Emporio Armani has named Dario Vitale its new creative director, placing him in charge of the label as the Armani Group enters a new creative chapter. Vitale will also serve as creative director of Giorgio Armani Accessories and begins both roles immediately. The appointment marks the first time Armani Group has brought an external designer into creative control of one of its lines.
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Vitale joins following his brief tenure as creative director of Versace, where he became the first designer outside the Versace family to oversee the house. Vitale joined Versace in April 2025 and presented his first collection for Spring Summer 2026 in Milan that September.
Before Versace, Vitale spent 14 years at Miu Miu. He joined the brand in 2010 and eventually became design director of ready-to-wear and head of image. Working under Miuccia Prada, he contributed to a period when Miu Miu developed a particularly strong presence within contemporary fashion. Earlier in his career, Vitale worked with Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta and Dean and Dan Caten at Dsquared2.
At Emporio Armani, Vitale takes responsibility for a label Giorgio Armani founded in 1981. Armani originally conceived Emporio as a lower-priced line with an early focus on denim and a distinctly metropolitan character. For decades, Giorgio Armani maintained direct creative control of Emporio alongside Giorgio Armani, Armani Privé and his wider portfolio.
The appointment follows a period of transition for the company. Giorgio Armani died on September 4, 2025, at age 91. His final Emporio Armani collection, Spring Summer 2026, appeared in Milan after his death. Silvana Armani and Leo Dell’Orco subsequently worked together on the label’s most recent collection.
Silvana Armani and Dell’Orco welcomed Vitale to the company, describing Emporio as a project closely connected to their own work with Giorgio Armani since its earliest years. They identified experimentation, freedom and energy as central characteristics of the label and expressed confidence in Vitale’s ability to develop those qualities.
Vitale described his appointment as both a responsibility and an opportunity to contribute to a house with a clearly established design language. He thanked Silvana Armani and Leo Dell’Orco for welcoming him and said he looks forward to developing the next phase of both Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani Accessories.
The Giorgio Armani mainline continues under Silvana Armani for womenswear and Leo Dell’Orco for menswear. Both worked closely with Giorgio Armani for many years. Vitale now receives a wider creative mandate than the one he held during his short period at Versace. At Emporio Armani, he takes control of a label built around a younger and more metropolitan interpretation of Armani design, while his second role gives him responsibility for developing the Giorgio Armani accessories category.
