Giorgio Armani QUIT Medical School to Build an Empire

He trained to be a doctor, and never sewed a stitch. He would build one of fashion's greatest empires.

Giorgio Armani grew up in northern Italy and entered medical school in Milan.

But he quit, and ended up dressing windows at a department store.

He taught himself to design by eye, working for other labels with no training.

At forty, with his partner Sergio, he gambled everything and launched his own label.

Then he tore the stiffness out of the men's jacket, making it soft and easy.

When Richard Gere wore his suits in a hit film, the world wanted the Armani look.

He defined the look of the eighties, the relaxed power suit, for men and women.

He built a billion-dollar empire and, unlike his rivals, refused to ever sell it.

When he died at ninety-one, the medical dropout was still fashion's last great independent.

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