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.
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Photos & text Copyright Stone Island.