MILAN — The silence over the weekend on Via Bergognone, home to Giorgio Armani‘s Teatro, was uncanny.

More than 6,000 people lined up quietly on Saturday — and on Sunday the queue was even more striking, spilling into the streets around the stately venue designed by Tadao Ando, whom Armani admired and respected.

Tutta Milano — and not only — patiently lined up to pay their respects to the designer, who died on Sept. 4 aged 91. Those in the crowd ranged from fashion students and athletes to writers and fashion enthusiasts, in addition to the group’s employees, institutional figures, celebrities and designers — Donatella Versace brought a large bouquet of white flowers on Saturday, one of the first to attend the event, together with Carlo Capasa, head of the Camera della Moda, and Mario Boselli, honorary president of the organization.

White flowers also filled the Teatro inside, where members of the Italian Armed Forces Carabinieri branch clad in ceremonial garb and red-plumed bicorns stood guard around Armani, who was knighted into the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic — the nation’s highest honor — in 2021.

A tapestry embroidered with the Milan coat of arms flanked the closed casket. An alabaster stone fused with a crucifix lay beside; it is said to have always been by his bedside. Paper lanterns in diagonal grid formation were strewn across the dark theater floor while a screen showing Armani’s image on the catwalk was emblazoned with his very last message to us all: “The mark I hope to leave is one of commitment, respect and genuine care for people and for reality. That’s where everything truly begins.”

It’s easy to assume the designer masterminded this stage, too, as it was quintessentially Armani.

Leo Dell’Orco, head of menswear design and his heir apparent; Armani‘s nephew, Andrea Camerana, and Michele Tacchella, business unit director of Giorgio Armani and EA7, were among those flanking the casket and greeting guests. Silvana Armani, the designer’s niece who worked on the women’s collections, was also spotted.

Music by Ludovico Einaudi, who paid his respects early on Sunday morning, wafted through the room.

Tributes to Armani were ongoing throughout the weekend, including at the tail end of the Venice Film Festival, where there was a standing ovation in his memory, and at the Formula 1 race in Monza, where the television broadcast kicked off with a portrait of Armani. Meanwhile, the website of Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella included a statement from him in which he described Armani as “a symbol of Italian genius in the world. Self-effacing and reserved, constantly and tirelessly creative, over the many years of his career he redefined, at an international level, the criteria of elegance and luxury. His sophisticated simplicity, his attention to quality and details, inspired and influenced generations of designers.”

Government figures paying their respects to Armani included, among others, former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi; Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome and former vice president of the Council of Ministers; the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala, and Mario Monti, senator and former prime minister. Entrepreneur John Elkann, chairman of Ferrari and Stellantis; Gildo Zegna, chairman and chief executive officer of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, and film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis, also attended. Ferrari Style’s creative director Rocco Iannone, who worked with Armani early in his career, said attending the wake “was really very intense and moving for me, a very strong emotional moment.”

Pitti Uomo CEO Raffaello Napoleone described Armani as “an absolute talent across the board. He intercepted social evolutions much better than others and before anyone else with great intelligence. He was very curious.”

Matteo Marzotto, chairman of MinervaHub, highlighted Armani’s “consistency and entrepreneurial strength. He interpreted industrial processes and marketing strategies with an intelligence out of the ordinary and he never improvised. He perceived what people needed, transforming creativity in a solid system, competitive and international.”

Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas and visual artist Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas recalled working with Armani over the years. “He never made mistakes. He had a perfect eye. He was always so polite and was never arrogant with anyone,” Massimiliano Fuksas said.

“He was unique and will always be so, and there will be none like him,” said designer and Alessi art director Andrea Incontri. “He represented my Maestro, I grew up with his vision, his art and aesthetic and shaped my own. He knew how to create a narrative so deep, across the board in the respect of ethics and people, with discretion. I want to remember this with a smile and I can only say thank you.”

Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared2 and Santo Versace also paid their respects on Sunday, all visibly moved.

Ditto for Neil Barrett, who took a moment to underscore how Armani “paved the way for all we designers to have a chance to go out there and dream.”

He shared his favorite personal memory, when in 2010 Armani visited him to offer to produce his collection. 

“In that moment I was completely shocked and awestruck and I couldn’t believe he was in my office and I couldn’t believe when I came back to see him in his office here that he would actually make me such a humongous and beautiful offer. Obviously that is something that I’ve never forgotten,” said Barrett.

“I actually didn’t take that offer, for good or for bad, because he described how he started at 40, from nothing, and how he did it on his own. He worked hard, dedicated and he just had to prove himself,” recalled the designer, explaining how this inspired him to “stick to my guns and try to do it the hard way, as well — obviously in my small way.”

For Barrett, Armani’s biggest legacy is cinematic, as he noted how “he embraced Hollywood and Hollywood embraced him. For me when I think of films and film costumes, I only think of Giorgio Armani.”

To be sure, Academy Award-winning directors Giuseppe Tornatore and Gabriele Salvatores headlined a numerous crop of Italian actors and celebrities paying tribute to the designer, from Stefano Accorsi to Margherita Buy.

Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta recalled intimate moments she shared with Armani over the last three decades. “We are all here for him to say thank you. The most beautiful embrace was when I did the fitting of my wedding dress, there was him and [Armani’s niece] Roberta, my mom couldn’t come and it was an important hug in that moment because I really needed it,” she said.

Fashion theorist, professor and curator Maria Luisa Frisa attributed her lifelong interest and passion for fashion to Armani and his sister Rosanna, working on the Emporio Armani magazine with them years ago. “He was a Maestro of life, he taught me how to work and how to commit to it. We are all responsible for his legacy. The 1900s ends with him,” she said. “He was a great revolutionary; he realized before everybody else what women and men needed to wear. He perceived by intuition the changes in society.”

“He forged that beautiful image of a working woman, not a Barbie but one that knows what she wants,” said model Antonia Dell’Atte, one of Armani’s muses. “A woman with dignity, ironic and who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

“We had to celebrate 50 years of career together. I had to take his hand to mark this journey we walked together,” continued the model. “But he’s not dead. He’s eternal… [and] Milan bowed at the feet of King Giorgio.” 

“He was extremely elegant and polite,” said model Sandro Pezzella, who first started working with Armani in 2015, admitting how working for the designer helped his career. “It doesn’t seem real, I felt he was everlasting.”

Armani’s connection with sports was reflected by the participation of athletes such as former tennis stars Fabio Fognini and Flavia Pennetta; Olympic swimming champion Federica Pellegrini; soccer legend Paolo Maldini, and Giovanni Malagò, former president of the Italian National Olympic Committee.

“It’s not an easy day. I have to say that this funeral chapel has really shaken me,” said Pellegrini. Armani used to call her “before and after” her swimming races, she shared. “It was wonderful to think back on all the years gone by; there are memories that will always remain indelible for me. Also because in those years, the bond between sport and fashion wasn’t as strong as it is today. So he was ahead of his time even from that perspective.”

More than on fashion, movie and sports, the two-day tribute offered an emphatic display of the impact Armani had on the general public. People queueing to say one last goodbye to “King Giorgio” encompassed different ages, professions and nationalities.

“I’m here to pay my respects to a king… a king of fashion,” said Micaela Barluzzi, a resident of Milan, who wore a Giorgio Armani-designed dress to her wedding 25 years ago. “I felt obliged after everything he has done. He made my wedding dress and so I’ll always have him in my heart,” she mused.

“It’s a historic event. Living in Milan, it would have been such a shame to miss this,” said Katerina Fogoros, a Romanian studying political science at Milan’s Bocconi University. “He did a lot for Milan and for the fashion industry.”

Anna Ventrella came from Cesate, in the outskirts of Milan, with her son and grandson, a Gen-Zer bedecked in Armani Exchange from head to toe for the occasion. “My son has worked for him and we inherited such an admiration,” said Ventrella. “I loved his fashion, made of elegant, sober clothes. I can’t afford them, but I did manage to buy a bag one time.”

Retired entrepreneur Silvana Carlotti was more pragmatic while waiting for her turn to pay tribute to the designer. “Now we have to see who will be his successor. That’s very important,” she said.

Armani’s funeral will be held Monday in a strictly private form for family members. While details are being kept under wraps, the speculation is that it will be held in Rivalta, a small town outside Piacenza where the designer was born.