Massimo Osti founded Stone Island in 1982, an innovative and revolutionary brand in the fashion world. The fabrics of its first collections were inspired by the tarps used by truckers, giving the garments more durability and resistance, and making them look good even today without much deterioration. The “used effect” of these items is obtained through stone washing techniques.
In 1987 he discovered two new ways of working with rubber, and this lead him to combine it with wool and linen. He then went on and patented it as rubber flex and rubber wool, which were new types of rubber that gave linen and wool garments waterproof characteristics. It gave the clothes a new look and feel as well, and therefore the creation of the Raso Gommato iconic material.
In 1991 the Italian brand launched the “Reflective Jacket’ ; combining waterproof techniques with a thin layer of thousands of glass microspheres, where even the weakest beam of light can be reflected effectively. Another really interesting piece is the “Ice Jacket”, a thermosensitive jacket that drastically changes colour with lowering of the temperature.
Massimo Osti died in 2005, leaving a legacy of 5000 garments and more than 50.000 different fabric samples, which are now used in more than 250 textile factories around the world. Many of the brands that we know today use them for the finishing of their products.
Written by David Fernández
