Giorgio Armani: I must do better

To begin with, he was nearly an hour late: yet during the 40 years in which he's built his fashion icon - of which he remains the sole shareholder (Forbes magazine estimates his personal net worth at £5.5 billion) - Armani had made it his mantra to be the first man into his Milan office. According to his biography, he even becomes edgy (and he has a temper) when his staff dally at the coffee machine for their morning espresso.

After all the shows he has held - from his shoestring start-up days in the 1970s to the high-production spectacles held in his purpose-built Milan theatre today - has Armani developed any rituals? He glances at the bar, and says: "Well before the show I'd always like to have a vodka! But no… the only thing I do is to always wear the same watch" - there is a slim, gold-encased timepiece on his wrist - "it was a present". (He won't say from whom).

Deploying that biography-based revision, I quote something he said to Eric Clapton in the 1990s: "The more successful I become, the more I want to remain like me, with my defects and insecurities." Insecurities, Mr Armani? He laughs: "Without insecurities, I think one becomes a little bit of an idiot. Yesterday I had all of the girls in this show with a particular hairstyle. Today I don't like it, so" - he shrugs - "I've changed everything."

Armani started late: he was in his 40’s when he founded his business “Armani”in 1975 - but it grew rapidly. "In the beginning it was down to courageous and slightly mad intuition, rewarded by good luck."

Source:FASHION