Legendary fashion designer Giorgio Armani has died aged 91 – with the worlds of fashion and showbiz paying tribute to a “giant” and a “master of his craft”.

The Italian billionaire died at home surrounded by his family on Thursday.

“With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder, and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani,” his fashion house said.

Tributes flood in for Armani – as it happened

“Il Signor Armani, as he was always respectfully and admiringly called by employees and collaborators, passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones.

“Indefatigable to the end, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections, and the many ongoing and future projects.”

A funeral chamber will be set up at Milan’s Armani Teatro for people to pay tribute between 9am and 6pm this weekend.

Armani did not appear at his runway shows in Milan for the first time ever in June as he recovered from an unknown illness.

Only a week ago, when he was interviewed by the Financial Times, he revealed he “oversaw every aspect of the show remotely via video link”.

“My greatest weakness is that I am in control of everything,” he told the newspaper. “Everything you will see has been done under my direction and carries my approval.”

‘A symbol of the best of Italy’

Italy’s President Giorgia Meloni was among the first to pay tribute.

“Giorgio Armani leaves us at 91 years old,” she wrote on X.

“With his elegance, sobriety, and creativity, he was able to bring lustre to Italian fashion and inspire the entire world. An icon, a tireless worker, a symbol of the best of Italy. Thank you for everything.”

Fellow fashion mogul Donatella Versace followed, saying: “The world has lost a giant today. He made history and will be remembered forever.”

American designer Ralph Lauren said he “always had the deepest respect and admiration” for Armani.

Dame Anna Wintour, who this year stepped down as head of American Vogue after 37 years, said the designer “understood power and attitude and elegance as well as anyone ever has in fashion”.

Julia Roberts, who famously wore Armani menswear to the Golden Globe awards in 1990, shared a picture of the pair together on Instagram with the caption: “A true friend. A Legend.”

American model Cindy Crawford called him a “master of his craft” – while the Italian football world also offered its condolences.

Juventus described him as a “timeless icon of elegance and Italian style”.

Inter Milan, who Armani supported, said he was “an icon of our city, a fashion legend who, with his creativity and elegance, knew how to tell the story of Italianness around the world”.

Legendary film director Martin Scorsese also paid tribute, heralding Armani as “more than a clothing designer”.

“He was a real artist, and a great one – people use the term ‘timeless’ quite often, but in his case it happens to be true,” said Scorsese.

Armani contributed to the wardrobe design for the director’s 1995 film Casino, creating suits for Robert De Niro’s character, Ace Rothstein.

The pair came together again for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), where Armani this time suited up Leonardo DiCaprio.

‘King Giorgio’

Born in the small northern Italian town of Piacenza in July 1934, Armani originally wanted to be a doctor but changed his mind after a part-time job as a window dresser at a Milan store exposed him to fashion for the first time.

As one of the most influential designers of the 20th century, he is often credited with spearheading red carpet fashion and was planning a major event during Milan Fashion Week this month to mark 50 years of his brand.

He put Italian ready-to-wear style on the map in the late 1970s with his signature ‘Armani suit’ before adapting its classic style for women with the launch of the female ‘power suit’ in the 1980s.

He also dressed Hollywood and music stars, including Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Lady Gaga.

Read more:
From Gere to Gaga: Armani’s best celebrity looks

Armani, or Re Giorgio (King Giorgio) as he was widely known, worked on more than 200 films, most notably earlier in his career on American Gigolo with Richard Gere in 1980.

He was awarded both the French Legion of Honour and Italian Order of Merit for Labour for his contributions to the fashion industry.

With an empire of more than £7.44bn at the time of his death, his work expanded beyond clothes to home furnishings, perfumes, books, flowers, bars, clubs, and restaurants.

He also owned the basketball team EA7 Armani Milan, better known as Olympia Milano.

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Armani sparked controversy in 2015 for comments he made about fashion choices among gay men – and previously in 2009 when his company was forced to settle with the Italian tax authorities over its offshore subsidiaries.

So little money has been set aside by the NHS for the rollout of the Mounjaro weight-loss jab in GP surgeries that as few as one in five people with life-threatening obesity is likely to get treatment, new research shows.

The NHS estimates that around 220,000 people living with obesity will be eligible for treatment through their GP over the next three years.

But Freedom of Information requests by the British Medical Journal revealed that funding from NHS England has fallen well short of what is needed for the rollout.

Just nine out of 40 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England said they had enough funding to treat the 70% of eligible patients who are expected to come forward.

Four ICBs – which plan health services in local areas – said NHS funding covered just 25% or fewer of their eligible patients.

Coventry and Warwickshire ICB said funding would only stretch to treat 21% of its patients.

The findings confirm an investigation by Sky News earlier this summer that access to Mounjaro is a postcode lottery for people living with obesity.

Ellen Welch, Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) co-chair, told the BMJ: “These figures confirm the fear that the rollout is not fit for purpose.

“There is a huge discrepancy between national messaging and what patients are actually being delivered on a local level.”

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Five ICBs admitted they are already considering further tightening the prescribing criteria or rationing the treatment beyond the plan agreed by the NHS.

Any change would effectively move the goalposts for people who thought they qualified for NHS treatment.

Birmingham and Solihull ICB received funding to cover just 52% of its eligible patients. It admitted: “Difficult decisions are having to be made to ensure money is spent in the most effective and efficient way possible and for the greatest patient benefit.”

Dr Jonathan Hazlehurst, an obesity specialist and researcher at the University of Birmingham, said NHS England has only provided funding for just over 22,000 patients in the first year of the rollout.

“It shows that there’s a lack of political will to fund this adequately,” he told Sky News.

“NHS England says that obesity costs the NHS £11.4bn per annum as a pure NHS cost.

“Yet we can’t even afford to properly fund the rollout of a life-changing drug in year one. That just doesn’t make any sense.”

An NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is fully supporting the phased rollout of tirzepatide for eligible patients, having issued guidance in line with the NICE guidance, and provided funding to local ICBs to support patient care in March 2025.

“These represent brand-new services in primary care that are being established and scaled up over time, starting with those who are in the most need – and in the meantime, eligible patients can get weight loss support from a range of other services, including the NHS Digital Weight Management programme.”

North Carolina and first-year head coach Bill Belichick have banned the New England Patriots’ staff from accessing the Tar Heels’ program, sources told ESPN.

When reached by ESPN, North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi said, “Good luck” and then hung up the phone. UNC also declined comment.

Lombardi and Tar Heels pro liason Frantzy Jourdain informed the Patriots that they would be banned from UNC the day before one of their scouts was scheduled to visit in August, a source with direct knowledge told ESPN.

Two NFL scouts who work for other teams told ESPN that North Carolina, under Belichick’s leadership, offers limited access to all NFL personnel. Clubs are allowed to speak only with Jourdain, and UNC’s college relations website says that “scouts will have zero access to coaches or other personnel people,” according to the scouts.

The term “zero access” appears three times on UNC’s college relations website, a page accessible only to NFL personnel.

One scout said NFL personnel are only able to watch three periods of practice at UNC. Each college program varies in access to NFL personnel, but the scouts said that many programs allow scouts to watch full practices.

“Can’t think of another school with a statement of ‘zero access,'” one scout told ESPN.

3 & Out’s John Middlekauff first reported the news.