giorgio armani privé aw25 | noir séduisant

Black might be fashion’s most overused word, but Giorgio Armani just reminded everyone why it’s still the ultimate power move. For Autumn/Winter 2025–26, the designer’s Noir Séduisant collection took over the Palais de Tokyo with slow-burn seduction. While the show was entirely black, it challenged conventional monochrome perceptions. This was black in stereo: rich, textured, and surprisingly loud.

This season, Armani delved into the full spectrum of noir, featuring inky silks, matte wools, pavé crystals, oil-slick satins, and velvet that absorbed light. The show began with flashes of colour, beaded inserts that blinked in sapphire and ruby, before plunging headfirst into a world of tailored tuxedos, skin-baring blazers, and floor-grazing velvet. The result was a slick, sculpted, and deeply sensual look.

Tailoring behaved badly — in all the right ways. Models floated through the space in long velvet gowns, suiting softened by curves or surprise cut-outs, and silhouettes that moved like smoke. Peak lapel jackets were sliced away at the bust, worn bare or styled with delicate sheer plastrons. 

Trousers were razor-sharp; shirts crisp and white or ditched entirely. Oversized bows popped up at the shoulder or back, not saccharine but striking, like punctuation marks. There were coats lined in gold lamé (only visible in motion), and velvet dresses so dark they looked dipped in ink, their cuffs twinkling with crystals like the last embers of a cigarette.

A cropped velvet jacket clung to the body like dusk, its crystal edging catching the light in quick, ember-like flashes. Then came a dress — black, liquid, almost reflective — that blinked open to reveal a lining of gold, just for a second. Armani’s black didn’t just behave differently depending on the fabric; it felt like it carried memory and the elegance that comes with time. 

There was power here, but never aggression. Armani’s women seduce with precision. And what made Noir Séduisant so compelling was its confidence. It didn’t push to be new. It simply refined everything it already knew. At 89, Giorgio Armani doesn’t need to prove anything, but this collection made one thing clear: he’s still got the final word on elegance, and that black, in his hands, is anything but safe.

Discover the collection here.

photography. Stefano Guindani (group shot), Giorgio Armani (runway)
words. Gennaro Costanzo