While the weather shows no signs of summer being here nor being anywhere on the horizon, that isn't stopping Emporio Armani from hosting their annual summer garden live event at their Bond Street store tonight.
Over the past few years the annual event has become quite a fixture on the summer calendar, especially since it sees the brand partner with various record labels to showcase the artists we'll all be listening to in the coming months. The special performers taking part tonight are as yet still firmly under wraps. I'll be there all night, though, working with the team to live tweet all of the images, updates and news from the night as it happens.
Follow me at @thefashpack to make sure you don't miss anything.
Contrary to his youthful appearance, 78 year-old Giorgio Armani is getting older and as one of the only fashion designers still in control of his empire, it's not surprising that speculation about his next move abound.
Last month reports about Stefano Pilati moving to the brand with the intention to assume full creative reigns when the man himself retires adding impetus to the ever present interest. Naturally, then, succession was the main topic of discussion in his recent feature in the Wall Street Journal.
In the interview he reveals that the future of the company is something that he thinks about 'when I wake up in the morning and when I go to sleep at night.' He also discusses why creating wearable designs are important to him, what he has planned for the future of Armani and his near death experience.
At last night's Met Gala Rihanna confirmed that her plan to launch her own label is well underway. In the meantime, though, she's continuing to lend her designing skills to Armani. Yesterday the brand announced that the singer has designed another capsule collection for both Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani underwear. The collection, which will feature everything from denim shorts with tartan rolls up to simple tanks and tops, will hit stores worldwide next April.
Last year Rihanna was named as the new face of Emporio Armani Jeans and Underwear and appeared in both campaigns and now she has teamed up with the brand again but this time on an advert.
While their last partnership saw her sport a hard look with that blonde short wig, this time she appears a lot softer. Despite the ad being for the brand's jeans line, she spend the majority of the clip sporting a silk camisole and underwear and her hair is a throwback to her 'Pon de Replay' days. This isn't my favourite thing that Rihanna's done but the advert will no doubt go down well with her male followers.
Last week we brought youRihanna's Armani Jeans campaign and now the brand have released the full series of images for the singer's Emporio Armani Underwear campaign. Like the jeans ad, Rihanna was shot by Steven Klein with the same moody film noir vibe, and like the all of the men in the world right now, we've in love with her partnership with the brand. Although the shots are sexy, it's nice to see that they didn't go as risque and obvious as they could have. Whether or not the images match the bar set by Victoria and David Beckham though, I'm not too sure.
When Armani announced that Rihanna would face their Armani Jeans campaign, I received the news with mixed feelings. Would Rihanna make a good campaign girl, yes but was I expecting something different and interesting, maybe not. The singer has been plastered over just about every men's magazine looking scantily clad so I was expecting the ad to be the usual overly sexy shot but when the campaign was released on their Facebook page yesterday, I was really impressed.
Rather than going the obvious route, they've gone a lot more tomboy-ish giving the singer a short blonde wig, chunky knitwear and biker boots. The fact that it was shot so beautifully in black and white with a moody feeling by Steven Klein definitely doesn't hurt.
If this campaign is anything to go by, we can expect a real treat from her upcoming Emporio Armani underwear campaign.
If you're a fan of black, you won't be disappointed with the fall offerings at Emporio Armani. Black appeared on leggings teamed with knee length skirts and single breasted jackets with fur collars. Dresses all came in the same colour but varied from simple shift styles to asymmetric versions and floaty maxis.
The silhouette was very soft and relaxed for fall. Loose fitting dresses came with flower embroidery styled over slouched wide leg trousers but towards the end of the collection Armani introduced a structured military jacket with bronze buttons teamed with a simple knee length skirts and heels.On the whole, the collection wasn't memorable and unfortunately didn't match the standard we've seen in Milan this week.
