Spike Lee: “He was a great artist, visionary, and humanitarian. When he reached out to me in the early part of my career to be part of a show, I didn’t even know he knew me. And you can’t talk about Mr. Armani without talking about Italy. “
Tonya Lewis Lee: “I remember you had a relationship with Armani going back to the early ’90s, around Malcolm X or even before. I remember you were wearing a lot of Armani, and this was the time when there also used to be Armani shows in New York, which is a big miss now that I think about it.”
Spike Lee: “Pat Riley coaching the Lakers in Armani! And American Gigolo. That’s what really made inroads into American culture. You know, he was one of the giants. My wife and I cancelled plans to be here tonight, but there was no way we were not going to be here to pay tribute to him.”
Dries Van Noten: “I saw the first publicities of Armani, I think in the ’70s, when I was just starting to study fashion. And it was kind of a revolution for me. It was something so different. It was natural colors, it was material, it was shades, it was logos. It was an eye opener. I loved it. I wore it. It made me think. And it made me love fashion. And his vision continued. I think there is no-one who has been so consistent in his vision, for the 50 years that we are celebrating now—and we are celebrating, of course Giorgio. That for me is amazing. I really learned a lot from him.