Giorgio Armani Gets Intimate with his American Audience

Giorgio Armani Gets Intimate with his American Audience
With a strong four-decade track record, Giorgio Armani has earned the right to do just about anything he wants in the field of fashion.

If he wants to try his hand at writing about the Academy Awards instead of sketching gowns for the red carpet, he can.

If he wants to abandon the sleek gowns and chic suits that made him a fashion legend in favor of Asian-floral silk pants, cropped mandarin jackets and coolie hats, he can.

If he wants to invite regular folks to see his runway fashion show instead of only boldface names, he can.

And he did.

In fact, on a recent -- and rare -- trip to the United States from his Milan home base, he did all of the above.

The designer explains that the time has come to tweak the successful Armani formula, even if it's to satisfy only his own creative cravings.

"In the past, I already had created some special collections that were seen as not so 'Armani,' but the specialized press was a bit superficial and they did not forgive me for those differences. The press only wanted to think of the typical suit or the working woman and that was it, and that kind of clipped my wings," he says. "But now that I have more experience, I realize that in order to be gratified one has to do things that one loves and, therefore, one must not be so preoccupied with criticism."