Giorgio Armani feels fashion trends exploit women by telling them how to dress

In the #metoo era, women have finally gained the power of coming forward with their right to be heard. In this respect, the fashion world, too, cannot be lagging behind.

Telling a woman how she should be dressing by itself is exploitation of her will and desire to dress the way she wants.

Limiting her choices and overlooking her liking is absolutely not acceptable.

Giorgio Armani railed against colleagues who, in the name of trends, push the limit on revealing garments.

How much to show and how much not to show, that is the fashion question this season.

It may be reductive to say that runway shows are about how women dress.

Is a sheer dress that reveals the undergarments beneath, however prettily prepared, empowering or exploitative?

What about conspicuous displays of skin?

The show closed with shimmering cocktail dresses that turned on elegant ruffles and floral constructions.

Fashion trailblazer Giorgio Armani responded to the question elegantly in the latest collection for his youthful Emporio Armani line, offering women a range of options that are appropriate for their age and shape.

The 85-year-old designer wants to free women of the limitations of what to wear and how much skin to show to be accepted.

He gave a passionate backstage discourse about the body-baring collections of fellow designers, saying he thinks they reveal too much at the expense of women.

Armani slams trends

Giorgio Armani railed against colleagues who, in the name of trends, push the limit on revealing garments, enticing women to make choices that might be inappropriate for their age, shape or occasion.

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani acknowledges applause from the audience following the presentation.

‘’We say that women are being raped in a corner. Women continue to be raped by designers,’’ Armani said on Friday during a backstage news conference in Milan.

The words were strong, and Armani's press office said later that the designer was speaking metaphorically and passionately about a direction in luxury fashion that he sees as damaging to women’s images.

Armani has been dressing women for 45 years.

The Emporio Armani line took a stand against trends, targeting youthful dressers who are not necessarily that young.

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For next fall and winter, he crafted a range of jackets, from long and flowing to short and pleated.

Trousers were dressed up with silk draping.

The show closed with shimmering cocktail dresses that turned on elegant ruffles and floral constructions. The palette was dark blue and black, as well as deeper shades of peacock blue and emerald green.

‘’Trends are nothing,’’ Armani said. ‘’I am trying to improve the woman who is living now.’’

These pearls of wisdom might seem like common sense to people who aren't in the throes of runway trends. But Armani knows their power.

‘’I want to give full freedom to women,’’ Armani said. ‘’If they have some common sense, and they do, they know how to manage these possibilities.’’