These companies paid people 2-3 euros ($2.16-3.25) per hour to work 10 hours per day on average, in some cases seven days a week, to make bags that were sold to Armani's subcontractors for 93 ...

Armani, 89, remains CEO and effectively sole shareholder of the business he set up with his late partner in the 1970s, which had a 2.35 billion euros ($2.5 billion) turnover last year.

The fashion industry that Mr. Armani has dominated for decades is, perhaps not coincidentally, also in a precarious and pivotal position. The virus has devastated sales, shuttered businesses, and ...