Stone Island’s History and Development of the Shadow Project

Stone Island’s Shadow Project and Their Inspiration

Stone Island have always pushed the boundary with their designs. Silhouettes are military inspired, practical and architectural. Pockets, zips, patches and toggles are synonymous with their design. The designs, while often structurally simple, are often elevated by the methods used to create texture, and interesting surfaces of the materials they use for the garments. From the brands conception under the original creative direction of Massimo Osti, Stone Island has been innovative. The new Stone Island Shadow Project collection continues to explore multi-dimensional fabrics. By using interesting methods of manipulating the fabric, unique, and unrepeatable garments are made.

Colour

The new Stone Island Shadow Project collection features the colours you would expect from SI. Earth tones, cool browns, faded blues and off-grey shades. However, following on from the successes of brands like Off-White, it seems Stone Island have decided to adopt some more contemporary colours to contrast with their traditional earthy shades. Bright pops of neon can be seen across the line. From hems and cuffs in a stark neon tangerine to hoods in a fluorescent fuschia. On the other end of the spectrum, entire garments can be found in bright neon – a yellow structured bomber with zip and pocket detailing you’d expect from SI takes on a whole new feel in the luminous shade.

It seems colour is a major part of the new SS18 collection, and it gives it a runway feel. Experimental uses of bright colours make the collection stand out, and something that wouldn’t look amiss shown at fashion week. Coupling the colourful fabrics with structural designs, this is the of streetwear that is taking the high fashion world by storm. Rather than a collection that looks ready to wear straight off the model, these designs are provocative and edgier than we usually see from the brand.

Structure

Structurally, the garments remain similar to previous collections. Interestingly, a more long-line design seems to have been adopted across the range. As usual, parkas play a huge role in this collection. Their silhouettes are long and baggy. Accents are brought out of the garments through the use of zips, fabrics and patterns that make the garments look highly textured. Multi-dimensional is a word you could use to describe the SS18 collection. We can’t wait to get our hands on it.

Fabrics used throughout Stone Island collections both past and present have always been military grade. Complimenting the durable and practical designs we’ve seen over the years. The Shadow Project, in particular, has consistently provided the urban man with a brand of masculine apparel that can be counted on time and time again for quality and design. The strong technical design combines both form and function making Stone Island’s Shadow Projects both innovative yet classic at the same time.

Design

Form and structure for Stone Island to this day stay true to military roots. Perhaps the most interesting part of Stone Island’s process of creating garments though is the way they choose to colour and distress the fabrics. The hand-corroded garments are visually striking. Even though they are earthy tones, the use of removal accentuates highlights, textures and the architecture of the garments. Theprocess involves initially dyeing the garments. The dyed garments are then hand treated with a corrosive paste. The paste then begins the decolouration process of the garments. Owing to the application by hand, each garment is individual and unrepeatable.

Known for pushing the boundaries with their distressing and colouration techniques, Stone Island are keen on their methods being carried out by hand. For their AW14 collection, hand painted designs took the centre stage. The tortoiseshell jackets were decoloured in certain areas using the same corrosive paste that is used on the hand-corrosion items.

Perhaps our favourite, most understated design for the SS18 Stone Island collection is the ghost piece. The structured outerwear pieces are reaching peak sellout times. The popularity of these items is ever increasing, and it’s easy to see why.

Ghost Piece

The ghost pieces from the new collection are entirely monochromatic, hence the name. The badge and garment are one specific colour, meaning the branding takes a back seat to the architecture of the garment. Considering the Stone Island badge is often worn prominently like a badge of honour, (or style) these items are more low-key than others SI offer. The mono-colour badges blend into the garment, reflecting the concept of camouflage.

The ghost pieces are not only available in outerwear, though the parka jackets are at the top our wishlist. The all white jumpers featuring a white badge are striking, while the khaki roll necks have a real military, camouflage feel to them. The ghost piece collection even features trousers, so you could wear an entirely monochrome look if you wanted.

History

Stone Island began life as a separate but related entity to Massimo Osti’s label CP Company. The brand, while popular with British subcultures, is actually Italian. Stone Island is an unmistakable part of the British streetwear scene, with its compass emblem appearing on street style photos all across the internet.

With a cult following across Europe that has developed and grown since the brand’s conception in Italy in the 80’s, everything Stone Island does is followed and admired. Over the years, SI became a uniform for the “casuals” movement, but recently, it has become popular with underground music scenes such as grime.

Osti set the way for streetwear design today. Innovative design such as heat-reactive jackets, removable linings, and weather protective materials are now the norm within streetwear. However, it was Osti that brought this into the mainstream. Every fashion house will take inspiration from Stone Island and Osti in some way. Especially now, as streetwear influenced design starts to dominate the runways.

To buy Stone Island Shadow Project SS18, or Stone Island head over to Philip Browne. Alternatively, for a huge range of Stone Island and CP Company, our friends at Jonathan Trumbull’s can help.