Giorgio Armani Net Worth

Biography of Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani is a legendary trendsetter not only in clothes, but also in accessories, fragrances and design in general. One of the richest people in the fashion industry, he owns Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper hotel, his own hotel in his homeland. In 2024, Bloomberg estimated his fortune at $6.6 billion.

He was a costume designer for such iconic films as The Matrix and American Gigolo, The Untouchables and The Young Pope. President of the Olimpia basketball team (Milan). Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Childhood and youth: Piacenza – Bologna – Milan

Giorgio was born in the summer of 1934 to Hugo Armani and Maria Raimondi. His parents were already raising his older brother Sergio and mourned for the untimely departed daughter Silvana, who died when her mother carried Giorgio under her heart. Later, another girl was born to Mary, who was named Rosanna. The whole large family was provided by his father, who worked as an accountant. Mom, a housewife, got a job as the head of a children’s sports camp during the summer holidays.

Although Giorgio was born in Italy, he is Armenian by blood. According to Forbes Woman, his parents fled to the peninsula at the beginning of the 20th century, fleeing the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.

Parents were active supporters of sports: Hugo played football first for the Ivy Sports Association in Trieste, then for the same organization, but in Piacenza. Mom was engaged in gymnastics at an amateur level and instilled a love for physical education in her children.

She also regularly took the children to the theater, sometimes Hugo joined them. Giorgio did not really like the theater, he preferred cinema. Every Sunday the boy went to the cinema, he was especially inspired when they showed musical films with beautifully dressed girls and young people.

The boy often fiddled with his younger sister. She loved to play dollhouse, and one day her brother sewed costumes for her dolls, and later helped to sew the dolls themselves. We can say that then his first designer products were born.

Giorgio loved to read. Once, Archibald Cronin’s book The Citadel, about a young and hopeful doctor, fell into his hands. After that, the teenager decided that medicine should be his destiny and, after graduating from school, he entered the medical faculty of the University of Bologna. After studying for two years, Giorgio realized that medicine did not attract him and left the university.

First steps in fashion

He worked as a photographer’s assistant, served in the army and returned to photography again. The young man bought a camera and went everywhere with it, looking for unusual shots, original stories. To earn money, he got a job as an auxiliary employee at the Rinashente department store, then became a window dresser, realizing his wildest ideas and turning his own fantasies into reality.

The owner of the department store noticed the agile young man and instructed him to purchase Indian and Japanese goods, allowing him to select the collections himself. This captivated Giorgio so much that he seriously thought about creating his own fashion line. He began sketching, sketching, experimenting with color.

A few years later, Armani began working for Nino Cerutti, owner of the Hitman brand. For six years, the young man was Nino’s assistant, created patterns and models, mastered a sewing machine, on which he sewed some things on his own, to which Cerutti assigned his name. Many years later, Cerutti will become his full partner and friend.

Giorgio also studied mastery with Emanuel Ungaro, then with Ermengildo Zegna. And in the early seventies, he dared to offer his own sketches and models to the fashion houses of Italy, and his work began to be bought. Feeling like a freelance artist, Armani created the first clothing collection under his own name, which impressed spoiled fashionistas and critics. Milan took the debut of the novice fashion designer favorably.

Brand Giorgio Armani

1975 was a landmark year for Giorgio. Together with a close friend, the architect Sergio Galeotti, he founded a brand of his own name, under which fashion collections of clothes began to appear.

The success that he had been waiting for so long brought the expansion of the business. The Italians enthusiastically accepted the new lines of Armani: shoes, accessories, watches, jewelry. Together with L’Oreal, the first fragrance of eau de toilette appears, then a cosmetic line.

Giorgio created several divisions in the company, each of which was responsible for a separate direction. New developments appear, the Giorgio Armani brand leaves the borders of Italy and spreads around the world. The fashion designer in an interview without false modesty said:

… I think that I have covered all aspects of what is called “lifestyle”, and I do not plan to develop in other sectors. But if an idea arises, I can change my mind even tomorrow. At the moment, I am very attracted to the design of hotels…

Celebrities and politicians, nouveau riches and fashion lovers become constant connoisseurs of things from the Italian couturier. Hollywood actors and actresses take to the red carpet of the Oscars in his outfits and jewelry, and directors Brian de Palma and Paul Schroeder even signed contracts for tailoring costumes for actors.

Only celebrities advertise the brand: Megan Fox, Cate Blanchett, David Beckham, Chris Pine and others. George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, Russell Crowe and Lady Gaga love to dress in Armani.

In 2016, the famous Italian announced his decision not to use natural fur in further collections. The stylist noted that the Armani Group, with new technologies at its disposal, can create fashionable items without resorting to the use of animal fur, which it opposes cruelty to.

The Italian fashion designer has always had a sharp tongue. Dolce and Gabbana were accused by Armani of plagiarizing Chinese-style silk trousers from his collection at Milan Fashion Week 2009. “Let them copy. Maybe they will finally learn how to sew,” the designer remarked philosophically.

In 2015, he criticized homosexuals, emphasizing that he was against demonstrating his orientation. “A man must remain a man,” he said, despite the fact that rumors about Armani’s homosexuality have been circulating for decades.

In 2024, Armani compared the collections of modern couturiers to the rape of women:

I think it’s time to say what I think. Women are raped by us, designers

Personal life of Giorgio Armani

Armani never married, not a single woman gave him heirs. Giorgio’s closest relatives are the nieces of Robert and Silvana, the daughters of Sergio’s brother, and the nephew of Andrea Camerana, the son of Rosanna’s sister. The closest to the billionaire uncle was Roberta, who works in his fashion empire with VIP clients.

More than once, the stylist has positioned himself as bisexual, which is why for twenty years there have been rumors about Armani’s very close relationship with his friend and companion Sergio Galeotti. In 1985, Sergio died of AIDS, leaving his share of the company’s assets to Giorgio.

The stylist was very upset by the death of Galeotti, plunging into a long depression. Saved Armani only work. The fashion designer did not talk about his further relationships with women or men, but at one time he was credited with an affair with the Italian couturier Jano.

Together they were captured by the paparazzi in the ski resort of St. Moritz in Switzerland. Giorgio at that moment was eighty years old, and thus he decided to celebrate the end of Fashion Week in Paris. Jano and Armani traveled around the resort in an open carriage.

Giorgio Armani now

In 2024, the Italian billionaire donated nearly $1.5 million to fight the coronavirus in his homeland. The money was distributed to three Milan hospitals, a clinic in Rome and the People’s Protection Agency. Most of the company’s employees switched to remote work. Fall New York Fashion Week was held without the participation of the fashion house Giorgio Armani. However, Armani announced the launch of a new fragrance, My Way, promoted by actress Adria Arjona from America. The fragrance was the first step towards the implementation of the new environmental program of the famous stylist, who believes that environmental issues should concern every person, since the future of the new generation depends on it.