Ideas from Massimo Osti

Product Information

Tracing the career of the iconic designer Massimo Osti from Bologna, this book examines the renowned brands he created, from Chester Perry to C. Instead, they all proudly wore a touch of history on their surfaces, like they already had adventures to tell. The material was brought back a couple of time with the last entry in 2012 for a 30th Anniversary jacket, but don’t expect to see a lot of these floating about. His studio was on the central Via Zanardi, the same street as the main faculties of the local university, whose history harks back to the Middle Ages.

Stone Island’s ‘Archivio’, published to commemorate the brand’s 30 th anniversary, is featured elsewhere in this blog – here we take a look at ‘Ideas from Massimo Osti’.In the early days of Stone Island, Massimo Osti spent a lot of time working on a material that seemed more suited to the military.

Knowing full well of my sudden about-turns with items of clothing, particularly those I most pestered her about, she told me to wait. While there was a free-wheeling inventiveness to his work, it never came at the detriment of function, which Massimo Osti considered essential; every little detail had a reason, from a dart placed mysteriously on an elbow or a ridiculous number of pockets. P. Company and Stone Island, of one of the most respected and imitated designers of his generation (crowned the most important man of 90s menswear by Arena Homme+), whose innovations confounded the rules of the industry and created the fabrics of today. Even at their brightest, Stone Island or CP Company garments – outerwear, mostly – never looked brand new, stiff, glaring or garish; not even the reflective pieces came across as cold and industrial. Stone Island has never been silly or predictably fashionable, and the boldness it oozes is palpable.His spirit continues to live through Stone Island and CP Company who are constantly developing on his works from thirty or more years ago but it would be criminal to forget his other works with brands such as Left Hand and Boneville. The material was nylon coated with resin, containing thermosensitive microcapsules which allowed colour change in the dye with change of temperature. Written and edited by Osti’s wife Daniela Facchinato, the book tells the story of the ‘godfather of sportswear’. The book tells its story through images of Osti's most important designs: his innovations in garment dyeing, his development of new fabrics inspired by the tarps truck drivers use to batten down loads, and other materials such as rubber flax, the "Ice Jacket" that changes colors with the temperature, or "Technowool," a wool and nylon wear-resistant "urban armor.