Giorgio Armani was what the Japanese have long and wisely called a “living treasure.” He stamped Italian fashion with the look of youth. At the time he started designing, almost half of the world’s population was under 25, war and baby boomers everywhere. Before him, there were only two fashion weeks, both in Paris. Milan was known for the beautiful material they produced, not for fashion. The first treasured piece I ever owned was something I bought in 1968, during a Vogue trip to Paris. It was from Cerruti, the house where Armani was designing at the time—a tightly ribbed, short-sleeved t-shirt that I still own and wear. The big models were the ones who brought me to the store. By the time I was doing American Gigolo, Armani was making men’s and women’s suits made with light, soft underfacings that showed a young body instead of those eternally stiff looks that had been fashionable for generations. Actually centuries, suits were introduced back in mid-17th-century England. So, he not only showed our youthful bodies, but he did so in very fine, new colors. He’d use three or four cousin-colored threads to make one new color. And, he was fun! He was the only designer I’ve ever heard of who would fly in all his personal muses to gather for his shows and parties.

I recently read that he called me his first muse—I was floored! We bonded when I stopped in Milan on my way back from East Africa. My friend and his colleague, Gabriella Forte, brought me to where he was preparing for one of his early shows in his huge, windowed studio. He asked me to walk in the show, and I had never done a live show—strictly photography. But he asked, and it was already full of wonderful young models I’d seen in magazines but never met because of a solo contract. Second best to the great clothes and fun of being in a show with these new young stars, he also asked me to wear the woven rattan backpack I came in with, which I always wore. This showed me he believed in my taste and that it would be fine with his. And it was! For the next 46 years, he was my dear and constant friend, whether I was in fashion or out. Me and all his wonderful women I got to know because of him—Tina Turner, Cate Blanchett, Glenn Close, Sophia Loren, and many more—are all sending him kisses to whatever heavens he’s in, among the best artists of every art. I know he lives in all our hearts.

This story appears in the pages of V157: now available for purchase!

Photography ALVARO BEAMUD CORTÉS

Fashion GRO CURTIS

Text LAUREN HUTTON