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Giorgio Armani’s House of Dreams |
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Story : Kirstie Flood |
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Armani/Casa was launched in 2000 and has rapidly become an integral component within the rich and varied Giorgio Armani Group. The appearance of Armani/Casa has helped cement the reputation of Armani as a brand, which is not only a world leader in the fashion sector, but also synonymous with a wider vision of an all-inclusive lifestyle that embraces a number of different product areas. At Armani/Casa, Giorgio Armani communicates what is essentially his own ideal of a home - his dream of a living space. September 19th sees the very grand opening of Thailand’s first Armani/Casa store located at the Décor Mart Design Centre, Thonglor 19, Bangkok. I had the very special honour of recently catching up with Giorgio Armani, Chairman and Chief Executive of Giorgio Armani S.p.A. I began by congratulating Giorgio on the new store opening and asking him how receptive the Asian market has been and will continue to be for Armani/Casa. “Thank you. First of all, I have to say that I am really confident in good results. I believe that Thai people have a great culture and sensitivity when it comes to art and manufacturing and this makes them particularly open-minded and receptive towards new proposals. Moreover I have to say that the Far East atmospheres have always paid a great influence on my aesthetics so I consider the expansion to the East a natural step in the Armani/Casa growth process. “I am especially pleased to note the very real growth we are now seeing in our home furnishings business. The Armani/Casa collection was launched in October 2000 with the opening of the first dedicated Armani Casa store at our Via Manzoni store in Milan. Since that time we have pursued an aggressive expansion programme for Armani/ Casa through the roll out of a further 33 freestanding stores in the most important cities around the world, along with the opening of 60 shop-in-shops in specialist home furnishings multi-brand stores and select department stores. Armani/Casa gets an unprecedented distribution and visibility in 35 countries. “I am delighted to have Décor Mart as our Thailand partner and we are pleased that after a long search we have found such an ideal and prestigious location for this Armani/Casa store in Bangkok”. So, how does the Asian target market vary compared to the Western buyers? “Well, the truth is that when I design, I do not have a particular geographical area or target in mind, but instead think only of what interests me at the time and how I want to express myself through clothing or furniture. The Armani/Casa customer is one already confident with the elegance which is the key to Armani. All over the world there are people who appreciate this approach, who like this aesthetic and these are the people who become my customers.” Giorgio Armani’s objective is to bring his philosophy of style to the world of home interiors and in so doing create the complete concept of an Armani lifestyle. With Armani/Casa, Giorgio presents his ideal for living, his dream of the perfect environment: an intimate and sophisticated space in which to relax, unwind and entertain guests surrounded by beauty manifested through furniture and objects for the home. The Armani/Casa collection is multi-faceted and offers a complete environment. There are items of furniture, tableware, decoration accessories, fabrics, ornaments, lighting, as well as original ideas for the bathroom and now the kitchen. In addition, Armani/Casa also offers an exclusive interior design service in each store providing ‘made to measure’ solutions for private clients and property developers. Asian markets should prove welcoming to Armani/Casa as Asia continues to experience a huge growth in luxury brands spanning beyond Tokyo and Hong Kong, into countries such as India and Thailand. So are there are any particular Armani/Casa products that Giorgio envisages being more successful with Thai buyers?
Are there many Asian influences in your new range? “I have always felt very close to Far Eastern cultures and their particular vision of interiors. You can see echoes of the East in my Armani/Casa collections, though I always interpret my cultural influences in a contemporary style.” The new designs incorporate materials from around the world, including Asia, Giorgio elaborates “In Armani/Casa I try to transfer an intimate feeling by proposing precious materials, beautiful products that live in harmony with each other. Above all, I think that the atmosphere on the whole creates glamour and the whole is an interplay of sophisticated details. This is the reason why the research on materials always plays a great role in the Armani/Casa collections. Among my favourite materials there are mother-of-pearl, shell and shagreen which are sourced in Asia and used in a variety of Armani/Casa products” Armani/Casa creations range from furniture to accessories - there are fabrics and objets d’art and lighting options designed for every area of the home. Distinguished by their ‘…understated elegance and sophisticated comfort.’ Armani/Casa has now built up an abundant permanent collection, which is expanded on a seasonal basis with more temporary lines of accessories and fabrics. This approach allows clients of Armani/Casa to enrich their homes in two different ways - they can invest in the ongoing collection of classic and iconic products that epitomize the brand, but also enjoy the flow of fresh ideas and suggestions that succeed one another season by season. I asked whether there was much cross over between the current Armani fashion wear designs and the new Armani/Casa collection? “Yes of course and this is particularly true if looking at the fabrics that have assumed the star role in this collection; displaying their highly decorative elements, derived and evolved from the Armani fashion collection, through a series of moods and aesthetic styles. Delicate graphics and curving lines are set alongside more rigorous motifs and geometric patterns such as chevrons and lozenges in a three dimensional optical effect. I in fact believe that textile weaves provide a fashionable wardrobe for the furniture and accessories serving to convey the different male and female environments.” Likewise, what key pieces would you select for a dream living space in a city condo? “Some of my favorite items which I also have in my houses are the Ginza table, the red and green Egitto lamps, the Grembo sofa and the Oxford chairs in parchment. I am also particularly fond of the two cabinets - Riesling and Reverie - for their rigorous design, which reminds me of Art Deco. Each season I find myself reintroducing them in a new look, playing with combinations of materials and finishes. Each time they seem totally new even though they keep their strong identity - it is almost as if they were models wearing Armani suits.” Of the product range, how many pieces will be made and are there pieces that will appreciate in value as ‘collector’s items’? “I like to think that all the Armani/Casa pieces are unique. The handcraft content is so high that often you can not find a piece which is identical to another of the same range. In the last years, for instance, I have introduced several new finishes like silver spatula stucco which is particularly delicate. In fact as regards its application it takes from 15 to 20 minutes and then the stucco hardens and can no longer be shaped with the spatula. The differences between the tools used (always different and left to the imagination of the craftsman), the silver colouring and the patina are three typical examples of handcrafted techniques borrowed from the field of interior decoration that makes each piece unique. There are then some other items which come in limited edition just like the Riesling and the Reverie cabinets and the Antoinette vanity unity each of them is then so special to be considered a collector’s piece. I personally autograph each of them.
Following the launch in Bangkok, the international Armani/Casa expansion program continues, which today has 33 free standing stores and 60 corners. Further new openings are planned for this year in other strategic locations, such as: Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo, Moscow, Tel Aviv.
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The Armani Group is one of the leading fashion and luxury goods groups in the world today, with 4,800 direct employees and 13 factories. It designs, manufactures, distributes and retails fashion and lifestyle products including apparel, accessories, eyewear, watches, jewellery, home interiors, fragrances and cosmetics under a range of brand names.
“Well, it is not that easy to make a prediction since I believe that most of the Armani/Casa pieces could meet the Thai buyers taste. If I have to quote some of them I would definitely say the Grembo sofas, the Trocadero dining tables and the Reverie limited edition cabinets. These last two are available in many different precious finishes like golden leaf, shiny brown stucco spatula effect and fossil mosaic stone. Grembo, like all the upholstered Armani/Casa proposals, comes in a variety of refined fabrics often characterized by exclusive patterns to Armani/Casa.” 
Where else would you like to see the Armani/Casa products and why? “Well, my home collection pieces can live both in a complete Armani/Casa environment and interact with other furnishings and doing this they often turn into something unique! An important project I am very focused on is the Armani/Hotels&Resorts which will be entirely furnished with dedicated Armani/Casa collections. The Armani/Hotels&Resorts represents an innovative way to make the Armani/Casa collections live in a different context and I have to say that I am particularly satisfied with this new challenge.|
Tropical Living: September 2007, Volume 7 Issue 4 |
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