Edition 1 - SAT 17 FEB 2007

Bunnies suit up in Armani - By JENNIFER MELOCCO


It's fashions off the field as Giorgio dresses Souths

He's dressed the most glamourous models for the catwalks of the fashion capitals, and his clothes can be seen on the red carpets of the world's most prestigious events, but next month Giorgio Armani turns to the green grass of the rugby league field to showcase his latest designs.

In a fashion first, the broad-shouldered players of the Rabbitohs will be clad in Armani -- the designer label to which successful businessmen and socialites aspire.

He may not make it to the grandstands, but when the NRL season kicks off next month, Armani will become its No.1 armchair fan.

It's a bold step for the Italian designer but it's one of which he's justifiably proud. He's happy to help out his old friend, team part-owner Russell Crowe, and he's especially happy to be involved in the history-building of the South Sydney team.

The designer admits that the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the game of rugby league meant little to him just a year ago.

But after receiving an interesting proposal from Crowe in late 2006, things began to change.

"Russell basically said that he'd bought into his favourite Australian rugby league team and wanted to take them back to the top of the league,'' Armani says.

Crowe has built a strong relationship with Armani over the years, with the designer dressing the actor for everything from the Oscars to his wedding day.

Yet he knew it would still be a bit of an ask to sign up for this latest gig -- to design an off-field wardrobe for the Rabbitohs.

"Mr Armani is always receptive to my ideas,'' Crowe says. "This one took more explaining than most.''

But it was Crowe's conviction as to how much these designer suits would do for his beloved Rabbitohs that put him on the path to making his dream come true.

"Giorgio is the best clothes designer in the world and I wanted his input to affect our team and help them believe in the impossible,'' the Hollywood heavyweight says. "While clothes don't make the man, you should always dress for success.''

His first step was to impart his love of the game and the team to the designer -- and explain how he felt the Armani-designed suits could spur his team on to greatness.

Armani listened with interest. "Russell wanted to fill the team with confidence and thought a good starting point would be for them to arrive at matches looking great and standing tall in Armani,'' the designer explains.

It was the Rabbitohs' history of strength, struggle and their stance as the never-give-up underdog that really piqued his interest.

"I told him that we had a reputation as a rough bunch, from the cliched wrong side of the tracks,'' Crowe says. ``But I think the thing that intrigued him was the history.''

That included regaling him of the club's many years of success followed by some less jubilant times, and it's continued embrace of the Aboriginal community.

"He told me of the diversity within the clubhouse, how Souths embrace all races and backgrounds. He also told me how it is an Australian cultural phenomenon to cheer for the outsider,'' Armani says. "That cheering for the underdog is an Italian trait, too; perhaps it is global.''

It was a blow-by-blow account of the day the Rabbitohs beat their traditional rivals, the Roosters, that really fired up Armani for the team wardrobe project.

"Russell described for me a 2005 game between the Roosters and the Rabbitohs when there was much passion on the field: 17-16. Anybody who loves any sport knows the meaning of a score like that.''

As he sat down to sketch out the design, Armani could call on his past associations with football greats of other codes.

"I was, I believe, the first designer to really identify football players as potential style icons,'' says Armani.

He dressed the Italian football team for the World Cup in 1990 and the English team in 2003, when football's fashion poster boy David Beckham captained the team.

"Since then I have dressed the Chelsea team and many great players such as Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Fabio Cannavaro and Andriy Shevchenko,'' he says.

Armani, a keen sportsman who also became friends with Ian Thorpe after his Sydney Olympics glory in 2000, relishes
designing for athletes but says the task comes with its own design challenges.

"The challenges are the result of their physical development -- muscles are large and thighs and arms in particular can be more substantial than normal,'' he says.

"I have learnt that rugby league players have the thickest legs and largest feet of any athletes in my experience to date.

"For the Rabbitohs I realised I was dealing with men who are powerfully built and so need something a bit more soft-tailored.''

He used a Giorgio Armani soft-tailored two-button custom-built suit as a base. ``It looks extremely smart and slick,'' he says.

"There was something that appealed to me in the playful paradox of extremely tough men dressed in a super-sharp urban outfit.''

And he took a unique approach in incorporating the team's iconic red-and-green livery into the suit.

"I have used the team's famous jersey colours of cardinal red and myrtle green to create a unique pinstripe jacket and tie for the players,'' he explains. "I have also used the new team crest on the breast pockets. It is a lighthearted take on the legend that the majority of the Rabbitohs first team in 1908 were rabbit-hunters: a Latin inscription within the crest translates as: `Run Faster, Protect The Family, Children First'.''

Today, with all measurements taken and the design created, the work of tailoring the suits is going ahead in Milan. And while the players have been kept in the dark about design details so far, it hasn't stopped the anticipation of their arrival. ``They [the players] haven't been shown anything except a tailor's tape but given the buzz at the fittings, I would have to assume they are pretty excited,'' Crowe says.

The team will debut the new look on March 19 when they meet arch rivals and the traditional fashion plates of the NRL, the Roosters.

Crowe says the Rabbitohs' new look is not an attempt to take the "glamour boys'' title away from the Roosters' team.

"That's a title we don't want and we don't deserve. It would take 50 years to wrest that unwanted sobriquet from the pampered life of the Chooks,'' he adds. "We know who we are. We are the team that has to train the hardest and work the hardest and dream the hardest.''

And now the Roosters will have another fan following that dream -- and he might even catch a game in Sydney. "

Having now designed the official wardrobe, I do feel part of the team,'' Armani says. ``I've never been to Australia, so I'm hoping this project will give me a perfect excuse.''

Caption: Good look, sport ... Giorgio Armani with Austalian swimming hero Ian Thorpe at an exhibition in New York. Right: a design sketch of new suits created for the South Sydney Rabbitohs

Dressed for success ... Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer dressed in Armani for their wedding in 2003. Picture: JIM LEE Reproduced courtesy of Russell Crowe

Illus: Photo
Column: Inside Edition
Section: FEATURES