(Credits: Far Out / GianAngelo Pistoia / Paramount Pictures)
Thu 4 September 2025 16:28, UK
Before American Gigolo made waves in 1980 and became Richard Gere‘s ticket to superstardom, few Americans had heard of the Armani fashion label.
Amazingly, Armani had only been in business for five years at that point, after being formed in Milan by the late, great Giorgio Armani in 1975. For the first several years of its existence, the fashion label made stylish garments mainly aimed at muscular male physiques, but soon changed tack to produce suits that removed padding to give men of all builds a loose silhouette. Combined with the use of unusual fabrics and bold colours, Armani began to build up a head of steam, and soon the fashion house was contacted by the agent of an A-list Hollywood star. It wasn’t Gere, though.
“John Travolta was originally going to star,” American Gigolo director Paul Schrader once revealed, “and his manager suggested Armani because he knew that he was on the verge of becoming big. We all went to Milan, and Giorgio was just getting ready to go into an international non-couture line, so the film synced up perfectly with what he was up to.” At this point, Travolta even appeared in a Variety magazine photospread announcing the film, decked out completely in Armani gear, which was enormous for the brand.
Sadly, Travolta was forced to drop out of the project at the last minute after his mother’s death, and Schrader had to find a new leading man who looked as good as Travolta in Armani’s fashions. Richard Gere eventually stepped into male escort Julian Kay’s designer loafers only two weeks before cameras rolled, leaving Armani’s team in a mad scramble to put together a new wardrobe for a star several inches shorter than Travolta.
As Hollywood history will tell you, Armani didn’t just put together a replacement wardrobe that looked as good as what it had created for Travolta. Instead, Gere’s wardrobe exceeded everyone’s expectations, making the mostly unknown star look like a million dollars. It instantly vaulted him into A-list status, and gave a shot of adrenaline to mainstream US fashion in the ‘80s, as countless regular joes looked at Gere’s debonair looks and thought, “I’ll have a bit of that.”
Indeed, at certain points, Schrader’s movie – a solid thriller in and of itself – wound up functioning like an extended advertisement for Armani’s entire line. The audience watches Kay take his time to perfectly craft formal and semi-formal looks, in addition to casual, daytime, and evening variations. He wears Armani leisurewear, Armani underwear, and Armani accessories, not to mention one of the most iconic Armani coats ever put to celluloid.
For Armani himself, a man who grew up watching the beautifully dressed men and women of Old Hollywood cinema, getting the chance to be involved in a motion picture was a thrill. He once told Grazia magazine, “That film marked a crucial milestone in my work, and I have since re-watched American Gigolo several times over the years.”
The designer watched the picture, wide-eyed and amazed, completely blessed by the fact that Schrader had made the clothes “something of a co-star” to Gere. Just as it would its leading man, the camera lovingly panned over the “parade of ties, shirts, and jackets” laid out on Kay’s bed.
Armani loved collaborating with Schrader and Gere on the film. The chance to be emblazoned on the annals of movie history was too good an opportunity to avoid. And it wouldn’t be the last time his sartorial expertise was integral to a Hollywood classic. At the time, though, he was simply happy to help the director realise his vision, and he admitted, “No one could predict that it would be so successful, and would mark so strongly the beginning of an era.”
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