Fashion is fast and fleeting, and that's the whole point of it.
It comes and goes with the change of seasons, old clothes are forgotten with the release of the new collection, and the designers who managed to stay on the catwalk for more than three decades can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani.
Of the listed, only Armani is still alive and continues to stand as an emblem for his multi-billion dollar brand.
He still creates collections, holds the title of the richest man in fashion, and after Luciano Pavarotti died, Armani holds the title of the most famous living Italian in the world.
"I think I'm only rivaled by Berlusconi in terms of popularity," the designer joked in an interview with Esquire, adding: "I can't stand Berlusconi. I find everything he does terribly simple. The way he talks, the way he behaves and this endless parade of women... it's terribly disgusting".
The statement is typical Armani. From the late 1970s, when he blew up fashion publications with his men's collection Per Amore, until his 90th birthday, the Italian was famous for his introversion, shyness and categorical refusal to comment on anything about his personal life.
The designer is often criticized for being closed off and reticent. His interviews become a Golgotha, from which it is difficult to get an interesting story, although Armani lived quite dizzyingly.
He served in the army, came close to bankruptcy, befriended a galaxy of celebrities and marked the fashion of the 90s with his iconic rivalry with Gianni Versace.
In his rare moments of complete candor, however, Armani has revealed that beneath his calm serious exterior hides a man with a volcanic temper.
His discipline is spartan and he demands the same from his subordinates, whom he requires to address him only as "Señor Armani".
The designer shared that he is so used to hearing the address in question that he sometimes gets confused and when he talks about himself, he instinctively calls himself Mr. Armani.
"My staff are afraid of being caught doing something wrong for Mr. Armani because I can be cruel," the designer claims, adding that his favorite insult to his charges is: "Pull your balls out and show me you've got some guts ".
Verbal abuse and backstabbing is the least one would have expected from a quiet figure like Armani, but the designer has quite a few similar stories in which the insults are not only aimed at his employees, but also at his colleagues.
Years ago, when asked what he thought of Miuccia Prada's conceptual fashion, the designer cut her off, saying that conceptual clothes don't make women more beautiful.
"These are clothes for an audience that doesn't like fashion. It's very niche, elitist and snobby fashion. Just like Prada is - fashion for snobs," says Armani categorically.
For Gianni Versace, with whom he waged an aesthetic war over womenswear in the 1990s, Armani says he deeply respects him as a creator, even though he never liked his work.
And as for the story of the old motto that Versace dresses the rascals and Armani dresses the sophisticated ladies, Giorgio says that it was invented by Gianni Versace himself, who spread it through his friends in the media.
"He said it to me personally when we were in Rome for some fashion event. We were looking at the models and he said to me, 'I dress rascals and you dress sophisticated ladies,'" Armani recalled to The Sunday Times.
The publication of his statement unleashed the fury of Donatella Versace - Gianni's sister and current creative director of the Versace fashion house.
Through her social networks, the designer said that Armani's comment was rude and tasteless, because her brother is no longer among the living to confirm his words.
Donatella also shared that it is not the first time that Mr. Armani has hinted that "Versace" is the brand of light women. The reference to the fashion of rascals was also made shortly after the murder of Gianni Versace, but then Armani personally went to Donatella and apologized for what was said.
The designer can be very sharp and inconsiderate when it comes to fashion, and this tendency in 2015 caused him big problems with the LGBT community.
In his interview, the designer criticized gay men who dress in women's clothes and emphasized that a homosexual man is still 100% a man.
"I don't like when homosexuality is overexposed to the extreme. I don't care who is homosexual and who isn't. It has nothing to do with me. But a man has to be a man," says Armani.
Regarding his sexuality, however, the designer keeps a strict silence, often answering laconically that "these are personal matters".
There has been much speculation over the years that Armani is gay but hides his sexual orientation because his brand thrives in conservative markets like China, and an admission that he is gay could hit his finances hard.
And the earnings are too sweet to pass up. According to Forbes, Giorgio Armani's fortune is worth nearly $12 billion, which comes from his clothes, cosmetics and collaborations with five-star Japanese restaurants Nobu and Dubai real estate company Emaar.
In keeping with his aura of mystery, the designer's wealth is also shrouded in obscurity. Armani has not yet announced publicly who will inherit his fashion empire.
He is extremely close to his niece Roberta, whom he calls his daughter, but has not said whether she will take over the reins of the brand after his death.
His other niece Silvana, who is a leading designer at Emporio Armani, has also set her sights on the throne, but there is no sign so far that Giorgio will hand her the keys to his luxury business.
Turning 89, the designer gave an interview to Italy's Vanity Fair in which he hinted that his fashion brand would end with his death.
Regardless of the name that will take his place at Armani.
"Yesterday the thought crossed my mind that I was entering the last chapter of my life and I cried. I try to be more modest with my ambitions because I am limited by time. [...] I don't want to be funny, but I don't want to get off the catwalk. I want to live life, follow what's happening and work until eternity swallows me up," says the designer.