How Would Giorgio Armani Spend $54,375?

Photo: Evan Kafka

When I’m in New York, I wake up at 7 A.M., and at 7:20 I go through my exercise routine, so I’d get a treadmill from the Gym Source ($4,495) and a week of sessions with Radu ($1,000). The important thing with exercise is music. I like Usher’s Confessions ($13.49) and Claude Challe’s Nirvana Lounge ($46.99). I love Alife for sneakers. I’d buy six pairs of Air Force 1 Low Mita ($720). People ask for them, and I end up giving them away.

When you travel, you always feel like you’re missing everything. At Aedes de Venustas, I’d get six L’Artisan Parfumeur candles ($300) and bitter-orange Agraria burning sticks ($26). I think the incense smell creates some kind of dependence. It reminds me of the Catholic church.

I try to be a vegetarian. I love fruit that can also be a decoration, so I’d buy litchis at Citarella ($4.99 a pound). And I can’t live without ice cream. I’d go to Il Laboratorio del Gelato for six cones of chocolate and vanilla ($25.50).

I’d see the Aztec Empire exhibit at the Guggenheim ($184 for eight tickets) and say hello to Tom Krens. I’d order six tickets to I Love Huckabees ($61.50 at Loews Lincoln Square) to see Jude Law. He is very beautiful—a modern type of beauty. If I had to compare him to Johnny Depp, I think Jude’s looks are a little bit more versatile.

I’d buy lunch for twelve at La Goulue ($939.60). I like the French atmosphere. It seems weird, but when I’m in New York I always wish to be in Pantelleria. When I’m in Pantelleria, I wish to be in Saint-Tropez. And when I’m in Saint-Tropez, I wish to be in Brioni. It makes everyone with me crazy. For dinner, I’d go to Giorgione because it’s Italian ($1,342.93), then have champagne for twenty at Hiro at the Maritime Hotel ($4,500).

I just built a great library in my living room here. For that, I’d get Japan and Her People ($495) and Observations ($375), by Richard Avedon, at Ursus Books. There’s a Tibetan hand-woven ecru rug from BDDW on Crosby Street that I’d hang in my dining room ($10,000). At DeLorenzo 1950, I’d buy a 1971 George Nikashima lamp ($16,500). The diffused light is flattering. Takashimaya has a medicine chest with 104 drawers ($12,000) that’s intriguing, and a pair of braziers for plants ($795). I love to have flowers with well-defined petals.

I’d order one midsize arrangement of white ranunculus and one tall white orchid with two stems from Verde Flowers ($550). I find orchids very elegant. They age well, and everything that ages well is something that I like.



Reality Check
What He Really Spent Today
La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, and La Gazzetta dello Sport from Universal News ($4.25)

Four croissants, four brioches, and four muffins from Hot & Crusty ($20).

Fifteen oranges and four grapefruits for juice, four kiwis, and four Dannon yogurts, from Food Emporium ($29.77).

Dinner for twenty at 66 ($2,800)

Total $2,854.02

How Would Giorgio Armani Spend $54,375?