Dario Vitale is the new creative director of Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani Accessories, the company announced Sept. 16, making him the first designer from outside the Armani family to hold a senior creative post at the house.
A Dual Role Inside a Family-Run House
Vitale’s appointment is effective immediately, and he steps into the role alongside Silvana Armani, head of womenswear design, and Leo Dell’Orco, the group’s chairman and head of menswear design, rather than replacing either of them. Armani Group chief executive Giuseppe Marsocci framed the hire as a structural decision, not just a creative one. “It is a strategic decision that strengthens our creative organisation and confirms our commitment to looking to the future,” Marsocci said in the company’s announcement.
Silvana Armani and Leo Dell’Orco, who will continue overseeing the broader Emporio Armani line, described the brand’s identity in a joint statement carried by W magazine: “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.” Vitale said he understood the weight of joining a house that has never handed its creative reins to an outsider. “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,” he said.
Fifteen Years at Miu Miu, One Season at Versace
Vitale, born in 1983 near Naples, trained at Istituto Marangoni before working under Tomas
Maier at Bottega Veneta and holding an early role at Dsquared2. He spent close to 14 years at Miu Miu, rising to ready-to-wear design director and helping steer the label through the cultural rise that made it one of the most talked-about names in fashion, according to The Impression and Culted. His tenure there coincided with Miu Miu’s transformation into one of the industry’s most commercially dynamic labels, a period The Impression credited him with helping steer even though he worked under Miuccia Prada’s ultimate creative authority rather than as the label’s own named designer.
In March 2025, Versace named him chief creative officer. He presented a single collection before departing in December 2025, after Prada Group completed its acquisition of Versace from Capri Holdings and ended Donatella Versace’s decades-long run atop the house.
That makes Armani the third major fashion house Vitale has worked for in under two years, a pace of movement unusual even in an industry known for reshuffling its top design chairs. Versace’s own announcement of his exit gave no public reason for the split beyond saying it would name his successor “in due course,” according to Yahoo Finance, and the departure came within days of Prada Group finalizing its 1.25 billion euro purchase of Versace from Capri Holdings, according to Yahoo Finance.
Industry reaction to the Versace exit was mixed at the time it was announced; some coverage described his single collection as well received even as the business rationale for parting ways after only one season went unexplained.
The Appointment Lands Almost Exactly One Year After Armani’s Death
Giorgio Armani died in September 2025 at 91, ending a run of more than five decades as sole creative authority over the label he founded. His succession plan split leadership between Dell’Orco, who became chairman, and Silvana Armani, his niece, who took over womenswear design, but it kept creative control inside the family circle he built the company around. Vitale’s hire, announced 12 days past the one-year mark of Armani’s death, is the first time that circle has opened to an outsider for a title of this stature.
The timing carries a practical asterisk. Emporio Armani’s Spring 2027 collection, set to show
Sept. 24 at Armani/Teatro in Milan, was designed by Dell’Orco and Silvana Armani before Vitale’s arrival, and the event will be presented as a static showing rather than a full runway show, according to W magazine. That means the fashion industry will watch the handoff before it sees a single garment that reflects Vitale’s own point of view, a preview of how the Armani Group intends to manage its first real generational shift in the design room since the founder’s death.
A Business Trying to Stabilize After Its Founder’s Death
Vitale arrives at a company navigating its first full financial year without Giorgio Armani. The Armani Group reported 2025 net sales of about 2.19 billion euros, an organic decline of 2.8% once currency effects are stripped out, though the company posted improved profitability, with EBITDA up 3% and EBIT up 2% for the year, according to FashionUnited.
Bloomberg separately reported that Armani’s higher-end lines helped lift overall profit even as top-line sales dipped, a split performance that shows the group leaning on its more exclusive collections while its broader-market labels, including Emporio Armani, face softer demand.
Handing Emporio Armani’s creative direction to an outside hire for the first time arrives directly against that backdrop, a bet that fresh design leadership can help reverse the sales slide in the group’s largest-volume line even as the flagship couture business continues to perform well.
Reaction across fashion circles to the appointment leaned positive, with observers framing the move as an unexpected but calculated one for a line that had drawn less attention than Armani’s main runway collection in recent years.
Some commentary also flagged the uneven record Vitale carries into the job, pointing to his brief and abruptly ended Versace stint as evidence that his ideas can be well received even when the business outcome is not, according to discussion tracked by theFashionSpot.
Vitale’s first full collection under his own direction is not expected until at least the following season, meaning the industry will judge the hire on financial results and internal reception well before it sees his design point of view translated into a runway show.
