Stone Island was created by chance, as we like to say, in 1982. At the time, the firm was called C.P. Company, as was the brand it produced. C.P. Company was considered the forefather of all Italian casual wear brands. Its “subtitle” was ‘Ideas from Massimo Osti’ and Massimo, a graphic designer and intellectual from Bologna invented it. In the mid Seventies, he was the first to get interested in army surplus garments, to understand the importance of the enormous cultural wealth to be found in vintage markets in Italy, a territory that through the ages had seen so many ancient and modern armies pass by. Massimo was the first to study the functional characteristics of these garments, cataloguing shapes, pockets, fastenings, garment accessories and studying the worn looks and faded colours that are so full of historical flavour. In order to reproduce them, in Ravarino, in the province of Modena, he perfected a sophisticated garment dyeing laboratory and experimental print works. He began research into materials and weaves, mixing them, coating them and transforming them by dyeing the finished garments.One day a special material arrived: a heavy lorry tarpaulin. It was red on one side and blue on the other. What could be done with that? In order to transform it into an item of clothing, it was put into a washing machine with water and pumice stone and washed, for hours, in order to soften its structure, subduing it.
The first prototype had an incredible feel, but it looked entirely outside of C.P. Company’s vocabulary. It did not belong to the label. As a result, a decision was made to create seven jackets in that unique fabric, known as “Tela Stella”, and to give the collection a name: Stone Island. Stone Island had a marine feel, reminiscent of oilskins that have been corroded by the sea, as well as a military feel, arising from the background of research undertaken up until that time. The name too, evoked the love for the sea and the treatment used to create the garments. The badge – the embroidered fabric label that has distinguished the brand since the first season – held the Compass Rose and was displayed like an insignia on a military garment.
Mik Jagga
