Speaking of the impact of “American Gigolo”, esteemed fashion writer Christopher Laverty commented: “[The film] is not even about its protagonist, it is about what he wears.”
Although the 1980 film divided critics, it won over legions of men who looked to its protagonist, Richard Gere’s Julian Kay, as the pinnacle of male style. His almost-exclusively Armani wardrobe, from the double-breasted blazers to the endless Wall Street-esque suiting (albeit with a now-unmistakable rakish slant) catapulted the Italian luxury fashion house into the public sphere and – arguably – raised the bar for how men should dress themselves.
Bringing to mind the age-old adage, he wore the clothes, the clothes didn’t wear him, Gere’s sympathetic character didn’t so much wear the clothes as he was his clothes. This was at a time before the Wall Street power suit became just that, and Armani’s suiting introduced a new silhouette to the business class – a group Gere perfectly embodied in the film. Sexy, self-assured, Gere’s character introduced a whole new wardrobe, helped launch a fashion powerhouse on a global scale and shaped some of the pieces from our Autumn/Winter ’18 collection.