Gatti di Roma

Creative Direction: Dané Stojanovic
Photography: Paul Morel
Fashion Direction: Marne Schwartz & Anna Castan
Grooming: Ricky Morandin
Models: Luigi Anzolin / I Love Models Management, Matteo Pavolini & Giordano Sentinelli
Words: Grace O’Neill

“GATTI DI ROMA” WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SEVENTH EDITION OF ICON PRINT MAGAZINE. ORDER YOUR COPY HERE.

Our society has long progressed past the need for emperors and caesars, but if those terms were still in use today they’d surely be assigned to Giorgio Armani. The reigning patriarch of Italian fashion continues to craft impeccable menswear creations almost 50 years on from when he first revolutionised the suit as a young menswear designer in the late 70s. It was fitting, then, that ICON chose to showcase his Fall/Winter 2021 collection at the Largo di Torre Argentina, a site of rich historical significance in Rome. Dating back to the first century BC, the former public square is reported to be where Julias Caesar was killed in the Ides of March, and it remains one of the Italian capital’s most-visited archaeological sites.

The square is also home to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, a local institution which protects stray cats that roam the local area (here they serve as unlikely models for ICON). During the COVID-19 crisis the sanctuary – which usually relies on public donations – suffered, and ICON became a patron to support the sanctuary’s ongoing work through the lockdowns. We join a long list of supporters that include the late Italian film actress Anna Magnani, who would famously feed the cats of Torre Argentina during her breaks from filming.

What better place to showcase Armani’s latest menswear offering? Mr. Armani himself is an established animal lover – his runway shows are often staged alongside a giant gorilla statue once gifted to him by his sister, and he owns a sprawling private zoo. And his FW21 collection is seemingly made for easy days spent padding around Rome’s cobblestoned streets. The collection was designed with an eye firmly fixed on a post-lockdown wardrobe: suiting was relaxed by removing collars or finished in soft linens and cottons. There were slouchy velvet trousers, cropped bomber jackets in unexpected leopard print, and soft silk kimono-style coats.

Writer Anatole Broyard once wrote that ‘Rome is a poem pressed into service as a city.’ If this is true, there are few pieces of clothing that meet the city’s poetic power quite like those that bear the Armani label.