 Costa Smeralda, Cannes, Capri, Shelter Island?
Linda Lee —
Many Italian luxury brands are marking 50 years since their founding, especially Giorgio Armani. Armani wants to go beyond its reputation for $2,800 business suits, and, like all other luxury companies is working hard to appeal to people who might buy $200 sweatshirts and hats instead. Or also.
To that end, Armani began an aggressive campaign launched earlier this year in the Mediterannean: say Cannes, Capri, and Porto Cervo (on Sardinia). In each location, a site was picked. Models were hired. A menu was planned. Only the most beautiful and fashionable people were invited. A storyboard was laid out. Cameras filmed the action, both live and still. Entire campaigns are being built out of the images. Here is the proof. Look at Armani’s Facebook page.
Courtesy Giorgio Armani
The copy right now reads:
“From Porto Cervo’s regatta waters to Capri’s iconic piazzetta and Shelter Island’s calm shores, each destination revealed a distinct rhythm of summer by the sea. A journey’s chapter closed beneath the endless sky, where sea and light meet.”
That’s right. For symmetry Armani wanted a sunset from a beach that faced west, so Southampton and Montauk were out. Shelter Island was in. Andre Balazs’s Sunset Beach got the nod. Armani opened its Armani Mare shop. (OK, folks, that’s not “Mare” as in horse, that’s “Mare” as in “sea” “Mah’ reh”) It’s a brief pop up, so if anyone wants Armani swimwear, towels, sunglasses, linen jackets, even surfboards, it closes August 3.
And who was invited? Not the usual people we feature in Easthampton.com. Except for Candace Bushnell. She’s everywhere.
Pamela Tick (Instagram)
The actress Mamie Gummer was there, looking gorgeous. Lots of people who looked familiar from shots in Capri and Porto Cervo were also spotted on Sunset Beach. Like the gorgeous woman who is Giorgio Armani’s “Global Makeup Ambassador,” Madisin Rian. Or Armani’s sometimes model Igee Okafor, both of whom are Black.
Leandra Medine Cohen (Instagram)
There were celebrity chefs, including RÅze Traore and Woldy Reyes. Also spotted: Brooke Shields’ daughter, Grier Hammond Henchy, the stylist Erin Walsh and her husband, the fashion photographer Christian Högstedt; the British illustrator Angelica Hicks; Leandra Medine Cohen.
Linda Fargo, left, with others at the Armani Mare party (Instagram)
Some guests were familiar from galas in the Hamptons:the German-born designer Maximilian Eicke and his wife, Irina Kro Eicke, have a studio and home in Bridgehampton. They were at the Watermill dinner on Saturday night and will surely be at Guild Hall this next Saturday. But others there were strictly a fashion crowd. Rickie De Sole is the Nordstrom fashion director. Wonderful Linda Fargo is a long-time executive in the fashion business, currently director of women’s fashion at Bergdorf Goodman. Michal Kurtis is a fashion consultant, and ex fashion director at Barneys. Several of them live on Shelter Island, as do Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler.
People think of Mei Kwok as a DJ, but she is also tastemaker in fashion. Other guests included a fair number of stylists, photographers and the kind of TikTok personalities, like Pamela Tick, who are style icons, or entrepreneurs with their own fashion lines.
The crowded floors of Sunset Beach, which spilled out onto Shore Road, were filled with people who took off their shoes and awaited the Giorgio Armani gift cases (was that real leather?)) from the evening.
Apparently Armani thinks everyone in the US plays backgammon, because the gift cases seemed to include a board and lots of things in branded cloth bags. At least a pair of sunglasses, right? A surfboard won’t fit.
Not a peep out of attendees about what they got.
Many of the ones from out of the area at Sunset Beach and some, like Erin Walsh and her husband, made Instagram records of their many frolics on the property, including this dip in the bay. Apparently most party-goers were not up at that hour. Perhaps the Giorgio Armani crew should have stayed around for this photo shoot.
Courtesy Erin Walsh Instagram
