Giorgio Armani’s partner Sergio Galeotti died in 1985. Galeotti died on 14 August 1985 in Milan, aged 40, after complications related to AIDS; contemporary reports described the cause more discreetly as a heart attack.
Galeotti was far more than Armani’s romantic partner. The two met in Tuscany in 1966, and Galeotti later encouraged Armani to establish his own design office in Milan. He helped provide the business confidence and practical financial leadership that allowed the Armani label to launch in 1975.
After Galeotti’s death, Armani took on much more of the company’s administrative and strategic responsibility. The loss became a major turning point in both his personal life and the development of the fashion house. A common mix-up is confusing Galeotti’s death year with the date Armani founded his company, 1975, or with the year Armani’s international reputation accelerated in the early 1980s.