Richard Gere Remembers Fashion Legend Giorgio Armani

GQMagazine

Richard Gere remembers Giorgio Armani, as he knew him. “Delightful and knowable,” says Gere as he reminisces about the man behind the craftsman that radically changed contemporary fashion.Credits:Director: Nick CollettDirector of Photography: Jack BelisleEditor: Louville MooreTalent: Richard GereProducer: Camille RamosLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James Pipitone; Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Dana MathewsCamera Operator: Chloe RamosGaffer: Niklas MollerSound Mixer: Rachel SuffianProduction Assistant: Erica PalmieriPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnPost Production Coordinator: Stella ShortinoSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Transcript

00:00Those who know Giorgio know that he's a little shy.

00:09There was an Italian warmth to him, but he was a craftsman.

00:12I think that's part of what his thing was.

00:14He communicated to the world with this work that he did and the textures and the stitching

00:20had to be right.

00:21It was details.

00:22I know up until this moment where he passed away, he was still changing little things

00:28and this wasn't quite good enough.

00:31Could we just do this?

00:33That's who he was and delightful and knowable because of that.

00:39He knew who he was.

00:40He knew what he wanted.

00:42There were specific things that I would ask for one of his suits because I knew they were

00:46perfect for a character.

00:48I found myself saying yes to American Gigolo.

00:51It was kind of an extreme character.

00:53I didn't really know this guy.

00:56And Paul Schrader, who wrote and directed it, really wanted this to be a style movie.

01:01We had Italians were all over it.

01:03It was meant to look like a Bertolucci movie.

01:06And Nando Scarfiotti, this incredible production designer, costume designer, was working on it

01:12who had worked with Visconti and Bertolucci.

01:15He brought in Giorgio.

01:17I mean, Giorgio was an interesting choice for this because Giorgio is not a uni-dimensional

01:24person or artist.

01:25I mean, I think he sees things in many different layers.

01:29But in this case, this was like extreme design of that time.

01:34You know, there's a scene in American Gigolo where I'm singing this song, your love is

01:38a mirage.

01:39And I'm picking out clothes and I'm dancing around the room like a little girl, you know.

01:44And it was like when we started doing this, hey, Paul, you really want to do this like

01:49this?

01:50And he said, yeah, go with it.

01:51I'm dancing around and singing, picking clothes.

01:54And I was like, that was brand new.

01:56Guys doing that, caring about this tie goes with that shirt, that shirt goes with this

02:03color pants.

02:04It seemed to speak to a moment where people, guys, were interested in that kind of thing.

02:11I don't think I even had a suit before I had those clothes.

02:17But I think I took some from the set after that.

02:19I remember we'd finished shooting that and I had a movie.

02:23My first movie was opening at Cannes.

02:25I had these Giorgio Armani clothes.

02:27And I was feeling pretty good about myself at that point, going to Cannes.

02:32And he made really beautiful classic suits and beautiful classic sweaters that were just

02:39timeless.

02:40You know, if I got to wear a tuxedo, it's his tuxedo.

02:43Of course, I use his suits in many films.

02:46You know, sometimes they're too good for the character.

02:49So it wouldn't be Giorgio.

02:50I don't know anything about style.

02:52I never did.

02:53I never will.

02:54But I know that his fabrics are beautiful.

02:58So you feel comfortable in them.

03:00Or I do.

03:01They're very soft.

03:02And he likes those earth tones too, which I like.

03:05He and I were a good marriage that way.

03:07Finely made, finely crafted, timeless designs.

03:12It's kind of bizarre.

03:13But I could walk into any of his stores and take a suit off the rack and it would fit me.

03:18And so I think it just was an affinity.

03:22And personally, we just got along too.

03:24It was simple.

03:25This last show was the first show of his I'd ever seen.

03:28In all the decades I've known him, that was the first show.

03:31I was kind of delighted to be there.

03:33And Lauren Hutton, who was an old friend, I was happy to see her there.

03:36And Cate Blanchett and a lot of other old friends there.

03:39The first time I'd been to one of his fashion shows, and it was very, it was very moving.

03:45Everyone was very soft.

03:47And the clothes were very soft.

03:49You know, if you've been to his hotel in Milan, you see the extreme version of him,

03:55which is quite severe.

03:57Hard surfaces.

03:58It's almost like a bunker.

04:00But I think the severity of and controlled aspect of his design, it doesn't lend itself

04:07to kind of like, well, throw it together.

04:09It's meant to be like that.

04:14It's controlled, and he needs it to be controlled.

04:19And so when something is an Armani thing, whether it's a lamp or it's clothes or whatever it is,

04:24it's definitely his thing.

04:25He's seen it from 360 degrees.

04:28And the use of black, black, black, was central to what his thing was.

04:33I don't think I ever saw him outside of one of his black t-shirts.

04:35I wear t-shirts all the time.

04:37They're kind of faded, you know, from, I shouldn't say, the gap or whatever.

04:43You know, it's like nothing.

04:45He always come up to me, and he touched the fabric of my t-shirt, and then he'd go.

04:53He enjoyed playing dress-up, you know, basically.

04:56When I was a kid, my mother would make costumes for the plays I was in.

05:01And I think he was like that.

05:03He enjoyed playing.

05:05But with the talent and the craft of a craftsman, who gets the details right.

05:12Very important to him.

05:14The way!

05:19The way!

05:23The way!

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