Prestige issue 263, June 2015
Roberta Armani, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tina Turner and Giorgio Armani. © Giorgio Armani © 2015 Venturelli
This year, May 1st in Italy and especially in Milan was highly awaited and for a good reason: finally the famous World Expo around the theme «Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life», which will last until October 31st, would open its doors. Despite controversies, work stops due to mafia infiltration, etc. So what if the 50 pavilions spread over 1,000,000.00 m2, representing individual countries plus the 9 buildings called «clusters» dedicated to products such as coffee and rice were still not ready by opening day: On April 30th, at the eve of the inauguration, Milan was celebrating. The city offered itself a successful facelift, renovating the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery, increasing the subway lines to carry the 20 million expected visitors to the Expo site and other destinations … That night, however, the facade of the beautiful brand new Duomo seemed magical, adorned with beautiful colors to serve as a setting for an exceptional concert. A stage was mounted, on which had settled the great symphony orchestra of La Scala of Milan and its choir, the famous opera tenors and especially Andrea Boccelli … All showed and made the Milanese night vibrate with fragments of Verdi, Puccini … until late in the evening, until just a few kilometers away, on the World Expo site is illuminated the «tree of life» sculpture built for the occasion with the hope that it would be as perennial as the Eiffel Tower. But this is not everything and that night Milan, it was not only the Duomo, the Scala, its tenors, operas, exhibitions in various museums that offer visitors the opportunity to admire the works of great artists, Italian geniuses like Leonardo Da Vinci, for example … That night, one of the ambassadors for the World Expo, the most famous Milanese in the world, a few kilometers from the concert opened the doors of a new space for exhibitions. I refer of course to Giorgio Armani, to celebrate his 40 years of creation, inaugurated the «silos» in the presence of the stars of international cinema. Note that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had deserted the concert to respond to the invitation of Mr. Armani …
Giorgio Armani and Italian Prime minister Matteo Renzi. © Giorgio Armani © 2015 Venturelli
The Silos, a new Milanese address for Armani in addition to others, is at 40 Bergognone street. «I decided to call it Silos, says Armani because this building was used to store food. Which obviously is as essential to life as the clothes». The renovated building according to the design of Giorgio Armani, goes back to 1950, 4500 square meters on four levels. The warm and bright Open Space, with black ceilings contrasting with the gray floor, tells the 40 years of creation of the House Armani, 200 accessories, 600 garments created by Giorgio for his collection since 1980 to date. Everything is exposed following the inspiration of the designer and divided into ready-to-wear, evening, etc. Armani said: «While preparing this exhibition of my works, having to choose what represented me the most, I could look back to my 40 years with emotion and realize that fashion is always present. A present that we live remembering well our roots to better face the future.» The silos which will be open to the public six days a week, in April 30 received Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife, Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Glenn Close, Sophia Loren, Tina Turner, Hilary Swank, Leonardo DiCaprio, Isabelle Huppert Aishwarya Ray, Janet Jackson, Pierce Brosnan, Claudia Cardinale. A universal exhibition which started in beauty and, with the passing days will reserve some beautiful stories, revealing some surprises that I will try to tell you over the months…
