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Armani means his clothes to be worn in different combinations for different effects. There is no set Armani mood, just as there is no consistent Armani image or typical Armani customer. "I don't have in mind either a tall person or a short person, ugly or beautiful, jet set or middle class," Armani says. "I aim at a client who dresses from individual choice, not imposed fashion, and not simply because something was designed by Armani." Snaps Bergé: "I'm in the fashion business, and even I can't tell you what an Armani man or woman is." That is just the point. The fact that it got past Bergé so easily may indicate that the Saint Laurent enterprise has lost its sure touch with a significant—and significantly younger—portion of the market, newly moneyed and sartorially independent, who do not want "a look."
If there is a consistency in Armani, it is one of adventurousness and quality. If there is a trademark—besides those winged initials that work their way onto the backs of his jeans, the loops of his leather pants and entirely too many other places—it is the tailoring. This means not only the standard of craftsmanship but, more generally, the look, shape and fall of a garment. English Designer Bruce Oldfield maintains, "Men's wear hasn't looked back since Armani dropped the lapels and made the softer tailored look." Says another English designer, David Emanuel, who with his wife Elizabeth whipped up the Princess of Wales' wedding dress: "I feel good when I put on an Armani jacket because the cut and balance are right. So easy, stylish, uncluttered. His distinguishing mark is clearly his tailoring." Adds the innovative American designer Norma Kamali, "I don't know a lot about Armani. But when I say to a guy he looks great, 99% of the time it's Armani he turns out to be wearing."
Armani, who reversed the usual career pattern by designing for men before making women's clothes, brought not only his fine eye for fabric but his scrupulous tailoring to the women's line. "My first jackets for women," he confesses, "were in fact men's jackets in women's sizes." Says Stutz: "Taking that snappy, pinched-in-the-right-place Italian men's wear look and translating it into women's clothes was Armani's special contribution. No one had ever done that before."
Many of Armani's things for women are too unusual and finely detailed—and thus too expensive—to knock off, but his jackets have been endlessly copied. "You can copy the look," cautions Dawn Mello, executive vice president of Bergdorf Goodman, "but you can never copy the fit." Indeed, Mello's description of wearing an Armani suit goes past simple enthusiasm or even shrewd salesmanship; it sounds like a recollection of a heavy first date. "Armani really put women in suits," she says. "He emancipated them, in a way. A man expects his suits to be very well made, to move easily when he walks Armani tailored that suit for women, then took it a step further. She can stand tall or keep her hands in her pockets, and the jacket will fit. The way the armholes fit-just right. The waistband sits properly. The skirt pleats are deep. A woman can move easily. His suits have a stride."