Armani and Bottega Veneta, Expanding in the Wrong Directions

MILAN, Sept. 25 -- Giorgio Armani is looking for a good pair of shoes. And Bottega Veneta designer Tomas Maier has his sights set on a memorable frock or two. Each is trying to expand his business, from opposite ends of the spectrum.

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Armani has built a mammoth, billion-dollar business by selling professional attire that makes men and women feel confident in the boardroom. Such an economic model is a rarity in the fashion industry. Traditionally, design house profits are fueled by accessories. At Gucci and Prada, for instance, the clothes sell, but they're equally important as attention-getters and as a way to deepen the brands' aesthetic sensibilities.

But Armani is in a constant quest to expand his empire. Just recently, he announced a deal with Samsung to impose his signature minimalist style on everything from cellphones to televisions. In the realm of fashion, which remains the core of his business, however, the category that continues to elude the designer is accessories. He has never created a blockbuster handbag or a pair of shoes that have been widely coveted.

At Bottega Veneta, the opposite is true. The company's history is in leather goods. When it was acquired by Gucci Group in 2001, Maier was installed as creative director, with the goal of resurrecting the brand and its reputation for understated, high-quality handbags, shoes and small leather goods. Maier did that faster than anyone expected, and Bottega Veneta, with double-digit growth over the past few years, quickly became a profitable star in the Gucci empire. The only question was how to expand it. The answer: Introduce ready-to-wear.

Bottega Veneta does not need ready-to-wear. There are other ways to fuel growth -- with more stores and wider distribution, for instance. But clothes have panache. They attract the spotlight. Sending a handbag down the red carpet does not provide the same kind of publicity as putting an actress such as Kyra Sedgwick or Sandra Oh in a Bottega Veneta gown.

So Maier has been on a mission to create clothes that capture the discreet sophistication of the brand and express a distinctive enough point of view to stand out in the crowded luxury marketplace.

Both designers, who showed their collections during the spring 2008 runway shows here in Milan, are facing an uphill battle.

For the casual fashion observer, Armani represents the epitome of sophisticated Italian clothing design. It's reasonable to assume that the runway show for his flagship label is among the most breathlessly anticipated of the week. But that has not been true for quite some time. Armani remains a celebrated designer, but over the years, he has transformed his runway from a place where one might discover new ideas about dressing into an expensive playground.

It's hard to believe that much of what the designer sent down his runway Monday had been created with the conviction that it might alter the way women think about their wardrobe or about style in general. Much of it was simply too absurd.

There were a host of trim little jackets topping strangely awkward shorts that looked like dress pants hiked up above the knee and knotted on the side. The idea, one assumes, was to re-create the casual decadence of walking seaside in rolled-up trousers, waves lapping at the silky hem. But Armani seems to have confused the source of pleasure. It is in the experience of the walk, not the awkward fashion statement, that women find enticing.

Armani explained in his program notes that he was inspired by the south of Italy. There are references to fishing nets in his loosely woven shawls and even to traditional North African dress with dropped crotches that call to mind a dhoti. Armani has been emphatically and relentlessly determined to sell the idea of these "I Dream of Jeannie" pants. And for spring, he has incorporated the idea into evening attire, offering a strapless beaded jumpsuit with a crotch that falls just about to the ankle. There did not appear to be a flap of any sort in the back, so it is unclear precisely what a woman's options are should she need to use the facilities during the course of an evening.

The clothes were costumes, wild experiments and indulgences. Unlike in the past, the designer did not sprinkle fanciful notions gingerly throughout a collection grounded in reason and wearability. This time, whimsy overwhelmed reason.