With Giorgio Armani’s passing in September 2025, he left behind an unwavering legacy of style. From his unstructured suits to his predominantly greige color palette, the Armani aesthetic—which is now being carried on by Silvana Armani and Leo Dell’Orco—is as recognizable and embraced in 2026 as it was in the designer’s heyday. Many big names in fashion spend their entire careers chasing an idea of timelessness; this second installment of the Armani/Archivio project only proves that Armani cemented his. “I believe there is nothing more radical than classics, because resisting the passage of time is, in fashion, a nearly revolutionary act,” Silvana Armani told Vogue.
Founded by Armani himself in preparation for his label’s 50th anniversary, the first chapter of Armani/Archivio served primarily as a massive cataloguing project. Over 200 physical collections—spanning 50 years and 30,000 individual pieces—were digitized as part of a publicly accessible online library that studies Armani as both a language and a brand. “Giorgio was not nostalgic and did not like looking back, but he was also aware of the value of his own journey—this is why he wanted this bridge between past and future to exist,” said Dell’Orco, who experienced his own waves of nostalgia rediscovering many of the collections on which he worked. “All our stylistic research stems from the idea of creating something that is not ephemeral or forgettable, but that endures over time and has substance.”
In addition to the first chapter’s digital archive, Mr. Armani hand-selected a small batch of carefully preserved creations from his collections between 1987 and 2016 to form a miniature exhibition that traveled from the label’s boutique in Venice to other flagship stores across the world. Actual pieces from the archives were also made for sale, offering customers a slice of the brand’s history.
Armani/Archivio now rests securely in Silvana Armani and Leo Dell’Orco’s hands, and the second phase of the project takes the concept one step further with an archival reedition capsule collection that will be available for purchase in early May. The release features 13 designs faithfully reproduced from collections between 1979 and 1994, and is accompanied by a campaign shot by ERL founder Eli Russell Linnetz. “Mr. Armani is one of the greatest artists of our time, whose enduring legacy changed the way we live our lives every day and what we aspire to become,” Linnetz said. Their timelessness again rings true: “These Archivio pieces feel as alive today as the day they were made because he designed his work to be eternally impactful.”
