A series of designs epitomizing the unique style of Italian fashion icon Giorgio Armani is to get a permanent home in Milan.
After seven years touring the world, the classic Armani creations featured in an international travelling retrospective are going on display in a factory that once belonged to dairy giant Nestle.
Announcing the move recently from Paris, Armani said work would shortly start on renovating and converting the former chocolate works.
Armani, who already owns the building opposite the factory, purchased the property in 2006, together with its large grounds and several smaller buildings.
The two properties, which stand on either side of Via Bergognone, will eventually be connected by a suspended glass walkway.
Award-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who designed the interior of the first building, will shortly start work on the former factory, which will feature a large plaza with a temporary roof, as well as a garage and exhibit spaces.
Armani first announced his plans to open a museum in the heart of the Milanese fashion-district earlier this year.
"Milan is my city, it gave birth to me and nurtured my growth," the Piacenza-born designer said.
The complex will not only host the designs contained in the retrospective - which stopped in New York, Bilbao, Berlin, London, Rome, Tokyo and Shanghai on its worldwide tour - it will also house Armani's offices, a showroom and an Armani Theatre, for catwalk parades.
Armani has said he hopes that in years to come, the museum in Via Bergognone might "inspire young aspiring designers, put a gleam in the eyes of housewives, or merely confirm that I was a fashion genius".
The 73-year-old designer worked for the Nino Cerruti fashion house for several years before branching out on his own in 1975, with the financial and emotional support of his partner Sergio Galleotti.
He enjoyed early success in Italy but his loose, unstructured style only really came to international attention after the hit 1980 film, American Gigolo, which saw a young, Armani-clad Richard Gere obsess about his appearance.
Since then, he has become designer to the stars, dressing Madonna, Tina Turner, Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson among others.
Jodie Foster has said of the stylist that: "he gave me the elegance I had in my head but couldn't transfer to my body", while Harrison Ford commented simply: "Armani has become an adjective".
Forbes has twice named Armani the most successful Italian designer, with his estimated net worth now close to five billion euros, and he was last year's winner of the Leonardo prize, an honour given to entrepreneurs judged to have done the most for Italy's image and prestige in the world.
In addition to his clothing range, he also has his own furniture design company, and will next year open his first two hotels, in Dubai and Milan, as part of a deal with the Emaar Properties Group.
The Dubai hotel will be located in the highest skyscraper in the world, while the one in Milan will open above Armani's flagship store on Via Manzoni, with 92 large rooms, a restaurant, a panoramic bar, a spa and two suites stretching over two floors.
