Dario Vitale Appointed Creative Director of Emporio Armani

Dario Vitale is the creative director of Emporio Armani, the house announced on Wednesday. He will also hold the position of creative director of Giorgio Armani Accessories and will begin work with immediate effect.

Vitale said: “I am honored to take on this dual role across Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani, and deeply grateful to Silvana and Leo for welcoming me into their world. Armani has a powerful legacy and unmistakable design language; a heritage that has spanned decades and shaped the history of fashion. I approach all of this with a deep sense of responsibility and excitement as we build upon that rich foundation, defining a new era together.”

The much-rumored announcement marks the first time that Armani Group, whose founder and owner Giorgio Armani died last year, has placed an external hire in creative charge of one of its lines. For Vitale, however, this is his second such distinction: in April 2025, he began work as the first non-Versace family member ever to oversee design at Versace, only to exit eight months later following Prada Group’s acquisition of the company. Prada Group was also Vitale’s former employer at Miu Miu.

Founded in 1981, Emporio Armani was conceived by Giorgio Armani as a lower-priced diffusion label, initially strongly focused on denim, that would also serve as a consumer conduit towards his eponymous mainline. “Emporio is my vision of fashion explored from another angle, which is more metropolitan and extremely transversal in terms of generation,” Armani once said.

Today’s appointment marks just such a generational leap. Vitale was born in 1983, making him only slightly older than Armani was when he founded his company in 1975. For most of its existence, Emporio Armani was helmed by Armani himself, alongside Giorgio Armani, Armani Privé, and the rest of his sprawling universe of signature design. His final collection for Emporio, Spring/Summer 2026, was presented in Milan after his death on September 4, 2025, at age 91. The most recent collection was co-designed by Armani’s designated creative heirs, his niece Silvana Armani, 71, and long-term partner Leo Dell’Orco, 73.

In a joint statement, Armani and Dell’Orco said: “Emporio Armani is much more than a line for us: it is a reality to which we are deeply connected, having followed and shared its journey since the very beginning. Emporio was born as a space of freedom, experimentation and energy, and we are convinced that Dario’s arrival in our team, as a talent already established on the international stage, will interpret its spirit with respect and authenticity.”

Vitale arrives at Emporio following a period of such professional tumult that his future employment became a cause célèbre. His first and last collection for Versace, Spring/Summer 2026, was presented in Milan in September 2025 and met with significant industry acclaim.

Observers celebrated Vitale’s ability to reconnect the house with the youthful, sexually charged energy associated with founder Gianni Versace while establishing a bold, culturally contemporary vocabulary of his own. The collection has since been pulled extensively by stylists for magazine covers and red-carpet appearances, giving its relatively small body of work an unusually long afterlife. The sequinned bra from look 50, in particular, has earned considerable mileage.

That was not enough to spare Vitale from forces apparently beyond his control. Prada Group completed its €1.25 billion acquisition of Versace from Capri Holdings late in 2025; Vitale’s departure was confirmed later that week.

Before leaving to go to Versace, Vitale had spent 14 years at Miu Miu, starting in 2010 and eventually becoming design director of ready-to-wear and head of image. Working under Miuccia Prada, Vitale helped shape the phase that accompanied Miu Miu’s emergence as one of fashion’s most closely watched brands, propelling it into a period of exceptional growth. In 2024, Miu Miu sales rose 93%, becoming a significant upside for Prada Group.

That experience at Miu Miu appears to be a powerful calling card as Vitale joins Emporio Armani. Both brands occupy distinct positions within larger corporate ecosystems while speaking to younger customers through product and image. Before his time at Miu Miu, Vitale worked under Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta, and Dean and Dan Caten at Dsquared2.

Vitale’s appointment also comes at a pivotal moment for Armani Group. Giorgio Armani’s will dictated that his heirs sell a 15% stake in the company within 18 months of his death, with a larger portion — between 30% and 54.9% — to be sold to the same buyer three to five years later. His will also specified three preferred buyers: L’Oréal, LVMH and EssilorLuxottica. The initial deadline falls in March 2027.

In 2025, Armani Group reported revenues of €2.2 billion, down 2.8% at constant exchange rates, while total turnover including direct licensee sales reached €4 billion. The group is led by CEO Giuseppe Marsocci, a 23-year veteran of the company who succeeded its founder in the CEO role in October that year. Today’s announcement demonstrates that Armani Group is not waiting on any new stakeholder to establish itself before sharpening its creative strategy in the wake of its founder’s death.

Marsocci said of today’s appointment: “The appointment of Dario Vitale marks an important milestone for the Armani Group: a decision that strengthens our creative organization and confirms our commitment to looking ahead, consolidating the Group’s path of evolution while remaining faithful to Giorgio Armani’s values and vision. Emporio Armani is a brand of strategic relevance for us and our partners around the world. Giorgio Armani accessories represent a great opportunity. We look to this new phase with enormous confidence.”

Since that passing, the Giorgio Armani mainline has continued under Silvana Armani, leading womenswear, and Leo Dell’Orco, leading menswear. Both worked closely alongside Armani for many years on the collections he justly considered to be the quintessential expression of his decade-defining fashion sensibility. Now at Emporio, Vitale will be given a fresh chance — which this time extends beyond only one fashion collection — to reinvent and expand upon one of Italian fashion’s greatest legacies.

This article was originally published on Vogue Business.