Fashion designer Giorgio Armani in front of a poster of ex-supermodels in his New Normal campaign (from left) Yasmin Le Bon, Eva Herzigova, Nadja Auermann and Stella Tennant.

Armani recruits '90s supermodels for New Normal show of timeless classics

Normal is a mood, Italian fashion designer says of photo campaign to make clothes relevant for women who aren't slaves to newest trends. Eva Herzigova, Yasmin Le Bon among models featured

Francesca Fearon

Published: 2:15pm, 2 Feb 2016

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Magazine fashion stories full of beautiful images aim to inspire but often exaggerate a lot, says Giorgio Armani. This, says the designer, alienates those customers looking for timeless clothes that suit their lifestyle.

With this in mind, Armani is about to launch a campaign with photographer Peter Lindbergh and four ex-supermodels about making clothes relevant for women who don’t want to follow the latest fashion trends. He's dubbed it the New Normal.

An image from the New Normal photo shoot features ex-supermodels (from left) Eva Herzigova, Stella Tennant, Yasmin Le Bon and Nadja Auermann.

“Normal is a mood,” says Armani, “aimed at intelligent women who realise they don’t need clothes to transform them. I want to convey a sense of reality, of clothes that offer natural elegance and the normality of everyday life.” The clothes are stylish classics, such as white shirts (one scooped out at the back for eveningwear), a long waistcoat, signature Armani trouser suits in white or fine check, a pea coat and zipped jackets – a timeless distillation of Armani’s styles for each season that you could wear to the office, a charity lunch or a parents’ meeting.

Lindbergh shot the black and white campaign using 1990s supermodels Stella Tennant, Eva Herzigova, Nadja Auermann and Yasmin Le Bon. Lindbergh and Armani have collaborated before and the designer likes the realism and filmic quality of the photographer’s work.

Giorgio Armani and photographer Peter Lindbergh, who shot ex-supermodels for the campaign.

“Armani saw photographs I had taken of ex-supermodels like Cindy and Helena and was fascinated by their beauty and the fact I do no retouching; that this is them looking natural,” says Lindbergh. “I like the idea of what women look like at 40 or 45 and that’s the way Armani likes to see his women now.” To Armani, true beauty is ageless.

“This is about the attitude of women,” says Armani, “Real women are more beautiful than ever because they are confident, they have grown into their skins and they want clothes that don’t scream fashion, that they can rely upon season after season.”

The new campaign will be hitting the press at the end of this month.

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