<P>Giorgio Armani attacks Vogue's Anna Wintour</P>

<P>Speaking at a press conference to promote the upcoming Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition Superheroes, which he is cochairing with Ms Wintour, Mr Armani said he could not understand why so many people dislike the US Vogue editor, claiming he was "indifferent" to her.</P>

<P>Not content to leave it at that, Mr Armani detailed what he thought sparked this dislike, referring to her championing of the US and French fashion industries and alleged lack of support for Italian fashion.</P>

<P>Standing with Ms Wintour, who supposedly once declared the Armani era over, he said: "I was told she said that, I hope that she didn't," according to reports in The Guardian.</P>

<P>Distancing himself further from his cochair, he <B><a href="http://www.vougers.com/isabel-marant-c-67/">isabel marant sale</a></B> said they had different taste in clothes.</P>

<P>It was not immediately clear what inspired Mr Armani to break ranks with the traditionally more subtle airkissing and backstabbing atmosphere of the fashion world by criticising the industry's most powerful journalist to her face, but Ms Wintour's recent request that Italian designers group their shows more closely together to help US editors save money was not met with joy.</P>

<P>The top Milan shows once stretched over seven days but have now been compressed into four, leaving some lesserknown designers unable to attract top international editors to their shows.</P>

<P>Ms Wintour, whose dragonlike image was caricatured and brought into the mainstream <B><a href="http://www.vougers.com/isabel-marant-c-67/">isabel marant shoes</a></B> in the film The Devil Wears Prada, based on a thinlyveiled roman clef written by her former assistant, wields significant power in the fashion world and is often the brunt of criticism.</P>

<P>Englishborn Ms Wintour, who projects an image of fierce calm from behind her large sunglasses and sleek bob, has dominated the fashion industry for nearly two decades.</P>

<P>Mr Armani's work will appear alongside designs from John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and others in "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy", a show that highlights the use of comic book imagery in fashion design. The exhibition opens in New York in May assuming the cochairs are still speaking to each other.</P>