Ideas from Massimo Osti

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Massimo Osti was having none of that; he was always looking ahead, taking the best from the past, but making it defiantly of the now. We are talking about the time of Nintendo, Walkman, Back to the Future, RoboCop, Ghostbusters, Air Max 1’s… colour changing clothes was incredible! Instead, they all proudly wore a touch of history on their surfaces, like they already had adventures to tell. In the following weeks you will meet a couple of interesting characters that got inspired by the brand, worked with it, made a business out of it or just deeply fell in love with it. Ken-Tonio Yamamoto is a director, filmmaker, and visual media artist based in Berlin and if you've been following brands like Stone Island, ACRONYM, and Nike, you most definitely have seen his work before.

Working intensively with fabric treatments like dyes and stonewashes, he mastered the art of giving clothes an intensely worn, but not destroyed patina. The book Ideas from Massimo Osti traces the career of the visionary designer from Bologna, presenting his various brands, from the early silkscreen prints with Chester Perry, to his worldwide success with C. New Stone Island continues to be produced and bought, but true obsessives collect vintage Osti designs, such as the items featured in this story.

Ideas from Massimo Osti assembles sketches, photocopies, scraps of fabric, buttons, accessories and images of the celebrities that promoted his creations, from Bono and Madonna to Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper. The father of sportswear – or “urban armor” – set the requisite standards of a modern lifestyle brand. Re-organized by his family members, the archive based in Bologna now counts on a collection of more than 5.

Massimo Osti's designs have such a cult influence in the European fashion world that, this year, they've been meticulously catalogued in a massive 412-page tome, Ideas From Massimo Osti, edited by his wife, Daniela Facchinato, and published by Diamiani. In 1999 she opened the photography gallery "Daniela Facchinato Image Gallery" which immediately became a reference point for contemporary Italian photography.A single module can be worn as a highly water-resistant poncho or, when tied and pegged, can be used as a small shelter. Throughout the book you are shown the experimentation with fabrics and dyeing techniques, as well as going through the stages of Osti’s life, following his change from graphic designer to fashion innovator. We are indebted to the Bologna-born designer, active from the Seventies to the first decade of the third Millennium, for the invention of the garment dyeing technique, of rubberised satin and countless fabrics still in use after thirty years. These comprise sketches, photos, advertising campaigns, vintage garment designs that provided inspiration, etc and are designed to give a flavour of life in the Osti Studio. bicolori e molto illustrate con disegni e caratteri originali, prima edizione, in italiano, buone condizioni.

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. The images that accompany this story, styled by Pearmain and photographed by Alasdair McLellan, are proof of such unadulterated nowness. Osti put every design and material through rigorous and continual experimentation: under his instruction, his team tested and re-tested every last fiber used through rubber-coating, emery-brushing, resining, siliconing, oil finishing, bonding, and dying (the latter, with the help of in-house chemists).

The cult was definitely brought back to Britain by supporters who came in contact with the Paninari in Italy,’ says McLellan. The monograph contains 175 items and 200 accessories specially re-photographed for the book, besides the stylist’s annotations, dyeing trials, fabric samples and unpublished interviews.