THE BRAND

Stone Island has become an integral part of today's fashion world. The brand with the compass on the left arm has been more diversified in recent years than ever before. Everyone now owns at least one piece of the popular Italian luxury brand.

But it is not the last few years that have given the brand an eternal cult status. Stone Island has always been a cornerstone of modern fashion. Since its origins in 1982, Stone Island has been regarded as an antagonist of classic everyday fashion and at the same time as a pacemaker for progress. Whether it was innovation of techniques or fabrics, manufacturing processes or functionality, Stone Island always stood out from the crowd. And that caused a great response in the most diverse fashion trends.

HISTORY

Back then it was encountered by hooligans who got introduced to the brand while traveling abroad following their club´s away games. Later it was carried by the ravers of the techno subculture and was always seen in various context.

Massimo Osti is the founder of the brand, which was formed at the beginning of the 80´s from another existing Osti brand. All this was based on the discovery of a new fabric, Tela Stella, a kind of cotton linen, which was previously used in gliding sport. Massimo managed to colour the extremely robust and rustic material for the purpose of garment dying and wanted to equip his brand C. P. Company with it. When he offered the first collections made of Tela Stella to the market, he was confronted with many returns. The material bleached out after repeated washing and therefore had a completely different appearance. This was unimaginable for conditions and standards at that time. Especially products from the higher-priced category, as C. P. Company, stood for impeccable condition, even after years of use. So Massimo soon realized that Tela Stella needed a different platform and so a new brand was born out of a collection, as a spin-off - Stone Island.

Over the years, Stone Islands has consolidated its influence on fashion through the continuous development of its products. From one collection to the next, you can see how a garment has become more and more perfected, improving small blemishes, extending its durability, refining its appearance and adapting its feel to the wearer's needs. Stone Island always set itself the attribute of not being finished. The result is that Stone Island has indeed become perfect.

DESIGNER

At the beginning of 1990, there was a change in the brand's leading position. Carlo Rivetti, who previously assumed C. P. Company from Massimo Osti, became the new owner of Stone Island in cooperation with his sister in 1993, when C. P. Company was spun off from the GFT group. Massimo continued to work as a designer for the brand, but retired towards the end of 1994 and with the S/S collection in 1995 produced his last work for Stone Island. This made a notable impact on the designs of the brand's products. Paul Harvey, who has been stepping into Osti's footsteps since then, led the creative hand of the brand until 2008, after that there was always a team of designers, in which the young designer Joshua Bullen currently has the lead.

COLLECTIONS

These days Stone Island stands for innovation, the brave new and progressive fabric research. With their prototype series they show which paths can be taken and nothing is impossible any more. Materials such as bronze & steel are now used to make fabrics and Stone Island is the benchmark for the garment industry. Within their last collections they improved more & more garments, highlighting the new innovations into their Prototype Research Series which was back in 2016 – Lasering on Liquid Reflective base & 2017 – Garment Dyed Dyneema. Both techniques or fabrics were never seen before, the impact & result was amazing.

In the current youth Stone Island has been acting as a status symbol for the last few years, considerably involved in this is the current media presence of the brand with the compass badge on the left arm. Featuring more pieces which consider from their archives, from their great heritage, Stone Island is using older cuts, just again with a more modern interpretation, execution & durability. This combines now brand lovers from all periods of time into a whole new wave of Stoney fanatics.

Stone Island is now in the midst of the dynamic centre of the spirit of youth and older generations, a brand with a great past and a great future. For more than 30 years in the business and always performing.