As a teenager in England in the early 1990s, Kim Jones clearly remembers trying to get her hands on Stone Island. “You just couldn’t find it,” says the artistic director of Dior Men’s. “There were only a few stores that carried it in the UK and we saved money to try and buy it. It was like Stüssy: one of those must-have brands.” He eventually got a sweatshirt, which quickly had the buttoned compass badge stolen (the removable brand symbol usually displayed on the left bicep). “That’s how much demand there was back then.”
The Italian manufacturer Since its founding in 1982, it has always been susceptible to exaggeration. Loved for its technical prowess, fabric innovation and unconditional values of “function over form”, it has been co-opted by a wide cross-section of society over the decades. Positioned as a brand for the people, it nevertheless has a price – justified by the extensive research that goes into designing the clothes – that makes it aspirational (jackets start at £550 and go up to £2,000).
Over the last 10 years, Stone Island has gone from a specialized, niche men’s fashion brand to a global phenomenon, with revenues set to reach €411 million by 2023 and monclerThe acquisition in 2021 values the brand at 1,150 million euros. Its international success is due in part to collaborations with Supreme, Nike, New Balance or Adidas; and his last association with diorwhich launches in the UK at Selfridges this month and then globally in July, cements its appeal in the luxury sector.
“I love Stone Island – they make some of the best technical outerwear in the world,” adds Jones. “When someone is such a specialist and perfects their craft so well, you can only admire them.”
The Dior collection (from €300), made up of 60 pieces, includes outerwear, sweatshirts, pants and accessories that combine codes and techniques from both brands. “It’s about haute couture versus our industrial approach, and how those parts complement each other in terms of fabric research, design and process,” says Stone Island design director Silvio Rivetti. Inspiration is drawn from the archives of both brands: a double-fold tailoring motif appears in Dior’s spring/summer 1952 collection, while the internal structures are characterized by Stone’s “Dutch rope” joining and disconnecting system Island. “The two brands exist in completely different arenas in the industry,” adds Rivetti, “but we both know our craft and share a mutual respect for what we do.”
Stone Island was founded in Ravarino, Italy, by Massimo Osti, the fashion designer who also founded the brand. company CP. Osti pioneered garment dyeing, a process that involves coloring clothing after cutting and sewing, allowing for unique tone-on-tone effects in finished products. Her first Stone Island collection included seven jackets made from Tela Stella, a durable fabric derived from the tarps used to cover military trucks, and coated on both sides with different colored resin. The fabric was washed with enzymes, both to give it a faded appearance and to weaken the robustness of the material; her first experimentation for a brand that would later dye Kevlar, create a color-changing “Ice” fabric, and a jacket made of stainless steel.
A key part of Stone Island’s history lies in the people who have used it. In the ’80s, the brand was adopted by Milan’s Paninaro, a hedonistic subcultural group similar to American yuppies, who got their name from the sandwich shops they frequented. They wore the brand alongside other fashionable work and performance apparel, including Moncler, Levi’s, and Timberland, and sparked a cultural movement.
However, its best-known association is that of English football fans, who are said to have encountered the brand while traveling to European Championship matches in the 1980s and 1990s. “Stoney,” as fans nicknamed it, It became a mainstay of the casual terrace style, while at the same time being associated with vandalism; some grounds and pubs even banned Stone Island clothing due to this perceived link.
The brand also became a staple of the British pop wardrobe, with Liam Gallagher wearing it (and, in 2017, making headlines when his Stone Island jackets were stolen from his hotel room after he played Glastonbury). He has transitioned through British musical genres, from the rave culture of the early ’90s to the Grime scene of the 2000s, adopted by rappers like Skepta and Kano, and then to North America, where he has found favor with Drake and A$AP Nast . .
Vintage Stone Island is highly collectible. Jackets from the original 1982 series can fetch up to $5,000 on resale platform Grailed, while styles from well-known designers including Osti, who left the company in 1994, and Paul Harvey, who was head designer from 1996 and 2007, are in special demand. . “I have one of the original jackets from 1982, which is beautiful and faded, and I will never get rid of it,” says Stone Island collector and reseller Robert Gale. “My other favorite is a military parka, designed by Paul Harvey, which has fiber optic cables and a battery, so you can turn it on in the dark.” Gale also notes that any item where the insignia is not in its usual position, which was common in the early years of production, is a hot commodity among collectors. “If you can find something that’s not on the left arm, it usually means it’s a special piece.”
Without a doubt, the collaboration with Dior will also be collectible. “There is a field jacket, taken from Stone Island’s fall/winter 1988 collection, that I think fully expresses the soul of the collaboration,” Rivetti says. “It’s a military archetype that has been manipulated to be more sophisticated with the use of silk and then has embellishments on top.” Stone Island’s compass badge is made of silk and has Dior’s signature cannage motif sewn onto it.
Stone Island has always insisted that it is not a fashion brand. “We also don’t perceive Stone Island as a streetwear brand,” says Rivetti, “but in the last 10 years, the streetwear culture has embraced us. “We consider ourselves the definitive product label.” Regardless of how the brand perceives itself, its representative fans, from football to fashion, are always willing to reinvent it as they see fit.
Dior and Stone Island are in stores Selfridges London since June 18; releases worldwide on July 4
Model, Feranmi Ajetomobi in Wilhelmina. Cast, Tiago Martins in Ben Grimes. Toilet, Ami Fujita using Bumble and Bumble. Digital operator, Okus Milsom. Stylist assistant, Lucía Bustillo. Shot at Battersea Power Station