Giorgio Armani dedicates new collection to Japan's tsunami victims

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Italian designer goes geisha chic for Paris show and themes entire collection around a single charitable cause

Haute couture is an enclosed, inward-looking world, with ultra-wealthy clients pondering issues no deeper than which £70,000 dress to wear with which handmade shoes.

But in Paris, Giorgio Armani has been attempting to get couture to look outside its rarefied environment by dedicating his Privé couture collection to recovery efforts in Japan.

The Italian designer said he had been "profoundly moved by the tragic events" of March's earthquake and tsunami.

Fashion brands will often make a nod to charity, but Armani's theming of the entire couture collection around a single cause is a highly unusual move.

The show, entitled Hommage au Japon, took place in near darkness in a space beneath the Palais de Chaillot in central Paris on Tuesday. A red carpet led guests out of the bright Parisian sunshine towards a black Perspex catwalk.

Every look had a Japanese feel. Trouser suits were finished off with obi belts, Japanese floral fabric was visible in pocket inserts. Stiff geisha-like panels protruded from under patent leather bodices, while stiffened technical fabrics were printed and based on traditional silk kimonos.

Hats, which often feature heavily on an Armani catwalk, were prominent. Made to resemble giant origami knots, they were created by Philip Treacy, surely fashion's hardest working milliner.

The overall aesthetic of the show could be described as "reinvented geisha", perhaps not a theme that will persuade everyone. But the black velvet trouser suits with their cigarette pants and nipped shoulders were a classic silhouette that will appeal to many Armani followers.

The designer said the couture collection was a "creative gesture" to back up the brand's financial aid in support of the Unesco scholarship programme for children affected by the disaster.

The decision to pay respects to Japan is doubtless a smart move. It demonstrates a social conscience and makes commercial sense.

Couture is ultimately a direct brand-to-customer showcase and luxury brands have been making enormous efforts to charm customers in Asia in recent years.

Armani was one of the first designers to realise the potential of the newer markets and the brand owes last year's 80% jump in net profits to its decade-long presence in China.

Armani had planned to celebrate his Asian success recently but cancelled an event in May out of respect for the suffering in Japan.

On Tuesday he said he was a "great admirer of the refined sense of aesthetics" of the country and held their "courage and composure" in high regard.