Do we like them?

Do we like Giorgio Armani?

Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record with real good, and two real marks: an untidy remark in 2015 and a fine over his company's supplier claims.

Giorgio Armani built a fashion house into a global group, and he ran it his own way until he died in September 2025. Even his will was a statement of control: it set out who inherits, who runs the foundation, and how a first slice of the company is to be sold.

On the harm test, the thing that stands out is a 2015 Sunday Times Magazine interview. He said “A homosexual man is a man 100%. He does not need to dress homosexual.” He also said he dislikes it when homosexuality is exhibited to the extreme. That landed badly with plenty of people, and we found no apology. It is one clumsy opinion about style, not a campaign against anyone's rights, but it's a mark.

The company's big stain is on the business side. In August 2025 Italy's antitrust authority fined two Armani companies €3.5 million over statements about ethics and social responsibility. It said conditions at subcontracted workshops, including removed machine safety devices and off-the-books employment, didn't match those claims. Armani said it felt “bitterness and astonishment” and was confident of winning on appeal, so the last word isn't in.

On the planet, he did some real things. The group went fur-free across its labels, and in 2021 it announced it would drop angora too. Animal activists still pressed Milan Fashion Week in March 2026 to go fully fur-free, so the industry around him hasn't caught up.

The good stuff is solid. When Covid hit Italy in 2020 he donated to the Civil Protection agency and hospitals in Milan, Rome, Bergamo, Piacenza and Versilia, reportedly 2 million euros in all. He also switched the group's Italian plants over to making single-use gowns for health workers.

Since his death the house has been working out who it is without him. Dell'Orco and Silvana Armani now front the shows, and reports in 2026 say the family foundation is weighing a 15% stake sale to big luxury players. Nothing there reflects on his character, but it shapes what the label becomes.