Not bad for someone who started his fashion career as a window dresser for an Italian department store. Today, his net worth is more than US$8 billion. The 86-year-old designer continues to oversee nearly every aspect of the vast empire he created over four decades ago, which now includes hotels, restaurants and home furnishings.

GIORGIO ARMANI Fashion designer Giorgio Armani walks the runway during the Giorgio Armani Prive Haute Couture Fall Winter 2018/2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week.

Today, le smoking is a classic - and a veritable sartorial workhorse in many a woman’s wardrobe.Ģ. It would pave the way for his pantsuits just as women were entering corporate culture and ready for power dressing. Not only was it androgynous, but also sexy and powerful. In 1966, he introduced Le Smoking - a tuxedo look for women. But there was one look he designed - which proved shocking at the time - that not only revolutionized the way women dressed but also signalled sweeping social change.