Inside Stone Island’s monumental runway debut at Milan Trend Week

As your eyes adjusted to the veil of dry ice which hovered within the former industrial house on the outskirts of Milan which performed host to Stone Island’s first runway present on Friday night, you realised the presentation had already begun.

Strapped onto an infinite three-storey scaffold construction which ran the size of the house, fashions stood, inventory nonetheless, wanting outwards to the rows of bleacher-style seating within the front-on pose which reminded of Stone Island’s memorable campaigns (right here, they had been framed with squares of scaffolding, slightly than the same old stark white backdrop).

Stone Island makes its runway debut in Milan

As the primary presentation started, a blaring industrial techno soundtrack – loud sufficient to make the seats vibrate – recalled Stone Island’s longtime hyperlinks with the underground. First based in 1982 by C.P. Firm’s Massimo Osti, the Italian label, initially best-known for its outerwear, has since turn out to be synonymous with varied subcultures, from the Milanese Paninari to British ravers and soccer followers.

The present’s seems to be – which had been taken from the A/W 2024 assortment, in addition to the model’s archive – had been then illuminated with a lightweight present which featured glitching spotlights and laser-like beams which had been projected into the viewers. The ultimate flourish was the drop of an infinite black curtain, momentarily obscuring the fashions till they had been revealed on the present’s finish. The curtain was projected with the Stone Island brand, an everlasting image of road model, finest recognized for adorning patches on the model’s signature items.

Certainly, the image – which options the arms of a compass – offered the impetus for the present itself, which was titled ’The Compass Inside’. As a booming manifesto, learn at the start of the present, asserted, the model sees itself as ’an clothing store for interior worlds, for many who observe their very own path’. It additionally heralded a brand new chapter of types, with Stone Island now led by CEO Robert Triefus since June of final yr, having beforehand labored at outerwear behemoth Moncler. 

’The Compass Inside‘ was additionally the title of a brand new marketing campaign from the model, revealed the identical day and that includes the home’s S/S 2024 assortment. Celebrating the Stone Island ‘famiglia’, it options 16 Stone Island devotees from popular culture, together with actor Jason Statham, musician Dave, and upcoming British tennis participant Henry Searle. With the present and marketing campaign, Stone Island hopes to each cement its standing as a cult streetwear model, whereas courting a brand new technology by means of the social media views they generate. 

’Our imaginative and prescient for Stone Island is expressed in The Compass Inside, [which] establishes our core values in a tangible means,’ says Triefus of the marketing campaign. ’Relentless innovation, self-reliance, solidarity and materials obsession are the cardinal instructions of our compass. We design for the actual world, and so our new artistic narrative options notable figures from the international Stone Island household.’