Armani Collezioni vs Giorgio Armani

The mainline carries the founder's full name and sits at the top of the ready-to-wear hierarchy, below only the Privé couture line. This is where the house's best cloth and most careful make tend to go, and retail prices reflect it. Don't take the label as proof of construction, though. Pinch the jacket front below the lapel: a floating layer between cloth and lining suggests canvas, while a stiff, glued feel suggests fusing.

Collezioni was the step down from the mainline, offering Armani tailoring at a lower retail price. Older pieces often carry the Giorgio Armani Le Collezioni label, which secondhand sellers frequently mistake for the mainline. In 2017 the house consolidated its labels and folded Collezioni into Emporio Armani, so every Collezioni piece on the resale market is now at least several years old. Because buyers searching for Giorgio Armani often skip it, Collezioni tailoring tends to sell for well under black label pieces of a similar cut.

Emporio is the younger, more fashion-led line, and since 2017 it has absorbed what Collezioni used to do. Its tailoring varies widely from season to season, so judge each jacket on its own make and cloth rather than on the label. Shoulders and fit tend to follow trend more closely than the mainline's.

Exchange is the entry point to the group and is mostly casualwear. The tailoring that does appear is generally fused and priced accordingly. On resale it trades as a high-street brand, so treat the Armani name here as branding rather than a signal of make.

Mani is an older diffusion line that predates the current structure and was sold largely through department stores. Mani tailoring still turns up regularly in vintage listings, usually priced well below later Armani labels. Assess each piece on its cloth and condition; the label alone tells you little.

A quick reference for reading the label on a listing.

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