Armani says he’s “Beyond Trends,” or is it “Beyonce Trends?”

“ Beyond Beyonce?”

Anyway … Giorgio Armani used the gorgeous fashionista/singer/superstar/hottie to peddle his trends (ahem **pieces,** since the line apparently is now above “trends”) on the runway in Milan this week. Specifically, Beyonce opened the show, crooning “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend” in front of a backdrop advertising Armani’s new perfume.

We touched on this in an earlier post concerning Milan fashion week – but what’s up with designers essentially using their runways as ad space? Of course there’s a little mix and mingle no matter what way you slice it – a runway show is, at its core, designed to create buzz – and therefore sales – of a new line, product, etc. But this perfume ad trend (can we say “trend” in this context?) seems to take it a little too far, and kind of blatantly.

Though — it’s not like this is the only instance of marketing crossing the runway. Viktor&Rolf did it last year with Love Bomb. And this year in Milan, Gucci followed suit only hours after Armani by unveiling their new ad campaign – directed by Hollywood movie mogul / chief brilliant creep, David Lynch.

As if movie style-ads aren’t taking it far enough, Armani also unveiled a luxury cell phone – we’re not exactly sure what makes it luxury, guess we’ll just have to wait and see.