In 1982, Stone Island released its first outerwear collection constructed from Tela Stella, a canvas impregnated with resin, coloured a different shade on each side, and inspired by military tarpaulin. The release saw the stirrings of a new type of fashion fan, buying not into logos or branding but experimental pieces as a result of industrial innovation.
Founder Massimo Osti named Stone Island after the two words that appeared most frequently in the novels of Joseph Conrad. And now, with the release of Rizzoli’s Stone Island: Storia, the brand has established its own literary lexicon. The monograph offers an insight into the history of Stone Island, celebrating its mythic HQ or ‘kitchen’ where otherworldly materials – like thermosensitive leather and satin weave cotton faded with corrosive pastes – are masterminded.
RELATED STORY
The volume also delves into the brand’s impact on youth culture and the resonance of its compass-patch logo with football supporters, Britpop artists and rappers. In 2017, one of the brand’s biggest fans, Liam Gallagher, was so incensed by the theft of his beloved Stone Island parkas from his hotel room while he was playing Glastonbury that he took to Twitter to demand their return.
Prototype Research_Series 02, limited edition, series of 50 pieces.
i-D Magazine editorial (2006).
Carlo Rivetti inside the Color Lab at Stone Island's HQ in Ravarino, Italy (1993)
INFORMATION
A version of this story appeared in the November 2020 issue of Wallpaper*, guest edited by Design Emergency. A free PDF download of the issue is available here.
stoneisland.co.uk
rizzoliusa.com
-
Pedro y Juana's take on architecture: 'We want to level the playing field’Mexico City-based architects Padro y Juana bring their transdisciplinary, participatory approach to the Mexico pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025; find out more
-
The Sialia 45 cruiser is a welcome addition to the new generation of electric boatsPolish shipbuilder Sialia Yachts has launched the Sialia 45, a 14m all-electric cruiser for silent running
-
Tokyo design studio We+ transforms microalgae into coloursCould microalgae be the sustainable pigment of the future? A Japanese research project investigates
-
‘If someone says no, you’re talking to the wrong person’: how make-up artist Marcelo Gutierrez created his own universe in New YorkFresh from publishing his first book ‘Nothing Precious’, Marcelo Gutierrez speaks with Mary Cleary about his friends, collaborators and making it as a young creative in New York City
-
Fashion’s favourite bookstore, Climax, opens a ‘sexy, angry’ New York outpostWallpaper* catches up with Isabella Burley, founder of Climax, as she inaugurates a New York outpost of the cult bookstore and showcases a playful new collaboration with fashion label Chopova Lowena
-
Inside Karl Lagerfeld’s extraordinary Paris library and bookshop, a haven for the bibliophileWe take an exclusive tour of Karl Lagerfeld’s Paris bookshop and library 7L, which is keeping the legendary fashion designer’s vision alive with a scintillating programme of cultural events
-
Jouissance: the perfume brand turning erotic French literature into subversive scentsJouissance has interpreted the literature of Anaïs Nin, Anne Desclos and Catherine Millet into perfume, brand founder Cherry Cheng tells Wallpaper*
-
Remembering Liquid Sky, the cult 1990s New York fashion store that was ‘also a scene’As a new book is released, Liquid Sky founders Claudia Rey and Carlos Slinger tell Wallpaper’s Mary Cleary about the downtown fashion store that attracted New York’s underground and had Chloë Sevigny as a sales clerk
-
Guido Palau completely transforms Kaia Gerber’s hair in new book ‘Hidden Identities’Guido Palau and Kaia Gerber have collaborated on a book project, Hidden Identities, which sees the model sport a plethora of different wigs in technicolour shades
-
’Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022’ is a definitive guide to the pioneering Japanese designer’Issey Miyake: 1960 to 2022’ is a new Taschen book that provides a comprehensive overview of the pioneering Japanese designer’s ’poetic but pragmatic’ work
-
Thom Browne on his 20th-anniversary book, curated by Andrew Bolton‘Thom Browne’ the book, a collaboration with partner Andrew Bolton, charts the American designer’s career. Here, Browne tells Wallpaper* the story behind his first monograph
