Synonymous with Italian style, Giorgio Armani is one of the most successful and influential designers of all time, and a dominating presence in the fashion industry for the best part of three decades.

With the help of Richard Gere's starring role in "American Gigolo," the Armani suit became a trademark of 1980s wealth and taste.

The Italian designer has messed little with the formula ever since, continuing to turn out clothes that hold true to a conservative aesthetic of elegance and understatement.

"I have never designed for design's sake," he says. "For me, fashion is only fashion if it is worn. When I am designing I always ask myself, 'Would my customer wear this?'"

Growing up in Piacenza in northern Italy, Armani studied medicine but turned to fashion after working as a window dresser in a Milan department store in the early 1960s.

He was then taken on as a designer by Nino Cerruti and spent the next decade making his mark in Milan before launching his own menswear label with partner Sergio Galeotti in 1974.

A women's collection followed a year later and the Armani empire has been expanding ever since. Displaying keen marketing instincts, Armani launched Emporio Armani and Armani Jeans in 1981 and has subsequently used the brand to promote everything from sunglasses, furniture and jewellery to the Armani/Nobu restaurant in Milan.

Even in his eighth decade and with a fashion empire estimated to be worth more than $3 billion to his name, Armani shows no signs of slowing down.

In 2005 he made his haute couture debut at Paris Fashion Week -- at a time when many other designers were withdrawing from the made-to-measure market.