There are fashion statements, and then there are fashion stories, threads that travel across decades, continents and cultures, only to resurface with a force that feels at once nostalgic and prescient.
When Jodhpurs strode down the Giorgio Armani Prive Fall/Winter 2025 runway, the moment was far more than just a quirk of tailoring. The show, titled Noir Seduisant, unfolded in Paris, but Armani himself was not in the room. And, sadly, he never will be again.
Creations for Giorgio Armani Prive during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris.
The Italian designer, who died at 91 on September 4, wasn't there to take his final bow, but his influence was everywhere - in the velvet, in the black, and in the unexpected return of Jodhpurs.
The Jodhpur Connection
The Jodhpur is no stranger to the Armani lexicon. First surfacing in his Fall/Winter 2024 collection, silk satin versions in black and navy marched down the runway with loosely belted jackets, an elegant nod to equestrian roots, reimagined for urbane sophistication. As Armani noted at the time, they blended "softness with sharp lines."
But Armani's flirtation with the silhouette goes back further. In his men's presentations, jodhpurs were often a playful disruption: velvet, crystal-trimmed versions appeared in couture as early as his "seduction of black" ode, with seams demarcated like constellations on fabric.
A creation for Giorgio Armani Prive during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris
They would later erupt in women's tailoring, cut slim or with extravagant quad volumes, always charged with a whiff of aristocratic drama.
And then came Fall/Winter 2025. Here, the jodhpurs felt like an exclamation point in Armani's final couture chapter: high-waisted, rendered in black velvet, and paired with pagoda-sleeved jackets or asymmetrical sculptural tops. Their presence wasn't just a design, it was history circling back.
Armani In Absentia
It is almost cruel irony that the designer, a man defined by his watchful presence and exacting control, missed what would become his last couture bow. For the first time in his couture career, Armani missed his Paris show and stayed in Milan on doctors' advice. Yet absence, in Armani's case, was never synonymous with detachment.
"In 20 years of Armani Prive, this is the first time I haven't been to Paris," he confessed in an email to attendees.
He added, "Those trips are a chance for me to absorb the energy of the city and feel the adrenaline of the rehearsals. I can't deny that I miss it, but I know I can count on the capable hands and minds who have always been by my side. That allowed me to follow the advice of my doctors, who, although I felt ready to travel, recommended extending my rest."
A creation for Giorgio Armani Prive during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris.
And just to silence whispers of change, he underlined, "If I've come this far, it's thanks to the iron focus and obsessive attention with which I manage everything. And that hasn't changed. Even though I wasn't in Paris, I oversaw every aspect of the show remotely via video link, from the fittings to the sequence to the makeup. Everything you'll see was done under my direction and has my full approval."
Word had it he was glued to his phone nonstop, fine-tuning details until the last sequin was in place.
India, Always In The Fold
The Jodhpurs presence on the Armani runway also speaks to a deeper resonance: his longstanding love affair with India. Armani first travelled to the country in 1994, a journey that inspired both capsule collections and show finales.
In 2008, he staged a dramatic homage in Milan, where models struck yoga poses in dhotis, band-collared jackets, and vivid silks, before bowing toward Armani, spotlighted like a guru at the head of the runway.
Years later, in 2019, he crafted a capsule edit inspired by the achkan and bandhgala, updating ceremonial silhouettes in deep wines and velvets. Minimal yet ceremonial, they bridged Italian tailoring with Indian tradition.
A creation for Giorgio Armani Prive during the Haute-Couture Spring/Summer 2008 collection show in Paris.
And just this year, to mark the opening of his first Mumbai store, Armani brought an exhibition with his longtime photographer Aldo Fallai to the city, a homecoming of sorts for the dialogue he had long sustained with the subcontinent.
As Robert Triefus, Armani's longtime lieutenant, once put it: "We obviously see India as an important emerging market of the future." But for Armani, it was never just a market; it was a muse.
Noir Seduisant, The Final Vision
The Fall/Winter 2025 Prive show was Armani's love letter to his eternal shade: black. "For a designer, black is the most classic of colours and, at the same time, the most demanding. When you work with black, you cannot afford to make mistakes: every detail must be perfect, because black reveals the very essence of a garment," he once said.
On the runway, black morphed through textures and moods: velvet tuxedos, pagoda-sleeved jackets, asymmetrical tops, sculptural peplums, sequins, floral appliques and crystal intarsia.
A creation for Giorgio Armani Prive during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris
Silhouettes, in his own words, "glided down the runway like lines of ink, shining discreetly without dazzling." Masculine evening suits were reimagined with feminine longevity, and his so-called minimalism was punctured by theatrical shimmer.
Creations for Giorgio Armani Prive during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris.
Even the accessories told the story: velvet skull caps, sheer rhinestone gloves, bow ties floating at throats like surreal punctuation marks. They made the models look "sort of like very fancy mimes, but they were definitely his."
The Legacy
Giorgio Armani often resisted being labelled a minimalist. "Seductive black" was how he framed the 2025 couture outing, but in truth, seduction was always in his discipline, the obsessive precision that, over five decades, made him both a revolutionary and an eternalist.
And maybe that's why his uber-consistent style feels so alive today, when fashion is once again searching for polish, timelessness and intention.
The jodhpurs, then, were not just trousers. They were symbols of travel, of dialogue, of a designer who crossed borders of geography and form, only to return again and again to the essence of elegance. When they walked the Armani runway for the last time, they carried not only the weight of velvet but also of legacy.
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