTERNATIONAL. ORDER YOUR COPY HERE.
TOP BANNER IMAGE: DRESS WITH VELVET BODICE AND SEQUINED SKIRT, SHOP SIMILAR, MULTI-STRAND NECKLACE WITH WHITE BEADS AND BOULES, SHOP SIMILAR, EMPORIO ARMANI
