Armarium (Q2714)
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Armarium is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Armarium |
Armarium is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
The Armarium pre-fall collection is a portrait of Giorgia Gabriele. She doesn’t appear in the shots, but she sets the perspective of every image. It marks a new chapter for the brand, which she launched less than three years ago, beginning by exploring modern expressions of evening dressing.“When you become a mother, you often set aside your sensuality and the desire to have fun with clothing. So this new era is a way to reclaim femininity, taking back all the spaces in life,” Gabriele said. In Latin, Armarium means wardrobe, yet this project aims to make the wardrobe more than a rigid necessity. From the pearl tuxedo with a masculine cut, to the tube dress made with seven meters of bias-cut silk georgette, to a sculptural black gown with a long white shawl that can be draped over the back or neck, each look felt out of the ordinary, with carefully crafted details. Among the footwear, standouts include ultra-soft nappa loafers, satin mules, and gladiator sandals with removable straps. As for colors, orange injected a burst of energy into the collection.
18 December 2024
Pragmatism, in the vocabulary of Armarium, is a concept with potentially infinite interpretations. With her first cruise collection, creative director Giorgia Gabriele transports those who wear Armarium to an “elsewhere,” that is not an imaginary place but a reality with clear boundaries. “I imagined the wardrobe of a rigorous woman with a cosmopolitan spirit, who steps out of a metropolitan context and doesn’t take herself too seriously,” Gabriele said. In a dimension where lightness is a value to explore, the architectural approach becomes fluid, and minimalism becomes a reflection of refined frivolity.Gabriele imagined her woman “in Ibiza, the Maldives, or St. Barts, where she can unplug and feel as fancy as wild, while listening toInfinityby The xx orNOby Nicholas Jaar.” Investigating the complexity of the simplest fabric, Gabriele used cotton to make versatility a strength of the collection. Once again, the details defined the recognizability of Armarium’s identity, including zippers—inspired by those on wetsuits—hidden by three-dimensional fabric bands that highlight the sophistication of each piece. Shoes were a focal point of the collection, launched in a special collaboration with French artist Martin Laforêt and conceived as small artworks. Featuring hand-stitched soles covered in the same leather as the footwear, they were amanifestoof the care Gabriele dedicates to her creations.
6 June 2024
At Armarium the concept of care is a fusion of aesthetics and functionality. It can be seen in the attention to crucial details when observing the garments up close. To enter designer Giorgia Gabriele’s world, it is necessary to get closer. Armarium is born from what she wants in her own wardrobe. “Tailoring has always been the core of the project, but I had a feeling that something was missing,” she said. “Now I believe I have built an evolved wardrobe, where the function of the garments is as relevant as their appearance.”Her woman—who is not necessarily a woman, considering that many pieces seem borrowed from the male wardrobe and the designer is also working on her first men’s collection—rides a scooter in Milan and loves Lucio Fontana and Mark Rothko but is always looking for contemporary and niche artistic visions. Art, as well as architecture and design, is an influence that constantly flickers in Gabriele’s imagination. That’s why she chose Cardi Gallery, which specializes in postwar and contemporary art, for Armarium’s first dinner event and Dimorecentrale—a multifunctional creative space born in a former industrial warehouse—for her fall collection photo shoot.“I start my creative process from fabrics,” explained Gabriele, who also embraces technology as a design tool. A field jacket in compact virgin wool was a key piece: Rigorous and impeccable in execution, it made utilitywear elegant. Likewise, hoodies, tracksuit pants, and an anorak were also made of virgin wool worked to evoke the structure of technical materials.This season included the launch of shoes, for which attention had been dedicated to construction: On one pair, the plantar arch had the sole covered in the same leather as the upper with double central stitching. A ballet flat was made from the same materials as the garments, from denim to glove-like nappa; it hid a mini wedge and had bold black edging in contrast to the chicness of the ballerina bow.
27 February 2024
The Season Two of Armarium (the third, counting from Season Zero, which was presented in September 2022) took inspiration from Brutalist architecture, spurred by a visit to Villa Atelier, a 1970s villa designed by Maurizio Betta on Lake Garda. For designer Giorgia Gabriele, Brutalism is about grace and sobriety juxtaposed with the roughness of materials and the rationality of structures, all underpinned by the severity of a philosophy that allows no deviations. Her concept of fashion is an exploration of the dualism between image and functionality, where neither element yields to the other.Armarium stemmed from the personal needs of a woman who, upon becoming a mother, reevaluated the thought behind clothes. “Armarium leaves no space for the superfluous but becomes a spokesperson for an attitude oriented toward simplicity and a relentless pursuit of essentiality. Those who wear it are faithful to minimalism,” said Gabriele. Her goal is not merely to design clothes for models’ bodies or to sell garments, but to create a wardrobe that every woman can identify with in her everyday life.The palette ranged from white and blue to black and gray, with hints of butter, emphasizing the high quality of fabrics, including silk, wool, and nappa, along with bouclé cotton thread made compact through the introduction of nylon in weaving. New additions include Bermuda shorts and cargo skirts, along with the raw-cut double-viscose crepe versions of the Lula skirt, one of the brand’s bestsellers, designed to reveal the structural elements and precision of the lines. A wide range of accessories was introduced, from belts to bags, including a micro version of the Anna bag. Key pieces included outerwear, from four-season fabric blazers to trench coats.In the Milan showroom, furniture designed by Gabriele—available upon request—supplied the background for the garments. Craftsmanship remains the brand’s strong point, with an ongoing quest for perfection that, as Gabriele noted, has not yet been fully attained. Her approach embodies a Milanese spirit with an international attitude.
23 September 2023
Giorgia Gabriele is 37 and used to be a buyer for a concept store in Bologna. She started thinking about Armarium as an answer to her own need: to build a wardrobe that was solid, complete, made of everlasting pieces. “It has coincided with the pandemic and lockdown; they made me move away from the desire for seasonal fashion, made of trends, and get closer to the concept of a capsule wardrobe,” she said.The brand was launched at the beginning of 2022 with a Latin name that means wardrobe and an approach removed from the traditional seasons of the fashion business. The first collection was meant to represent the foundation of the wardrobe, with trench coats and jeans. The new series of pieces, all thought of as year-round, will expand season after season, in order to achieve the perfect wardrobe, according to Gabriele. If such a thing exists, the designer thinks it includes men’s-cut coats and blazers, petticoat dresses, andlonguetteskirts over shirts and turtlenecks. So far there are no prints or vibrant colors, in part to make it easier to match different pieces.Everything is produced in Italy, including the first Armarium bag, produced in two sizes and inspired by one owned by the designer’s grandmother, with a bellow closure. The accessories and garments are worth looking at up close, where they reveal small details. Armarium is a women’s line, but “many male buyers have seen the collection in the last few days and have tried the coats on and found them very suitable,” said Gabriele. Mindful of a wider idea of lifestyle, not just related to clothes, she also designs furniture, which she used to display the collection. “My desire is to create a world, and a physical space, in which people can recognize themselves 360,” she said.
24 February 2023