Armani stages a Todai-ji red carpet and a Kasuga Taisha dinner for Nara's international film festival
Giorgio Armani Japan turned two of Nara's most storied religious sites into a stage for its Nara International Film Festival tie-up, pairing its own restaurant arm with a Michelin two-star local chef for a diplomatic-anniversary dinner most guests would never otherwise reach.
Giorgio Armani Japan said it partnered with the Nara International Film Festival 2026, held September 19-23 under the theme "CROSS," as part of a wider programme marking 160 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Italy, according to a release dated September 28.
The maison staged what it called a "Prayer Red Carpet" for festival guests inside Todai-ji temple's Great Buddha Hall, and hosted a special screening of American Gigolo — the 1980 film that first made Armani's tailoring famous in America — according to the company.
Armani also held a one-night dinner at Fujikaden, a reception facility inside Kasuga Taisha shrine that is normally closed to the public, cooked jointly by Bruno Hiruma, executive chef of the maison's own restaurant arm Armani/Ristorante, and Hiroshi Kawashima of Accordu, a Michelin two-star restaurant in Nara, the company said.
Sponsoring a regional festival is a familiar move for a luxury maison; putting its own kitchen alongside a local Michelin chef inside two of Kansai's most-visited religious sites is a step further, and a sign of how far Armani/Ristorante — the food and hospitality business Armani has built out well beyond clothing — has become a tool for building relationships in Japan rather than simply serving diners in Tokyo. Tying the event to the Japan-Italy anniversary also gives Armani a reason to show up somewhere its usual retail calendar doesn't reach: Nara, rather than Ginza or Omotesando.