Few movies have proven more influential on the world of menswear than American Gigolo. Paul Schrader’s 1980 neo-noir follows the titular sex worker Julian Kay, played by Richard Gere, as he becomes involved with a politician’s wife while also being pursued as the prime suspect in a murder case. Just as memorable as the plot, however, is Gere’s Armani wardrobe.
The clothes take centre stage right from the opening scenes, which see Gere being fitted by his tailor. In a later sequence, he lovingly lays out his suits on his bed while taking cocaine and singing along to Smokey Robinson and The Miracles’ “The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage.” When he opens a drawer, it’s filled with Armani shirts — all carefully folded and with their logos on full display.
Armani’s involvement with American Gigolo went well beyond mere product placement, however. Schrader wanted to use the loose, louche way Julian Kay dressed not just to tell us something about his character, but also about the chic version of Los Angeles he inhabits. To do that, he drew inspiration from Italy. Schrader recruited Last Tango in Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci’s art director, Ferdinando Scarfiotti, to help him shoot the city in a new light, and for fashion, he turned to one of Italian design’s rising stars.
Armani’s involvement in American Gigolo actually predated Gere’s casting in the lead role. As Schrader told GQ in 2012: “Giorgio Armani was involved because of John Travolta. Travolta was originally going to star, and his manager suggested Armani because he knew that he was on the verge of becoming big. We all went to Milan and Giorgio was just getting ready to go into an international non-couture line, so the film synced up perfectly with what he was up to. John dropped out at the last moment and Richard came in, but we kept all the Armani clothes. It was just a matter of tailoring.”
At that point, Armani’s brand was only a few years old. He had worked as a freelance designer for several fashion houses before starting his own label in 1975. By 1980, he still had not established a name for himself outside of Italy, but American Gigolo would change that in an instant. Armani, who had grown up a devoted fan of Hollywood’s Golden Age, was delighted to throw himself into the collaboration. “That film marked a crucial milestone in my work,” he recalled in an essay for Grazia. “I have since re-watched American Gigolo several times over the years.”
He continued: “In the film, the clothes from my collection were a style choice of director Paul Schrader; that style, that way of dressing, would become something of a co-star in the film, opposite Richard Gere. The scene where the clothes seemed to play on their own was striking, with a parade of ties, shirts and jackets on Richard’s bed. I remember my enthusiasm at the idea of that collaboration, the very first. No one could predict that it would be so successful, and would mark so strongly the beginning of an era.”
The film launched Armani’s career in the United States, and caused radical changes on Savile Row as a generation of men decided to adopt silk, linen and Italian cotton suiting. Until then, men’s suits had been boxy and formal — think Don Draper in Mad Men. Armani’s designs were lighter and more feminine, paving the way for everything from those loud Miami Vice suits to the androgynous New Romantic look that would become popular throughout the 1980s.
As for Hollywood, as soon as American Gigolo was released, executives started demanding Armani suits of their own. The designer was only too happy to oblige, opening an exclusive store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Wanda McDaniel, who was hired to do VIP outreach, told The New York Post: “He was very smart. He created a VIP dressing room in his store and a lot of [celebrity] relationships were facilitated.” She added: “You can do 12 years’ worth of ad campaigns and it won’t add up to Angelina Jolie getting photographed in your dress.”
It wasn’t just red carpets that Armani was interested in. Having seen the impact American Gigolo had on his business, he kept his relationships with directors going, too. He went on to design clothes for over 100 films, including 1987’s The Untouchables, 1992’s The Bodyguard and several notable collaborations with Martin Scorsese, such as 1990’s Goodfellas, 1995’s Casino and 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Even his own adverts were cinematic: In 1992, he recruited David Lynch and Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti to create a surreal commercial for his fragrance Giò.
It all started, though, with American Gigolo. In 1976, Armani had recorded just $90,000 worth of sales. By 1981, a year after audiences first gazed inside Gere’s highly desirable closet, his sales had vaulted to $135 million. “It was what I would call a crucial moment,” Armani reflected in 2020. “Nobody could have imagined the success that film would have, which in fact marked the imagination of the ‘80s, and it became an important vehicle for my fashion.”
