Michael Ovitz says only one obstacle prevented him from becoming truly close friends with Giorgio Armani, the legendary Italian fashion designer who died at his home in Milan on Thursday: “He didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Italian, so there always had to be an interpreter between us,” explains Ovitz, the co-founder and former chairman of Creative Artists Agency. “I couldn’t just pick up the phone and call him. But I do feel like I got to know him. He was a great designer and an even greater person.”

As one of the cadre of uber-agents who famously departed William Morris and founded CAA in 1975, Ovitz says there was an informal understanding from day one at the new agency. “We didn’t create a rule, but we told both the men and women in our office that they had to dress a step up — a suit and tie for the men, and women also had to dress accordingly,” Ovitz tells The Hollywood Reporter. “When I started in the agency business, some people wore suits, but for many it had become casual, jeans or corduroy coats, which wasn’t very business-like.”

Coincidentally, Armani founded his Milan-based label that same year. By the time he opened his Beverly Hills boutique more than a decade later, the designer known for his deconstructed suiting and luxe fabrications was already the favorite among the high-wattage agents who were being celebrated as the power players of Hollywood, with Ovitz at the top of the pyramid for his reputation of packaging big-money projects teeming with A-list stars. And typically, he did it wearing an Armani suit.

“But I have to say, it’s not that I felt powerful wearing one of Giorgio’s suits; that’s a myth,” Ovitz points out. “They were beautiful suits, but the secret is that they were comfortable because they had this loose fit, and that was novel for the time. When you had to wear a suit from eight in the morning until you’re getting home from a dinner after 10 p.m., comfort was important.”

Soon enough, the Armani suit not only epitomized the look of Hollywood power, but it also became a de facto uniform at CAA. “We sent all our executives to the Beverly Hills [Armani] store to buy, because it was the look we wanted,” Ovitz says. “We gave that store a lot of business, and in return, they gave us a bit of a discount. Not that they were losing anything by doing so; they did very well with us, and they were smart to do so.”

Though Armani had garnered attention with his designs for Richard Gere in 1980’s American Gigolo, Ovitz, 78, says it was a film released seven years later that propelled the designer into the stratosphere. “We packaged a movie called The Untouchables, and all our clients were in it: Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, Bobby De Niro, Andy Garcia, and directed by Brian De Palma,” Ovitz remembers. “I introduced Bobby and Sean to Giorgio, and he ended up getting the nod from Brian to do everybody’s wardrobe. It was a heavy-duty cast, and everything Giorgio designed after that just got better and better. De Niro also became close with him during that time, and they stayed close.” Marilyn Vance is credited as costume designer in The Untouchables, with her name in the opening titles followed by “Wardrobe by Giorgio Armani.”

Ovitz says he was recently inspired to explore his closet, where he discovered a wealth of Armani clothes he purchased and received as gifts from the designer over the years. “I found all these things he gave me, sweaters and shirts and suits,” he adds. “I wore one of his suits every day but Sunday in those years.”

At the height of collecting the label, his tally of Armani tailored looks totaled roughly 35 suits, 10 blazers and five tuxedos. “I loved wearing those tuxedos, not only because it was Armani, but I also just loved wearing them to the events that were so frequent at that time,” Ovitz says. “But that was the old Hollywood and much more relationship-based than it is now. I always say I got the tail end of the best part of the business.”

These days, Ovitz is New York-based and investing in a wide variety of businesses, roughly 200 by his count. He’s the owner of Hamasaku, the Santa Monica Boulevard sushi restaurant, where he’s sometimes seen with shoe designer Tamara Mellon, to whom he’s been engaged since 2014. But ask Ovitz about the business he’s most excited about these days, and he doesn’t hesitate. “I’ve become an investor and advisor to Black Forest Labs out of Germany, which produces Flux, the best text-to-video generation you’ll ever see,” he says. “I’ve shown it to several major directors, and they jump out of their chairs when they see it.”

It’s just one more example of how much the industry has changed since the days when an Armani suit reigned as the ultimate status symbol. “I remember watching Giorgio on The Untouchables set with all these incredible guys — De Palma and De Niro and Connery, and he was right there at the top alongside them,” Ovitz recalls. “You just looked at him at that moment and knew he was the real deal. He was a brilliant, creative guy.”