Giorgio Armani: Celebrity designer tells gay men to man up
![Armani](https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/266592/armani.jpg?w=736&f=fc075003df932a3d90312c199ae672b1)
Fashion icon Giorgio Armani has provoked fierce controversy by urging gay men not to dress camp.
Speaking to The Sunday Times Magazine on 19 April the 80-year-old Italian designer, who has dressed stars including Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian, insisted that regardless of their sexual orientation "a man has to be a man".
"A homosexual man is a man 100 per cent. He does not need to dress homosexual," he told the publication. "When homosexuality is exhibited to the extreme – to say: 'Ah, you know I'm homosexual,' – that has nothing to do with me. A man has to be a man."
Although he did not elaborate on his remarks, it didn't stop online uproar and backlash from fans, with some LGBT campaigners accusing him of reinforcing negative stereotypes about homosexual men.
I have never wanted to dress 'too gay' as much as I do now. Please send me a 'too gay' example Georgio @armani and I'll flaunt it.
— CRAIG's CONTINUUM (@CraigsContinuum) April 20, 2015
'Be gay, but don't show it.' Giorgio Armani is a chop. http://t.co/642z0sTKVL
— Charl Blignaut (@sa_poptart) April 20, 2015
I'd rather be dressed in drag than spotted in Armani Xchange or any of his other vile labels http://t.co/bca3VPsLEA
— James Wolf (@IamJamesWolf) April 20, 2015
Milan-born Armani also had some harsh words for women who resort to breast enlargements, as well as extra-muscular men, explaining that he preferred a "healthy" look.
"I don't like muscle boy. Not too much gym!" he said. "I like somebody healthy, somebody solid, who looks after his body but doesn't use his muscles too much.'"
He added: "I prefer to look at a natural woman. A woman should be courageous to become older, not be desperate to look younger than her age."
His comments come weeks after Elton John entered into a high-profile row with the Italian designer duo Dolce & Gabbana for rejecting the idea of same-sex parents and branding babies born through IVF "synthetic" and "sperm selected from a catalogue".
"We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one. No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed," they said during and interview with magazine Panorama.
Dolce added: "You are born to a mother and a father – or at least that's how it should be. I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteri [for] rent, semen chosen from a catalogue."
John, who has two children with husband David Furnish, hit back by accusing the duo of self-hate and vowed to boycott the fashion house.
"Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana," he wrote on Twitter.
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