An ‘American Gigolo’ in Milan

The clinical, almost technological name stopped me: GAC_M_SS_1980_RICHARDGERE.

On Saturday afternoon, I visited the Pinacoteca di Brera art museum, which is hosting a retrospective exhibition on Giorgio Armani. More than 100 of the late designer’s creations are sprinkled throughout the Pinacoteca’s galleries. Sandy three-piece suits from 1994 and column dresses from 1990 are arrayed in front of paintings from Renaissance artists like Caravaggio — the work of one Italian master juxtaposed with many others.

In a back gallery, I approached a mannequin in a greige suede jacket, dark trousers and a microdot tie. I wouldn’t have paused on the understated ensemble had I not caught the description: “This look was worn by Richard Gere in ‘American Gigolo.’”

Suddenly the outfit took on a new aura. No movie matters to modern men’s wear quite like “American Gigolo.” It’s the Rosetta Stone for so many of our tastes.

I was facing history! The jacket should have been behind glass with a security guard tending it. There should have been a queue of people waiting to study each seam line on the jacket and silk speck of the tie. But there it was, naked in the gallery. And in that context, I started to think it wasn’t so extraordinary at all.

This is no slight to Armani! This outfit just aligned with everything else on display: the sensual, Modernist colors, the sloping cut of the jacket, the tie with a modest cheek-kiss of a print. I could look at that Gere ensemble from 1980, then a similar look from 2024, and not instantly be able to tell which was the contemporary.

For me, visiting this exhibition on the penultimate day of Milan Fashion Week, was a reminder of how an actual design legend gets made. With Armani, it wasn’t chasing; it was consistency. When he started his company at 41, he wrote his own alphabet and spent the rest of his life discovering new things to say with those letters.

I saw the work of a lot of designers this week. Will I think of them in similar terms in 44 years? Will any of their clothes be exhibited like this? Heck, will any of them still be working in 44 years?

That’s not a fair comparison. Fashion is so different now. So much faster, so beholden to the whims of virality and a yen for social-media approval. And Armani made plenty of things in his four decades that were not worthy of exhibition. But it’s what was on my mind as I left Italy for Paris.

Other things worth knowing about:

The gross-out shoe of the week: Ferrari’s translucent heels made the model’s toes look like mystery meat beneath sausage casing. Yuck.
The hat budget at Bottega Veneta must have outrun the hair budget. Model after model came out with a skullcap-tight beanie over their hair. Very monastic, though I did like that the hats had a notch at the back, accommodating a ponytail. Sly.
I walked by the Bottega Veneta runway site six hours before showtime, where hundreds of teenagers and 20-somethings were already stacked, waiting to see I.N of the K-pop band Stray Kids. American editors and journalists (and I’m among them) often barely know the stars that draw heaving crowds of kids. If nothing else, a runway show illuminates our cultural blind spots.
Part of the Gucci collection shown on Friday was instantly released in stores, so the next day I went to the Gucci store on Via Monte Napoleone. The stretchy, shrink-wrapped T-shirts felt like gym gear. Loafers looked as if they’d been pancaked by a car tire. I was more won over by 980 euro (about $1,155) jeans with dangly metal horse bits at the pockets from Demna’s earlier pre-collection. A guy next to me tried them on. They looked good!
Harry Styles wore a men’s Chanel suit to the Brit Awards. For a French house that has long declared that it has no interest in getting into men’s wear, Chanel is sure worn by a lot of male celebs — especially under the newish designer Matthieu Blazy. Styles’s striped suit was a bit high school production of “Guys and Dolls” for me, but continue to watch this space.