Reflecting on working for Giorgio Armani as the designer turns 90

Giorgio Armani turns ninety on the 11th of this month, and with this impressive life milestone I can’t help but reflect on my time as a womenswear designer on his team at the turn of the new millennium. I arrived at Armani HQ in my mid-20s. I’d just completed my Masters at London’s Central Saint Martins, which at that time was a dilapidated, lawless place where raucously attired students and faculty cursed each other out at high volume in the corridors, a ritual that somehow inspired mutual respect. And here I was, looking like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards, transplanted into the most picturesque historic Brera district of Milan, into this palazzo of airy rooms that housed all of Armani’s design operations.

Immediately I was filled with trepidation. The sleek, polished members of Armani’s team would see through me as an outsider and boot me out into the cobbled street where I belonged. In fact, it was a constant concern of mine throughout my six years there.