Chief executive and sole shareholder of a sprawling fashion empire estimated to be worth more than £3 billion, Armani has four homes in Italy, two in France, one in the United States, two in Antigua and two private yachts. “It’s easy to lose count,” he says, with a smile.
Armani is sitting on a couch in the television room of his converted 17th-century palazzo on Via Borgonuovo in central Milan. The 72-year-old rarely opens the door to anyone other than his key lieutenants and close friends, but he has agreed to show The Sunday Times around. The fact that he is about to open a new homeware store, Armani Casa, in London — his first in Britain — might have had something to do with his decision.
“I moved here 23 years ago but it was not in good shape then,” he says. “It was traditional, with lots of small rooms and there were two bathrooms decorated in pink marble, which was not very masculine. But I knew that if I turned it into a few large rooms and redecorated, it would have the dimensions, the ceiling height and the sense of space I like.”
Space, light and proportion matter to a man who has applied his relaxed, modern aesthetic to everything from clothes to furniture and hotels. Ever since he ripped the stuffing, literally, out of men’s suits to create his trademark slouchy chic in the 1970s, Armani has pushed his warm, minimalist style into new areas.
Although he could have decorated the palazzo using his own products, the house is full of furniture by Jean-Michel Frank, the designer and decorator of the Parisian haute monde of the 1930s and 1940s. “I like the simplicity of the lines and the richness of the fabrics of that era,” says Armani, pointing to his Frank dining table.
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Designer Peter Marino, hired to decorate the home, found most of the Frank furniture in antique stores in Paris. Under Armani’s exacting eye, he used a simple palette of maple, ash, black lacquered wood and black floor tiles. “I love the simple but warm contrast of black and brown,” says Armani.
Although there is modern art and the odd Matisse on the walls, Armani, who shares the house with his two cats, Charlie and Angel, prefers to decorate with items collected on his travels, ranging from precious Asian stones to an electronic, barking Scottie dog. “Scottish, not English,” he jokes. “Woof! Woof! “I collect things that inspire or amuse me,” he says. “They are things that have texture. I change them all the time, according to my mood and to the season. I have so many things that Peter (Marino) complains that the house looks like an Arab souk. But that’s just the way I like it.”
Armani, who cheerfully concedes that he is a workaholic, uses the palazzo both as a workplace and his home. There are design studios on the ground floor and he has staged catwalk shows in the basement theatre. “It’s useful,” he says. “I don’t commute, and if I decide I don’t like the way something looks, I can go and pick up a new chair or a new table from the studio.”
His living quarters start on the first floor, with a marble entrance decorated with an ancient Roman bust. There is a drawing room, television room/study, a dining room and a small kitchen on this level. He spends a lot of time in the television room, where he watches films and football. (He clothes his hometown team, Piacenza, as well as the England football team.) Up a spiral wooden staircase, there is another study, his bedroom, bathroom and two dressing rooms.
On his desk are plans for his new 44m yacht, the Marmania. “I am designing the exterior and the interior,” he says, proudly. The Marmania and his other yacht, the Mariu, named after his mother, are his floating homes. He uses them to sail from his cottage in St Tropez across the Mediterranean to his holiday home on the volcanic island of Pantelleria, just off Sicily.
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Two giant mirrors line the walls of his dressing rooms. “Too many mirrors,” Armani sniffs as he walks in. “When I get up in the morning, it is a terrible sight.”
For a man who clothes millions every day, his wardrobe is surprisingly small. “I have an affection for only a few suits and T-shirts because they have taken the shape of my body. I like things that age well.” The only other designer who makes it into his wardrobe is Japan’s Yohji Yamamoto. “He does very simple things with high quality. Very clean lines, not too theatrical.”
The top floor has another kitchen, a gym, a sitting room and a vast terrace, with views over central Milan. Armani says he works out listening to lounge and ethnic music — but the CD on top of the pile is the Spice Girls’ Greatest Hits. He has a private treatment room for massages and two tanning machines — one for the face and the other for the body.
Armani rarely cooks. His private chef, Antonio d’Angelo, from Naples, makes his favourite dish, home-made pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. Apart from pasta, he follows a strict diet of white meat, grilled vegetables, eggs and the odd glass of wine.
The vine-covered terrace is the place for fashion parties. “When it is nice weather, I put red cushions all over the place and we open up the bar,” Armani says.
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His other Italian homes are a rural villa on the Tuscan coast at Forte dei Marmi, a 17th-century-style villa at Broni, near Piacenza, and his favourite hideaway, on Pantelleria. “It’s a dream home: a group of four large, low homes with rounded rooms. There is a giant pool with a barbecue.” He spends most summers there with friends.
He also owns the cottage at St Tropez, “near the ocean but not near the touristy area”, a 1930s penthouse overlooking Central Park in New York, a converted artist’s studio above his Emporio Armani store in Paris and two beach villas in Antigua.
A house here, a house there. Sometimes two in the same place. It’s a collection every bit as varied as one of his fashion shows. No wonder he loses count.