The iconic designer has suffered criticism after a recent interview in which he said that homosexual men should not ‘dress homosexual’.

In the interview with ‘Sunday Times’ magazine the 80-year is quoted as saying, “When homosexuality is exhibited to the extreme — to say, ‘Ah, you know I’m homosexual,’ — that has nothing to do with me. A man has to be a man.” It appears that the Italian designer is saying that men should dress like men and not advertise their homosexuality through their style. Not one to hold back his opinion, he ironically went on to say how he dislikes men who go to the gym too often, yet his illustrious fashion shows are fronted my muscle-bound male models. “I don’t like muscle boy. not too much gym! I like somebody solid, who looks after his body but doesn’t use his muscles too much.”

The Italian, who is understood to have earned a £5bn personal fortune, also branded cosmetic surgery “idiocy”.

Without actually defining what ‘dressing homosexually’ means, Georgio Armani did, however, say that he’d prefer the body underneath the clothes to be in shape, but not too much. Some fashion fanatics took to Twitter to ridicule the designer about his comments.

The controversial discussion about homosexuals comes shortly after the worldwide debate and boycott over the similar designers Dolce and Gabbana after they said that gay couples using IVF treatments create children who are not ‘synthetic’. This sparked a boycott created by Sir Elton John, one of their most influential customers, which swept the world.