On September 4, Giorgio Armani (1934-2025), the great Italian fashion designer who marked an era, died at the age of 91. Not only did he create a style that has been the reference of the feminine and masculine elegance for half a century, but their ideas teach positive values and attitudes in relation to self-image and self-esteem.
«Dress so that when you see a photo of yourself, you won’t be able to date it,» he once said. The brilliant phrase conveys not only a criterion for dressing well, but also a principle for maintaining emotional balance over time and connection with one’s own essence. That’s much more than just dressing well.
Giorgio Armani’s work from the point of view of psychology
Wikipedia
Like every artist, Giorgio Armani conveyed a message in his work, in his suits, dresses and accessories. For the Italian designer, appearance had to reflect your personal identity in a certain way, which was characterized by simplicity and elegance without artifice. Someone dressed by Armani conveys serenity and authenticity. Of course, clothes have no magical power, but it is logical that someone who dresses in Armani tries to adapt their behavior and attitude to the message conveyed by their appearance.
Search for timelessness
Armani’s aesthetic invites you not to get trapped in fads nor in external codes imposed by a specific historical moment. Yes, it is true that it was a fashion brand, which is defined by being ephemeral, but Armani precisely maintained a style for 50 years, since he founded his brand in 1975 together with his partner, Sergio Galeotti.
Authenticity and consistency of the self
Armani proposed dressing according to one’s own essence, in a way that is consistent with who you are, instead of adapting to what the times dictate. The photos of a person who achieves this do not remain anchored in a specific time because they reflect something deeper —what we can call one’s own essence or soul—than a fashion.
Resistance to the passage of time
Dressing in the Armani style can express a desire for transcendence: that your way of presenting yourself is not obsolete or marked by a “before” and an “after.” It’s a ideal of permanence in personal identity, where what you are today can continue to represent you tomorrow. Of course, this objective does not prevent personal evolution from being reflected in some way in the way we dress, but maintaining consistency over time.
Message against social anxiety
Implicitly, the Italian designer broke the pressure of “being fashionable” or “fitting into the times.” It removed the burden of social comparison and the external gaze, encouraging one to focus on one’s own comfort and authenticity.
Like Armani, without the Armani brand
Admiring or agreeing with Armani’s aesthetic and psychological messages does not imply the need to purchase his clothes. Of course, they were and are made with top quality materials and exquisite techniques, but nothing stops you from believing your own style based on similar principles with clothes from other more accessible brands or even your own clothing.
The clothes we wear every day make up a kind of silent language that communicates who we are, what do we want to project and how we feel in the world.
The revolution of simplicity
When Armani burst onto the fashion scene in 1975, he did so with a radical proposal: stripping clothes of excess. Faced with the ostentation of other designers, Armani opted for clean lines, neutral colors and an elegance devoid of unnecessary decorations. «I am convinced that simplicity is strength. Simple is never the starting point, but always the arrival point,» he stated.
«My fashion is born from a work of subtraction, from respect for who wears the garment, from the idea of creating a style capable of resisting, even if it evolves over time,» he added. This apparent simplicity contains a powerful psychological message: clothing should not dominate the person, but to allow him to express himself freely.
Armani softened the almost military rigidity of men’s suits and made women convey strength and security themselves without expressing themselves aggressively. A woman in an Armani suit was not imitating her male colleagues, but rather displaying a new form of power based on serenity and efficiency.
The power of neutrality
Colors have been another key psychological tool in Armani’s message. His palette is characterized by the mastery of greys, beiges, muted blues and blacks timeless. By avoiding strident tones, its fashion suggests stability, balance and permanence. Dressing in her creations is, in a way, taking refuge in a space of calm in the midst of social noise.
Psychologically, color neutrality also offers freedom: it allows the individual’s personality to stand out above the clothing. Its discreet tones invite a presence that conveys confidence instead of anxiety to be seen. Armani expressed this idea with another great phrase: “Elegance is not being noticed, but being remembered.”
Unlike designers who opt for theatricality, he has criticized fashion that seeks to impress. In current times of visual excess, where social networks reward the striking, their commitment to discretion and timeless elegance It’s almost countercultural. It represents a resistance to superficiality and a reminder that fashion can be a tool of self-development.
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