MILAN (AP) — The last Giorgio Armani collection signed by the late designer himself and marking the 50th anniversary of his signature line was shown Sunday night in a solemn runway show that gathered Hollywood stars and Italian friends in tribute.
Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Glenn Close and Spike Lee attended the black-tie gala in the courtyard of the Brera Art Gallery where an exhibition features 129 Armani creations in dialogue with Italian masterpieces.
Click to Gallery
A model wears a creation as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Leo Dell'Orco, left, and Silvana Armani acknowledge the applause at the end of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Models wear creations as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Models wear creations as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
A model wears a creation as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
FILE - Designer Giorgio Armani, centre, poses with models at the end of his women's 2019 Spring-Summer collection, unveiled during the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
They include one of the soft-shouldered suits that Gere wore in “American Gigolo,’’ looks that helped catapult Armani to global fashion stardom. Gere said he had no idea the Armani suits he wore in the 1980 movie would make fashion history, but he said they helped him decide how to approach the role.
“I was trying the suits on, and I hadn’t decided how I was going to play this character at all,’’ Gere told The Associated Press from the front row. “And I had to do it very quickly. I had a couple of weeks to figure it out. I started trying the clothes on, and the clothes actually started telling me who this guy was.’’
Hutton, Gere's “American Gigolo" co-star, reminisced about a light blue suit that Gere wasn't sure about. She called Armani a “treasure” who contributed greatly to Italy's economy, and remembered attending a Giorgio Armani fashion show shortly after Gigolo came out.
Armani “gave me a pair of diamond earrings. And they are still the only pair of diamond earrings I have ever had,’’ Hutton said.
Hollywood stars and friends alike honored Armani for his key role in helping putting Milan at the center of global fashion.
“A giant for the industry. A great humanitarian,’’ Lee said as he arrived for the show.
Close said she wrote Armani letters on a regular basis, even if she never sat down with him one-on-one.
“I’m here because he meant a tremendous amount in my life. He was generous about lending me clothes for events. He once came to London to see a play that I was in. I felt like he was a very special element in my life,″ Close told AP.
"I was just in his aura.″
During the show, models walked slowly in pairs, women half a step in front of the men, around the colonnaded courtyard filled with the same glowing paper lanterns that had lit Armani’s showroom for the public viewing attended by 15,000 mourners.
Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi played live.
The coed collection paid tribute to Armani’s two Italian homes, his adopted city of Milan and the Sicilian island of Pantelleria, with the sandy colors of the island neighboring Africa transitioning to the urban blues and grays, in a river of relaxed tailoring that defined the Armani silhouette.
Pockets in the draping of evening dresses were a testament to Armani’s practicality, and appreciation for his client’s needs.
One model walking alone in a glittering blue evening dress closed the show, a wave of applause following her around the courtyard like a stadium cheer.
At the end of the show, Armani’s creative heirs, his niece Silvana Armani for womenswear and Leo Dell’Orco for menswear, received a standing ovation.
Armani died Sept. 4, just weeks before Milan Fashion Week and a series of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Giorgio Armani fashion house that he built to a global powerhouse.
The Armani empire was worth about 10 billion euros (nearly $12 billion) at the time of his death. He stipulated that his heirs should sell an initial 15% stake of the business, which includes the Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani lines as well as hotels and the home decor line Armani Casa, within 18 months of his death.
The buyer must have expertise in the fashion world, and Armani expressed a preference for the LVMH French fashion conglomerate, the L’Oreal beauty company or EssilorLuxottica, the eyewear company of which Armani owned a 2% stake.
Milan Fashion Week, which ended Sunday, included tributes to Armani for his legacy in shaping Italian fashion, in particular from smaller fashion houses like Stella Jean and Francesca Liberatore.
This story has corrected the sale period stipulated in his will is within 18 months, not three years, of his death.
A model wears a creation as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Leo Dell'Orco, left, and Silvana Armani acknowledge the applause at the end of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Models wear creations as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Models wear creations as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
A model wears a creation as part of the Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2026 collection show in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
FILE - Designer Giorgio Armani, centre, poses with models at the end of his women's 2019 Spring-Summer collection, unveiled during the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.
Oil prices fell Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.
Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.
Here's the latest:
“I actually want to keep you where you are, if you know the truth,” Trump told Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.
Trump made the comment at a White House event on rural health, drawing laughter in the room. But it wasn’t clear the president himself was joking.
It comes as Trump is believed to be in final interviews with potential replacements for the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell, a frequently target of Trump’s public attacks.
“We don’t want to lose him Susie,” Trump said of Hassett to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who also at the health event. “We’ll see how it all works out.”
The White House is touting health care spending across small-town America intended to transform how care is delivered in places that have lost many hospitals and providers.
A look at some numbers:
That makes him the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the country following the U.S. military strike which captured former leader Nicolás Maduro.
Thursday’s meeting, first reported by The New York Times, was confirmed Friday by a U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The official said the meeting in Caracas came at President Trump’s direction and was intended to demonstrate the U.S. desire for a better relationship with Venezuela. The official said Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration with the U.S. and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of American adversaries, including drug traffickers.
— David Klepper
As Attorney General Pam Bondi approaches her first year on the job, the firings of Justice Department attorneys have defined her turbulent tenure. The terminations and a larger voluntary exodus of lawyers have erased centuries of combined experience and left the department with fewer career employees to act as a bulwark for the rule of law at a time when President Trump, a Republican, is testing the limits of executive power by demanding prosecutions of his political enemies.
Interviews by The Associated Press of more than a half-dozen fired employees offer a snapshot of the toll throughout the department. The departures include lawyers who prosecuted violent attacks on police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, environmental, civil rights and ethics enforcers, counterterrorism prosecutors, immigration judges and attorneys who defend administration policies. They continued this week, when several prosecutors in Minnesota moved to resign amid turmoil over an investigation into the shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
▶ Read more about firings at the Justice Department
The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the operator of the mid-Atlantic power grid to take urgent steps to boost energy supply and curb price hikes, holding a Friday event aimed at addressing a rising concern among voters about the enormous amount of power used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections later this year.
The White House said its National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, want to try to compel PJM Interconnection to hold a power auction for tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants.
The Trump administration and governors will sign a statement of principles toward that end Friday.
▶ Read more about the administration and AI-driven power shortages
The Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has brought heightened attention to a key drama that will play out at the central bank in the coming months: Will Powell leave the Fed when his term as chair ends, or will he take the unusual step of remaining a governor?
Powell’s term as Fed chair ends May 15, but because of the central bank’s complex structure, he has a separate term as one of seven members of its governing board that lasts until January 31, 2028. Historically, nearly all Fed chairs have stepped down from the board when they’re no longer chair. But Powell could be the first in nearly 50 years to stay on as a governor.
Many Fed-watchers believe the criminal investigation into Powell’s testimony about cost overruns for Fed building renovations was intended to intimidate him out of taking that step. If Powell stays on the board, it would deny the White House a chance to gain a majority, undercutting the Trump administration’s efforts to seize greater control over what has for decades been an institution largely insulated from day-to-day politics.
▶ Read more about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
Trump on Thursday announced the outlines of a health care plan he wants Congress to take up as Republicans have faced increasing pressure to address rising health costs after lawmakers let subsidies expire.
The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit. Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for the tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people.
Trump’s plan also focuses on lowering drug prices and requiring insurers to be more upfront with the public about costs, revenues, rejected claims and wait times for care.
Trump has long been dogged by his lack of a comprehensive health care plan as he and Republicans have sought to unwind former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Trump was thwarted during his first term in trying to repeal and replace the law.
▶ Read more about Trump’s health care plan
Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.
Donald Trump isn’t leaving it to future generations.
As the first year of his second term wraps up, his Republican administration and allies have put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.
That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
▶ Read more about Trump’s renaming efforts
Nearly a year into his second term, Trump’s work on the economy hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many people in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC survey.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a significant gap between the economic leadership Americans remembered from Trump’s first term and what they’ve gotten so far as he creates a stunning level of turmoil at home and abroad.
Just 16% of Republicans say Trump has helped “a lot” in addressing the cost of living, down from 49% in April 2024, when an AP-NORC poll asked Americans the same question about his first term.
At the same time, Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of the president’s leadership on immigration — even if some don’t like his tactics.
There is little sign overall, though, that the Republican base is abandoning Trump. The vast majority of Republicans, about 8 in 10, approve of his job performance, compared with 4 in 10 for adults overall.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.
Oil prices fell on Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.
Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.
▶ Read more about Trump and Iran
— Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani and Ben Finley
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to honor the 2025 Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
