Renata Molho recalls Giorgio Armani: “Buying the Capannina of Forte dei Marmi was a romantic gesture, as if he felt that he was about to reunite with Sergio Galeotti”

Since the news of Giorgio Armani’s death was issued that the phone of Renata Molho It doesn’t stop ringing. From El Paìs to BBC and NBC many were looking for it, and for a good reason: Renata Molho, fashion journalist before de The sun 24 hours And then of the Condé Nast group, it is the one who wrote the only authorized biography of the “Mr. Armani”, as he continues to define it, despite the fact that Giorgio himself had refused to collaborate: Be Armani. «It would mean telling me, open me. Perhaps I’m not ready yet, “he said on the occasion of his seventieth birthday even if, when Molho went on on behalf of Baldini & Castoldi, Armani decided to make them available all the archives to carry out a good job. «Even if he said no to write it together, it was very kind because he gave me all the phone numbers of the people I could contact. Like his sister Rosanna, who was very helpful and generous », Molho comments today with a voice broken by melancholy and fatigue.

The first meeting?
“At the beginning of my career I wrote a lot about him and, when the opportunity to get to know him and talk to him in person, I found on the other side a somewhat suspicious, modest man on the other side. Mr. Armani was a person who always wanted to understand who had in front of him, and only over the years did he let himself go with me a little more. Ours was a relationship made of a few words but significant, warm, sincere ».

Why didn’t he want to tell each other?
«I think he had a great fear of discovering himself: a feeling that has accompanied him for a long time and that only in recent times he managed to dissolve, telling himself with more generosity. In recent years he has freed himself of many things, as if he had understood and accepted better himself ».

Have you ever feared that writing the book could bring them problems if she didn’t like it?
«No, because I was carefully unconscious of what I was doing. Probably, if I had been proposed to me today, I would have been more afraid. Over time I managed to conquer his trust also because I was, I believe, very respectful of certain aspects of his life. Like the relationship that bound him to Sergio Galeotti and their story, which I mentioned without pressing the accelerator to sell more copies “.

In the book Cristina Brigidini, historic director of Vogue manhe told her that, one day, Galeotti took off the jacket to put him on Armani’s shoulders because he was cold.
«Mr. Armani had a big heart, often hidden and not flag. And small episodes like this confirm it ».

On August 28, a week before dying, Armani purchased the Capannina of Forte dei Marmi, the place where, in 1966, he met Galeotti for the first time. Why, in your opinion?
«Hearing that the hourglass was emptying, it is likely that he wanted to return to himself and his heart. I think it was a very romantic gesture, a way that would have allowed him to say: “soon I see Sergio again and I tell him that I gave him the Capannina”. As if he felt inside him who was about to reunite with him ».

Rosanna, Armani’s sister, told her that at 10 years Giorgio risked his life.
“It was in Piacenza, Giorgio was called by a friend but was overwhelmed by the explosion of a bomb that led him almost to lose his sight. He was hospitalized for 40 days, undergoing an atrocious alcohol -based cure, in which they immersed him to remove burnt skin. He is a person who suffered a lot and silent in life: perhaps this is why there was a strange melancholy in everything he did, from the colors to the rhythm of the parades to style. A melancholy derived from a complicated childhood, marked by the war and detention in prison of the father, who was linked to the fascist party ».

Leo dell’Orco told her: “There was a pact between me and he: try not to get angry in front of others. It was difficult to work with a person like him but, in the end he was always right ».
«At every conference of Mr. Armani I remember very well that of the Ogo it was always in a corner to smile in the face of his small provocations and punctualizations. Theirs was a beautiful relationship, unknown to most ».

On the occasion of his 90 years Armani told the Courier to have had a story with dell’Orco: sorry not to have told it in the book?
«To tell the truth I was aware of it, but I wanted to be discreet. Considering that the ogre did not mention it, it did not seem appropriate to ask anything about it. In the book I did not put many things for a certain form of modesty towards him, even going to my detriment because if I had done it I would certainly have gained more ».

Armani’s greatest dowry?
«Sincerity. He was a very selective person, but when he understood that someone needed him he was always ready to help. Once he ascertained the purity of your intentions you could have asked him for anything. He also did it with me, when, at an exhibition organized with Campari, he decided to give me the sketches of his drawings attached to the walls of his home to show them to the public. I was struck by it ».

What happened after it came out Be Armani?
«I was invited to Mr. Armani’s house for a coffee. The colors were light, resting, there were the white roses that he loved and a gray cat that stared at me. I could have gone to explore the house, maybe asking to go to the bathroom, but I did not do it: too modesty. I remember he said to me: And now, if anything I wanted to take a book, what could I write? Then she burst out laughing. He was happy with how I had treated the different chapters of his life by contextualizing them. Admiring his Pasolinian melancholy, I realized his search for perfection and errors in which he fell and who forgiven himself ».

The last time he saw him?
«At the inauguration of the silos exhibition: it was nice and available as always. Warm and of very few words like his usual, but accompanied by that slightly hidden humor who unfortunately knew few ».

Is there anyone who would have liked to interview for the book he said not?
«I have heard many professionals, from Carlo Rivetti to Barbara Vitti to Patrick McCarthy, Jay Cocks, who signed the first cover of Time with Mr. Armani and the famous title “Gorgeous Giorgio’s Style“, And Suzy Menkes. Nobody told me no. If anything, I had problems with those I haven’t contacted and that I took it that I was not asked. Cona a great socializing person who, after the book, has no longer called me».

What does Armani feel no longer there now?
«A sense of emptiness that I can’t explain. I will miss his hasty but sincere hug, even if Giorgio Armani will never die. Its substance will remain forever, even if volatile ».

Source: Vanity Fair

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