Deeper Dive Into Armani PantsSeptember 19, 2025 Lots of questions about the details of the Armani pants.
First, what made the pant so ground-breaking and original was not only the cut and design, but the fabric
itself. So let's start there.
The color was paramount. Armani was all about creating classic styles while remaining groundbreaking. He purposely intended them to last forever, and that's the genius in what he did. Today, you see original stuff, but it's junk. It
doesn't last past the day it's on the runway. With Armani, Oscar, Valentino, Karl, and going back further, Dior, Balenciaga, Fath in the 50s and 60s - all of these designers were ground-breakingly original, but they were all classic too.
So color - looking at my Armani fabric through a microscope, there are three colors in this fabric. The color was paramount. Armani was all about remaining classic while creating groundbreaking styles. He purposely intended
them to last forever, and that's the genius in what he did. Today you see original stuff, but it's junk. It doesn't last past the day it's on the runway. With Armani, Oscar, Valentino, Karl, and going back further Dior, Balenciaga, Fath in the 50s and 60s - all of these designers were ground-breakingly original but they were all classic too.
There are three colors here, and combining them may be more. There's a distinct beige-y yellow, a darker purple grey, and then when you pull out far away...
And then you get this overall color - which is a yellow-ish beige with a darker grey in the shadows of the nap. This double-coloring is part of what makes this fabric so interesting. In one direction it's a little greener, and in another it's a little
yellower. As we all know, talking and visualizing color on computers is a haphazard task at best. But hopefully this can show you the
colors I'm dealing with.
The upper left is the light color (in this fabric, that's the weft or widthwise weave), and the darker color (lower right) is the woof weave (or the lengthwise weave). When you combine the two, you get a green shade. I love this cause it's totally
unexpected. In addition, the "nap" or shadow in the fabric appears as a muted, dark mauve. So far away, this fabric appears green - more like a deep celery or light olive - and yet up close, it's made from a deep, dusty mauve and a muted yellow.
The technical explanation about what's going on is that the purple has lots of blue and black in it, and when you combine blue with yellow, you get green - only in this case, it's a very muted yellow and a very dusty
mauve, so there's a lot of grey in it. Additionally, purple is opposite yellow on the color wheel, making the mix that much more interesting.
This was the magic of what Armani did. Up close, his fabrics were one color, and far away, they were another.
Here's some of the magic dissected. And I'm going to use a lot of the Elements and Principles of Design to explain this cause this is right out of art theory class.
Remember the elements are the parts of design and the principles are how you put those parts together. In this case we're using color as an element and contrast (opposites) as a principle.
But Armani took very classic beige-yellow, and a muted
purple (mauve) to combine them to make a very dusty olive that borders on a darker green khaki that is a traditional color in the military.
These are from the US Army, but the Italians use the same colors. Because they are military, they are often seen and considered "classic" and looking at that middle "combined" color between Yellow and Purple, you can see how muted and classic this "green"
can be.
This doesn't happen by accident. This is what happens when you work with an artist, and Armani was really an artist.
The next part is the design. At the time, men's pants (including drape) were the rage, so Armani actually exaggerated that "drape" and movement so that his pants would have that great movement that he was after.
The drape on these pants is plainly elegant.
Click on the photo to watch the movement of these pants. This is what Armani was modeling his pants for women on—this elegant drape of a beautifully light-weight woven wool or cotton. Men's pants were mainly made of wool. Many don't think that
wool comes in lightweight varieties, but remember that the British Empire settled the world in "tropical worsted" wool. Wool is very cool, which is something the English found out when in different tropical areas of the world.
The same is true of Armani's fabrics although they weren't made out of wool. He was beginning to use fabrics like Viscose, Rayon and other wonderful fabrics that had an excellent feel, but as important they had that drape.
You can see how closely these pants resemble the King of Drape's pants above. These were elegantly loose, but with the shape of a men's tailored pants so they had the movement that Armani wanted.
Obviously today those kinds of pants are way
too full and loose. But we can taper that pant into a shape that is more modern and still have that movement.
Here's a video to show you the drapyness of some of my Armani fabric from my stash. But there's more than the limberness. There's also the beautiful texture and especially the beautiful, subtle design that woven into the fabric. Here's a couple of ideas from my stash.
Here are some other examples of Armani-esque type fabrics I've found
Gorgeous Fabrics: Sueded Tencel (this is really gorgeous) Emma One Sock: Tencel Fabrics Marcy Tilton: Solids Tencel/Lyocell Vogue Fabrics: Olive Tencel (no black) & Black Stripe Sawyer Brooks: (Bright)
Melon and Cinnamon (Rust) And I found some Armani end cuts at
Britex: The brown is to die for
Mendel Goldberg: Two excellent pieces These are as close as I can come to some of the real Armani fabric. For the real fabric, be prepared to pay handsomely for it, but remember that you shouldn't need more than 1¼ or, at most, 1½ yards of fabric. But the links above are excellent fabrics to work on to perfect your look and master the
drape, which is everything.
And this will also help you keep the cost of the fabric in perspective. It will be expensive, but not as expensive as buying a pair of authentic Armani. Yeah, you can get a knock-off for a lot cheaper, like $700 to $900. However, if you do opt for the Armani fabric (I have a couple of sources listed below), please note that this is the actual cost in the store.
As I mentioned before, the cut was everything for Armani. The cut for the 70s and 80s was based on the Duke of Windsor draped suit. The Duke of Windsor was a spectacular dresser, and he wore only the most perfect draped suit. So the pant of the
70s and 80s was a little fuller.
For our eyes today, we do better with a slight slimmer pant leg and more of a boot leg or yoga pant cut. That means it's tapered in slightly just above the knee, and then straight from the thinnest point to the hem. Here's what that looks like in a sketch and in the
pattern piece for the Tessa Pant from StyleArc.
So if you know what to look for you can see in the sketch on the left, that it's slightly narrowed below the hip, and every so slightly narrowed in the inseam. But when you look at the pattern piece on the right, you can really see what she's
done in this pattern. Armani, if he were alive, would appreciate this subtle excellent cut. This is what makes this pant so wonderful. Now if you're a Rectangle or Apple - have at it, and there's nothing you need to do. If you're a pear or hourglass, don't forget to add that gusset. It will make the ease and comfort through the seat a wonder. And for everyone - PLEASE make sure your drape is fabulous.
Crush on the hem (his right leg) is optional. I only do that if I think I'm going to wear a slight heel, or boot with the pants, cause most of the time I like the clean drape as on his left side).
This isn't that hard. The pant is loose
enough so that simply the back and forth from front to back will give you a great drape, and once that's set, then push and pull on your side to see if a more bowed or splayed look makes your pants fall straight. Once you have these, mark them and you will be set on your drape.
I like this inspiration from Armani's 2025 Spring/Summer collection - notice how the pant leg is slimmer. I especially like the one on the far right, where you can see the very slight shape at the upper knee area. This is precisely what we should be aiming
for in making this pant.
And if you're traveling to a major metropolitan area (NYC, LA, London, Paris, Milan, Riyadh, Tokyo), be sure to make an effort to go to the Armani store in the main shopping areas (5th Avenue, Rodeo Drive, Sloan Road, Rue Saint-Honoré, Panorama Mall, Ginza District).
Seeing and touching an Armani in person is delightful. Other metro areas, such as Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, and Miami, will also feature Emporio Armani, and they
are excellent as well. Additionally, major department stores such as Bergdorf's and Neiman's will carry Armani.
The Armani pants are authentic, elegant, and totally worth the effort, making a massive addition to your wardrobe.
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This is a sad day - the loss of a classic tradition. Armani held the line
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Tracking a fashion trend isn't all that hard after seeing a few of them.
Living from Mid-Century Modern through Twiggy...
It's worth the time to look at these styles, particularly today as
there is a group of that wants to look....
This is the way fashion used to be -- pretty, flattering and I can't wait to make some of...
NOTE: There are some folks who can't get my email, or it's sporadic, or something is hinky. I will always respond to any of you who send a private message, whether it's about the topic of the week or something else. If you don't get anything
from me, it's probably because the support@sewingartistry.com email is blocked, and even a private message can't get through. In that case, I'm on Instagram often, and you can always PM me at @sewingartistry.
As a precaution,
please ensure I'm in your email Address Book and check your spam, junk, and trash folders. Some email clients get extra excited when they see emails coming into the Inbox that go to many other receivers. They automatically think it's trash or spam, and it never makes it to the Inbox. I must constantly check my spam and junk folders to ensure I'm getting the emails I subscribe to.
To view in browser along with past emails, click here. We respect your email privacy. |
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