Giorgio Armani winner of the 2020 Parete Prize: "Without memory, there is no innovation"

“To imagine a less individualistic society and, thanks to the knowledge and awareness of what has been, to build a different present and a better future.”

Live on the channels of the prestigious Bocconi University, the award ceremony for the 2020 Parete Award was held on Monday 18 January. And this year it was an icon of Italian style, Giorgio Armani who win it. Giorgio Armani who has always been able to reinvent himself over the years, never losing that sense of charm that distinguished his creations. The Parete award is an award dedicated to the memory of the financier Ermando Parete, who survived the abominations of the Nazi extermination camp in Dachau. In previous editions, the award was given to manager Vittorio Colao and entrepreneur Giovanni Tamburi, both awarded in 2018 and 2019, again at Bocconi.

“For his extraordinary personality, which has set an unmistakable imprint on an era and which, even today, makes him the Italian icon par excellence in the world”, this is the motivation that prompted the jury to award the award to the designer .

Motivation to which Armani responds with an online video message, transmitted during the ceremony. His words reflect on the importance of the award, but more than anything else they reflect on the importance of memory in the history and history that most belongs to it, that of fashion.

This is the complete speech of the video message:

“Good morning to all of you. The complex times we are living prevent me from being there, next to you. However, my greeting and my thanks reach you through this message for an award that makes me proud and makes me think. Ermando Parete represents courage and memory, fundamental qualities, especially today, which we tend to forget and often turn our gaze elsewhere in the face of problems and injustices.

But we know well that without memory there can be no future and no innovation. Without remembering what happened, nothing can be built, because it takes the foundations or everything collapses. This award is given to me, I read in the reasons, for the ability to have created a true Italian brand globally. In fact it’s my whole life’s job, and I’m proud of it. But I am also a firm supporter of the Italian system, a system that must be supported, today more than ever, and of which specificity and uniqueness must be cultivated and defended.

The pandemic underway is a warning to all of us to review what is wrong, learning from mistakes. To imagine a less individualistic society and, thanks to the knowledge and awareness of what has been, to build a different present and a better future. However, it is necessary to understand what is superfluous and what is no longer sustainable on this planet. We have to recover quality, overcoming the obsession with quantity. Let’s try to ask ourselves what it is necessary to have, what we really want to be, to leave a more livable world for future generations. It is a task that puts us back into play, which must be nourished by Memory and action. Now that everything is virtual, we have the duty to cultivate feeling: that collective feeling that brings us closer and unites us, and that makes us worthy of this unique gift we have received, life! Thanks”.

“King George”, his nickname, is still today a successful designer and entrepreneur, at the head of the international group that bears his name: his empire deals not only with fashion products but also the world of beauty, furniture and catering. The Award confirms the opinion that Italy has of this man, the esteem that Italians have towards him and the gratitude of having him at the forefront of promoting Made in Italy.

To see the entire ceremony click here.

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Rachele Lisci

Rachele Lisci, anche nota come Chiusoperferie, è una stylist, blogger e giornalista italiana. Appassionata di arte e cultura, ama il cinema e cantare a squarciagola i The Smiths.