History of Giorgio Armani Beauty

Let's talk history...
So, whilst I won't bore you with the synopsis of Giorgio Armani, I will tell you that the Italian designer and icon has built quite an empire for himself. When you visit even the Armani Beauty website there is a section on the bottom left corner of the home page titled 'World of Armani', where you are able to browse through the initial clothing line that stemmed all of Armani's other creations. Armani Jeans, AX, Armani Junior; the list goes on but what was it like at the very beginning? Born in 1934, Giorgio Armani was initially a clothing line of luxurious everyday wear with a side of very high fashion and quality materials. Over time the whole brand has progressed and even gone down the beauty path- which is essentially what makes this whole post even relevant to my work. Armani once told InStyle magazine that "Think how liberating it is for a designer to make one dress, perfectly, to satisfy only one customer.". I found this quote very interesting because it almost takes us back to that idea of luxuriousness and quality rather than quantity which can most definitely be applied to the beauty side of Armani. Notice that the looks throughout Armani are not outrageous or maybe even less artistic than other makeup brands, but still embodies that whole idea of inner beauty, sexiness and just creating glamour based on features and details you already own.

http://naturesjoyny.com/store/page/91/

I wanted to talk about an early fashion advert first to see where the idea of their makeup came from. This beautifully androgynous advert from 1991 reflects a very high fashion 90's look but just look at the makeup- it's flaw ness with that dark sultry 90's vibe. Karen Mulder is the perfect model but unfortunately I couldn't find the makeup artist for this old print Armani advert- however, I'm 100% sure it's that small writing that is literally impossible to read. As you can see from the ad itself, the makeup for Armani has apparently been very sultry but still forgiving for many years. 

“My vision was clear: I believed in getting rid of the artifice of clothing. I believed in neutral colors.”- Giorgio Armani 

This quote, to me says that in a way the whole Armani image is very much about quality and almost fashion in a traditional sense.  It's almost like Armani made boring colours of the 90's like neutrals and brown shades a trend, and this can applied to the beauty line as well. The use of colour in this image is actually very smart because first of all, it's a sepia fade image but still you can see the texture and wisp of the hair through the brow tones. The brows are naturally on point but not over done, the eyes are dark and sultry to reflect the clothing and the lips are like a 'you lips but better' shade. This isn't necessarily important for someone else, but to me it's some sort of starting point and even small things like quotes help me slowly to understand the colour theory behind Armani and what ideas were initially there- eventually has this translated into the makeup line?

The Beginning of Armani Cosmetics...

Although Giorgio Armani as a designer brand was founded in 1975 the beauty/ cosmetic line was not debuted until the year of 2000- What a great way to start a new century? The cosmetic line itself is as i've said before, in partnership with Loreal where the actual products are distributed by the Loreal Company as part of an agreement. This being said, there wasn't always makeup/ cosmetics involved in the Giorgio Armani beauty line- it first started with Perfume. The very first eau de parfum that Giorgio Armani realised in 1982 under the signature label and name of 'Armani' and is one of 70 perfumes that Giorgio Armani caters to for both women and men. See how far the brand has come?

I thought it would be a brilliant idea to really look at how the perfumes have progressed and changed in packaging. So, a glass bottle appears to be timeless as is the Giorgio Armani Label. With these being kept the same the perfume bottles and others, if you look at other Armani perfume bottles whether they are for men or women are very minimal and elegant looking. The 'Armani' perfume by Giorgio Armani is now discontinued and will remain a true vintage perfume treasure for whoever still has it (you should really throw it out if you do).  So after years and years of perfecting the perfume side of beauty, Armani finally came out with their beauty/ cosmetic line in 2000. It is extremely hard to find photographs of Armani's first few products but I did manage to find a picture of their old lipstick range, and just really wanted to see how the makeup range has progressed, the same sort of idea that I had with the perfume. What was the cosmetic line like before?

  

As you can see there is a definite difference between the old Armani products and their upcoming or current products they have released for 2015. First off, the actual formulation of their lipsticks have progressed massively. The lipstick on the left is a Shine Lipstick by Giorgio Armani that almost wears like a tinted lip balm- nothing wrong with that but with such a basic name and formulation at designer price, was it worth it? The actual packaging of the product is black but back then had the colour and number on the top of the lipstick- very Loreal if you ask me. The tube itself has a very strange shape that isn't completely straight but slightly wider on the outer parts, and synchs in at the middle part of the tube. The outer packaging looks and imaginably feels cheap, almost like black card from the craft shop. Contrasted to this is the 2015 Armani Beauty packaging which tends to be the same for all the products (apart from those that are part of special line). The packaging is like a black lacquer finish, very high in shine and most likely not smudge proof. Armani have really branded their beauty line by adding their infamous silver logo that they didn't actually have before, they also have the Armani logo embedded in the actual lipstick which really adds that special luxurious feel- more worth your buck. The formulations of their products are now more striking and even matte. So, you can see from this small piece of information that Armani's brand and overall image has progressed so much overtime, helping to reflect the high-fashion but still natural vibe they're going for. 

 http://www.supermodels.nl/forum/Posts.aspx?page=69&id=1839&last=0

 http://www.supermodels.nl/forum/Posts.aspx?page=69&id=1839&last=0

Here are some slightly older adverts for Armani Cosmetics that I found online. Can you pick up on the use of that black background, leaving much of the attention being left on the model's face. The lips are actually very similar in these ads and the reason I am even looking at these is because I've researched and analysed newer adverts from my chosen brand so why not explore and see how their editorial makeup shoots have progressed? You can of course tell with these older ads that the use of Photoshop is quite heavy when really as an audience we want to see some of the skins texture. Something that definitely hasn't changed from these ads is the use of coordination, and that's something that is noticeable in many Armani Cosmetics adverts. 

n/a. (2015). Giorgio Armani Biography. Available: http://www.biography.com/people/giorgio-armani-9188652#personal-life. Last accessed 24th Feb 2015.

n/a. (2015). Armani. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armani#Armani_Cosmetics. Last accessed 24th Feb 2015.

Ann Oldenburg . (n/a). Facts about Giorgio Armani Cosmetics .Available: http://www.ehow.co.uk/facts_5862660_giorgio-armani-cosmetics.html. Last accessed 24th Feb 2015.

PerfumeFairy. (2011). Armani Perfume - A Brief History . Available: http://perfumefairy.hubpages.com/hub/Armani-Perfume. Last accessed 24th Feb 2015 .

n/a. (2007). Giorgio Armani Code Eau de Parfum For Women - 75ml.Available: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Giorgio-Armani-Code-Parfum-Women/dp/B000PY7FRM. Last accessed 24th Feb 2015.