Meet Giorgio Armani’s Billionaire Heirs

Giorgio Armani’s will was unsealed on Thursday, a week after the iconic fashion designer’s death at the age of 91 on September 4. In the bombshell document, the late billionaire laid out how his estimated $9.6 billion fortune will be divvied up–and his plans for the future sale or public listing of his namesake company.

Prior to his death, Armani owned 99.9% of his eponymous company, with the Armani Foundation—established in 2016 to “ensure continuous guidance for the company’s future management”—holding the remaining 0.1%.

Long known for prizing his independence from larger fashion groups, Armani directed his heirs to sell a 15% stake in the business within 18 months. He identified three preferred bidders: French billionaire Bernard Arnault’s luxury conglomerate LVMH; French beauty giant L’Oréal, part-owned by billionaire Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and her family; and EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eyeglasses firm, part-owned by the billionaire heirs of Leonardo Del Vecchio (d. 2022), once the richest person in Italy. Alternatively, Pantaleo Dell’Orco—Armani’s longtime right-hand-man—has the power to identify another buyer among luxury fashion groups of a similar size, the document outlined.

Then, within five years of Armani’s death, his heirs must sell between 30% and 54.9% of the company to the same buyer, or take the firm public on an Italian stock exchange or an international market of similar standing. But until then, the company will remain in the hands of his closest advisors and family members.

According to the will, the foundation will now hold 10% of the shares. Dell’Orco, 72, will inherit a 30% stake in the business. The remaining 60% is split equally between Armani’s sister Rosanna Armani, 86; her son Andrea Camerana, 55; and Armani’s nieces Silvana Armani, 69 and Roberta Armani, 54, daughters of his late brother Sergio. Voting rights will remain largely in the hands of Dell’Orco and the foundation, who will control 70% of the votes together.

That structure will only last until that first transaction, at which time Armani’s five heirs will sell a 15% stake to the new buyer and also transfer 15% to the foundation. They’ll be entitled to the net profits from that first sale and the proceeds from selling an additional 30% of the company, again with a five year timetable, capping their profits at 45% of the company’s value. Dell’Orco will get 32% of those proceeds—translating to 14% of the company’s sale value—with each of the four other heirs receiving 17%, or roughly proceeds from selling 7.7% stakes in the fashion giant. No matter what happens, the foundation’s stake in the company can never go below 30.1%.

Dell’Orco, who joined the company in 1977, two years after it was founded in Milan, will guide the sales process. He’s led the company’s menswear division for decades and serves as its managing director. He took a more public role starting in 2021, when he took the stage alongside the late Armani for the first time at Milan Fashion Week.

The other heirs hold important roles at Armani as well. Silvana, Armani’s niece, started out as a model for other designers. She heads the womenswear line and is seen as her uncle’s stylistic successor. Roberta, his other niece, has long held the title of head of global and VIP communications, spearheading the brand’s partnerships with Hollywood stars. (She was also married to Angelo Moratti, the son of the late oil refining billionaire Gian Marco Moratti (d. 2018), from 1997 to 2007).

Camerana, the son of Armani’s sister Rosanna and Carlo Camerana—a great-grandson of Giovanni Agnelli (d. 1945), the founder of Italian automaker FIAT and the patriarch of the Agnelli family—is a member of the board. Rosanna, Armani’s only living sibling, doesn’t appear to have a formal role at the company.

Forbes values Armani, the company, at an estimated $5.6 billion. The rest of its founder’s fortune, composed of his estimated 2% stake in $143 billion (market cap) EssilorLuxottica, a 213-foot superyacht, a collection of homes in five countries and his cash and other investments, is worth around $4 billion, according to Forbes estimates.

Thanks to their inheritance of Armani’s assets, Forbes estimates that all five of his heirs are now billionaires. Dell’Orco is the wealthiest with an estimated $2.3 billion fortune, followed by his niece Silvana Armani, who is worth an estimated $1.1 billion. His other niece Roberta Armani, his nephew Andrea Camerana and Armani’s sister Rosanna Armani are each worth an estimated $1 billion. A representative for Armani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At what price Armani’s heirs will be able to sell a stake in his life’s work remains to be seen. The fashion house had a tough year in 2024, reporting EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of nearly $430 million on $2.5 billion in revenues. That marked a 24% and 6% drop, respectively, compared to the previous year.

“During 2024, while well aware of the market slowdown already evident in the second half of 2023 and of the many challenges arising from the international context, I continued to operate with an eye to the future,” Armani wrote in a statement at the time. The company will also have to figure out a way to live on without its legendary designer.

Still, the 50-year-old brand has a strong name in the fashion industry and will be a prime target for the three bidders that Armani identified in his will. LVMH is the largest luxury group in the world, counting brands including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Fendi among its roster of fashion houses. That might make it a natural option, given Arnault’s track record in assembling a luxury empire spanning 75 different brands.

“Giorgio Armani honored LVMH by naming us as a potential partner for the exceptional fashion house he built. I am a great admirer of his talent,” Arnault told Forbes in a statement. “Giorgio Armani, whom I had the pleasure of knowing personally, was a true genius; the only great couturier, along with Christian Dior, who built and led a global brand in terms of both style and industry. If we were to work together in the future, LVMH would be committed to further strengthening its presence and leadership around the world.”

While L’Oréal and EssilorLuxottica are both smaller than LVMH and don’t own any fashion houses themselves, they already have long-standing relationships with Armani. L’Oréal has a cosmetics partnership with Armani through 2050, producing the brand’s perfumes, skin care and makeup under license. EssilorLuxottica also has a licensing partnership with Armani to manufacture and distribute its eyewear through 2038—a relationship that dates back to 1988, when Armani and EssilorLuxottica’s Del Vecchio first teamed up and helped turn glasses into high-end fashion accessories.

“We are proud of the trust that Mr. Armani has placed in our group and in our management,” a spokesperson for EssilorLuxottica told Forbes in a statement. “We will carefully evaluate, together with the board, this evolutionary prospect, which deserves thorough consideration in light of the deep ties that already unite the two groups.” A representative for L’Oréal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Those deep ties might give EssilorLuxottica or L’Oréal an upper hand compared to LVMH. “They will be the most motivated ones,” says Luca Solca, an analyst at Bernstein, of Armani’s cosmetics and eyewear partners. “LVMH might be interested, but it seems stronger in leather goods than in fashion.”

Outside of the company, Armani also divided up his real estate empire among his family members. Through a holding company called L’Immobiliare, Armani owned a home in a 17th-century building in central Milan; a villa on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria featuring domed roofs made of lava stone; a countryside mansion in Broni, an hour’s drive south of Milan; a 7,500-square-foot house with a swimming pool in Saint-Tropez, France; and a cliffside estate on the Caribbean island of Antigua. The holding company also owns Armani’s yacht, Main, which features a sleek dark green steel hull, teak decks, and interiors designed by Armani himself. Dell’Orco, Rosanna, Silvana and Camerana will split these assets, according to the will.

Separately, Armani also owned an apartment in Paris’ 6th arrondissement, close to the banks of the Seine; a 17th-century chalet with a hayloft in the Swiss ski resort of St. Moritz; a house with a swimming pool in the seaside resort of Forte dei Marmi, Italy; and two apartments in New York, including a penthouse overlooking Central Park and an apartment in the Giorgio Armani Residences in Manhattan’s Lenox Hill neighborhood. Camerana will inherit the St. Moritz home; Rosanna, Silvana and Camerana received one of the New York apartments, with Dell’Orco getting the other; and Silvana will keep the Paris apartment. Unlike the other heirs, Roberta doesn’t appear to have received any of Armani’s real estate.

Armani left no detail to chance in his will, specifying who would have access to his residences (Michele Morselli, the head of his real estate company L’Immobiliare, will be able to stay in one of the New York apartments, as well as the Saint-Tropez and Pantelleria homes) and how the furniture in his Milan apartment will be divided up (a Matisse painting and elephant tusks for his sister Rosanna, a Warhol portrait and fossils for Dell’Orco.)

Armani’s family members weren’t the only beneficiaries listed in his will. Morselli received 100,000 EssilorLuxottica shares worth $30 million, while four Armani executives each received 7,500 shares worth about $2 million apiece. Morselli also received about $38 million in Italian government bonds, and Armani gave roughly $3.6 million to a trust established by his sister Rosanna for her two grandchildren. As for the rest of his estimated $300 million in cash and investments, he gave 40% to Dell’Orco and split the remaining 60% among his four other heirs.