What Stone Island is known for
Emilian fabric-research legend — dyed prototypes, compass badge, and the tech-wear canon since 1982. First collection was seven jackets in Tela Stella; Highsnobiety quotes Rivetti that the washed tarpaulin result was 'too strong for C.P. Company,' so a new brand was created.
Stone Island was founded in 1982 in Ravarino by Massimo Osti, the Bologna designer already running C.P. Company and already fashion's great fabric alchemist. The first collection came from Tela Stella, a two-tone truck-tarpaulin canvas he stone-washed until it looked shipwrecked — hence the name, borrowed from Conrad's seafaring pages. The compass badge on the left arm, buttoned and removable, became one of menswear's most loaded symbols.
The house's real product is research: garment-dyeing entire finished pieces so color sits in the seams, thermosensitive Ice Jackets that change shade with temperature, Reflective glass-microbead shells, non-woven metals. The Prototype Research series releases lab experiments in tiny numbers, collected like editions.
Carlo Rivetti steered it for three decades, from terrace-culture cult — adopted by football casuals, then by Drake — to Moncler Group's 2020 acquisition at over a billion euros. Osti's premise held throughout: the future of clothing is in the dye vat, not the logo. Though the badge didn't hurt.
In the press
- Highsnobiety 2018
Best for — Garment-dyed shells and research outerwear.
Made in Italy (Ravarino).
Where next
- C.P. Company — Italy
- American Vintage — Paris
- Côtelac — Paris
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