A year on from his death, Giorgio Armani rightfully remains a subject of great discussion. That’s in part due to the release of his biography, Giorgio according to Armani: Life beyond success by Roberta Filippini, and the announcement of a TV series inspired by his life, directed by Ferzan Özpetek. It’s on the occasion of this anniversary that I meet with his niece, Silvana Armani, creative director of Giorgio Armani’s women’s lines, in Paris. Up until then, we had only ever exchanged greetings; neither of us would have said we really knew each other. Although I had hoped to see her at her uncle’s apartment in the city, we meet at the Palais Armani on Rue François 1. Despite it being the eve of the Armani Privé haute couture show, the atmosphere is calm – that alone says much about the person standing before me. I can’t help, however, sense an underlying tension, a sentiment that prompts me to ask how she’s doing.

“I feel like I’m about to take an exam,” she says. If she were, she’d pass with flying colours. This, after all, is a woman who spent more than 40 years working alongside Giorgio Armani, delving into every detail of his craft and the building of his brand, a global beacon of Italian style. But at what cost, I wonder? “There’s the mountain of work that suddenly came my way – fortunately, but I have an extraordinary team helping me. I’ve always worked hard, but before, he was there. He was a constant anchor, someone I could turn to for approval. Now he’s gone, and I have to find that confidence within myself.” It’s a confession that comes immediately, almost unexpectedly. Rather than a sign of fragility, however, it seems to reflect the strength of someone who feels no need to hide. “It’s always difficult to create a completely new story. But this time, I think we did it right.”

Giorgio Armani and his niece Silvana Armani. Photo credit: Emanuele Scorcelletti

Silvana is wearing what is clearly, for her, something of a uniform: blue trousers, a light blue shirt, and a pair of Hokas on her feet. Just a touch of make-up. While the responsibility she currently carries would be clear to anyone, it doesn’t seem to weigh on her. The next day, she’ll present “Boudoir”, Armani Privé’s new haute couture collection, a title that suggests an intimate, feminine and private world – and was confirmed by the collection’s dark palette and lacy trims, an unexpected flourish in the Armani aesthetic. The first thing that emerges when discussing her fashion is the desire to strip things down. “I’ve stripped away some of the frill, as they say. Last year I did away with all the hats.” As simple as it seems, it’s a significant gesture: “My uncle loved hats. I, on the other hand, don’t. So I took the liberty of changing the rules a bit.”

Silvana took a similar tack with jewellery and accessories. Rather a theoretical statement on the relationship between femininity and embellishment, the decision was rooted in a deeply personal logic. “It’s just who I am. I don’t wear jewellery, and the woman I design for inevitably ends up looking a bit like me.” Rather than an abstract ideal or a figure designed to impress, Silvana describes her muse as “a normal, self-confident woman who looks good in our clothes when she dresses. That’s the most important thing: feeling good, because otherwise you just become a mannequin.”

Backstage at the Giorgio Armani Privé AW26 fashion show in Paris. Photo by Zoë Joubert

The time since her uncle passed has been the first in her career where work no longer involves daily interaction with him. I ask her if this has prompted any new discoveries about herself. “That I have to work hard. I try to find time to do other things as well, but I’ve realised that I can still keep up the pace. I can handle it.” Not once does she speak of replacing him or of having a mission to fulfil. “I told myself I’d try to keep going for a few more years. Then maybe I’ll get tired of it sooner or later – I don’t know.” And what of the differences between her and her uncle? “There are very few. I don’t want to imitate him, but I do try to be like him.”

For her, the deepest resemblance lies in their approach to work. “He taught me the importance of taking things seriously. In fact, we both strive for perfection.” This, she says, was Giorgio Armani’s most defining trait – for better or for worse. Silvana smiles when I ask her if he had any flaws. “He was too meticulous. ‘Relax for a moment!’ I’d tell him. But he wouldn’t let anything slide. Not even with himself. He wouldn’t forgive himself for any mistake.” That was clear during collection fittings – even when everything seemed finished, the next day they’d start all over again, purely on account of Giorgio’s desire to be absolutely certain of what he was doing. As she recounts, a memory resurfaces that, for her, has become a metaphor for life. After three days of gruelling fittings, Giorgio said to his niece: “You see, Silvana, this is a training ground.” First you train, then you take the field. “Now, we’re on the field.”

Silvana Armani at work. Photo by Zoë Joubert

Despite this rigour that defined it within the studio, their relationship was never just professional. For her, Giorgio Armani was, in every sense, a father figure. When I ask her if she ever asked him for personal advice, she smiles. “Lots of it. But that stays between us.”

Her entry into the fashion world happened almost by chance: as a young woman, she’d worked as a model, including for Walter Albini and Krizia. Then she started working with Giorgio Armani. “It was a bit of a game. He usually called me for fittings, then one day he asked me to put together a colour board for a swimwear collection. It was a simple task, but from there I realised I could do something.”

Today, just as then, she describes her style as, “intelligent, relaxed, a bit androgynous, but always with a feminine touch.” The garment she identifies with most? “The tuxedo – I feel at ease in it.” And even when she talks about confidence, one specific element comes up again: the jacket. For her, it’s not just an aesthetic choice, but a form of protection.

Silvana Armani with her team. Photo by Paolo Di Lucente

The same idea of comfort and authenticity resurfaces when we discuss the way women shop. From her standpoint, fashion’s role today is to accompany a person, not to transform them into something they’re not. Even her relationship with her beloved home in the Oltrepò Pavese [a winemaking region in the south of Lombardy] reflects this approach, filled with the many objects she’s bought on trips and at flea markets, never quite knowing where they’d end up. “There, I enjoy mixing everything together. The house in Milan, on the other hand, is different,” she admits. “There are many pieces from Armani Casa.”

Outside of work, Silvana enjoys walking and spending time outdoors with her dogs: Tea, a dachshund; Vasco, a Spinone Italiano “who seems a bit crazy”; and Asia, a brown Labrador. I suggest she put them on the runway, since it seems to be a defining passion of hers. “I’d love to,” she replies. After all, Silvana loves animals: she’s even dedicated a shelter to them, where abandoned pets are taken in, cared for, and then placed with new families. She describes a suite of colourful little houses, each with its own small garden: “It’s a Four Seasons for dogs,” she laughs, but above all, it’s a project that represents the bravest choice she’s ever made. When Giorgio Armani found out she was building the shelter, he feared he’d lost her. It was this worry that prompted her promise that she’d continue working with him – a promise that has even outlasted his passing.

The Fondazione 4 Zampe shelter in Vairano di Vidigulfo (Pavia), founded and chaired by Silvana Armani. Courtesy of Giorgio Armani

It’s proof of just how much family matters to her. She and her sister Roberta are 15 years apart in age, with two different mothers but the same father. “We both took something from him. But physically, I look like my mother, just as she looks more like hers.” I share that I, too, am familiar with the special bond between sisters with a large age gap, and ask her if she’s ever missed the closeness one often imagines between sisters of similar ages. “I love it when I see those two little sisters in American movies sleeping in the same room and chatting before they fall asleep,” she smiles. “That’s always been my dream.”

Despite the age gap, she says, “I still look out for her.” She did the same with Giorgio in his final years: when she saw him getting too worn out, she’d try to step in. “I’d tell him, ‘Enough, you have to stop.’” But he’d reply, “Mind your own business.” It was a familiar dynamic: her trying to take care of him, him not wanting to show any weakness. When I ask her if she ever missed having children, the answer comes without hesitation: “That’s my biggest regret,” nothing added. But from her own childhood, one key figure emerges: Grandma Maria. “She was my mother, my father – she was everything.” Silvana grew up mainly with her. A reserved woman, she was rather different from her granddaughter, whose personality is marked by its exuberance and warmth. “I’m a ‘hugger’. She wasn’t. But she loved me very much.” She stayed by her side until she was 25 – a foundational bond that laid the foundation for who she is today. “Even my uncle would pull away when I hugged him; it was just his way.”

Along with memories of Giorgio, and Franca Sozzani come to mind. “For Giorgio, was always a key partner, their relationship nurtured over time. And he had a special rapport with Franca – they understood each other instantly,” she says. “The first person Franca Sozzani told about her illness was Giorgio Armani. She called him, and I happened to be there with him. I remember how moved he was.”

Giorgio Armani and Franca Sozzani at the Giorgio Armani women’s AW12 fashion show. Photo credit: Stefano Guindani SGP

In a world increasingly mediated by screens, there are things (and relationships) that an email will never be able to replace. Giorgio was acutely aware of this momentous change during his final fashion shows: he would watch the runway from his vantage point – a peephole in the backstage curtains – and feel his anger rise on seeing so many people with their phones in hand. He’d wonder if they were really looking at the clothes or if they were already focused on sharing them, lost in their smartphones. He belonged to an era when the audience’s reaction came immediately through applause and the energy of the room. Now that same room is Silvana’s – or rather hers and Leo Dell’Orco’s, the current head of all men’s collections and president of the Armani Group, with whom she gets along very well, she shares.

For her, after all, modernity doesn’t mean chasing every trend but staying true to one’s own style. It’s this ethos that fuels her belief that she can serve as a role model for other women today. Looking ahead, though, Silvana has only one wish: that the company and every aspect of the Armani brand – from Silos [the brand’s fashion and art exhibition space in Milan] to the collections – be imbued with the same vitality. “That’s what he wanted.” And what does she want for herself? “I’d like to be remembered for my dedication to my work.” That is the essence of her legacy.