MFW: Even Mr. Giorgio Armani Can’t Escape The “Vibe Shift”

Soft fluidity and quotidian ease superseded extravagant silhouettes in a collection told in three acts

MILAN, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 24: A model walks the runway at the Giorgio Armani fashion show during the Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 on September 24, 2023 in Milan, Italy.

Despite trend forecaster Sean Monahan predicting a “vibe shift” in early 2022, the zeitgeist’s discombobulating pendulum swing from idolising sensuality and debauchery (epitomised in the “night luxe” aesthetic) to worshipping minimal quiet luxury has made it difficult to discern exactly what the tone of now is.

But leave it to 89-year-old designer Giorgio Armani to propose his sartorial hypothesis for what the “vibe” entails, specifically that of the Spring/Summer season for 2024.

Concluding Milan Fashion Week, Mr. Armani theorised that his collection—entitled “Vibes”—was not that of a palpable energy, but one of perennial vibration and movement.

“Everything vibrates: colours, sensations and feelings,” the Italian design titan argued in his collection notes. “This season, vibrations become visible,” he continued.

“They run across entire surfaces in undulating movements and rippling weaves, they expand the chromatic scale to touch notes of bronze and silver and light up in precious greens and purples, only to arrive at a white that permeates the evenings.”

The latter proposition summarised his point of contention; a written manifesto of his energetic collection told in three acts.

These acts, much like a traditional play, opened with metallic fluidity before shifting into a concentration of rippling blues, greens and purples and eventually concluding in a crescendo of light-as-air pinks and angelic whites.

Like the light hitting the surface of water before daybreak—perhaps a force of nature Mr. Armani sees from the bow of his 65-meter super yacht—the collection refracts the house’s signature codes with everyday ease rather than exploring a prism of glamorous evening wear.

While shapes aren’t tight or constricting, they remain close to the body and oscillate between powdery suits and diaphanous dresses. Jackets are as liquid as molten silk, trousers as soft as an ocean breeze, yet contrasted in crisp finishing.

A sentiment Mr. Armani has echoed throughout his entire career: women do not find solace in fragility, but perseverance. The dualism between strong exteriors and romantic silhouettes is Mr. Armani’s “vibe shift”.