Unique Minds 9: General update + Talking about Stone Island

Still talking to manufacturers this week…

I decided this week that I really would like to do fashion design as a full-time job in the future and so I’m likely going to do it at uni - which is why in these blogs I’m going to focus more on researching other brands and designers so I can start to build a knowledge of not only fashion but also start to build up my portfolio, so I hope you enjoy them :)

This week I'm going to focus on the Italian designer Massimo Osti, who founded fashion brands such as Stone Island, C.P Company and Boneville. He was a graphic designer in his early years and went on to print on t-shirts, being a pioneer in certain types of t-shirt printing. His first t-shirt collection was a success and so he went on to create his first fashion collection which eventually became CP Company. Osti was a great innovator in terms of new uses of fabrics in high-end fashion and also pioneered new ways that fabrics could be dyed. He was heavily inspired by military wear and wanted his products to be multi-functional and to last a long time while also creating styles that stay relevant for years after you have bought it. When both CP-company and Stone Island where created there was no way for someone to imitate the clothes as fast-fashion retailers didn’t really exist yet and so you could tell someone was wearing high-end fashion from a mile away. Nowadays however you can get a coat or hoodie which looks nearly identical to a stone island piece for 1/10^th of the price which is where I think stone island and CP company need to innovate.

If I had the opportunity to ‘re-fresh’ stone island I would effectively cut the company into two, creating a ‘Stone Island Basic Collection’ and a ‘Stone Island Innovator Collection’. The basic collection would contain basic pieces for a lower price than the Innovator collection. It would be where you go if you want to get into the brand without spending a fortune while also not making too much of a statement- the pieces offered in the basic collection would be subtle and plain, often just one colour with the iconic badge on the sleeve. At the moment if you wanted to buy a new stone island tee, the starting price for the very basic of tees is £68 with prices going up to £130- with this refresh of the brand I would cut the cost to £45 for the most basic tee and around £100 for the most expensive tee. This would allow more people to get into the brand without spending a fortune but the shirts would still be considered high-end by most people. These basic tees would have subtle branding and simple graphics and would come in a wide array of colours. I would cut the price for the majority of pieces currently available on the store and also cut back on how many styles there are on the site. The basic collection would be updated with new styles and colours every 2 months with a completely new collection releasing twice a year- Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. All of the pieces in the basic collection would pay heritage to stone islands past using their iconic fabrics and dyeing techniques, however, the more experimental clothing would be created for the ‘innovator’ collection.

You may be thinking that by cutting costs and offering fewer styles that the brand will start to fall out of the luxury as more people will be able to get stone island but this is where the ‘Stone Island Innovator Collection’ comes in. This collection is all about experimentation and using new materials, dyes, and just letting the top designers of the brand explore new techniques. The pieces would be extremely limited with new clothes releasing every 2 weeks throughout the year. The prices would also be higher due to the experimental nature of the pieces and because of how limited they would be. The section is less about making money and more about coming up with new techniques which could be used in the more basic collection later down the line. This collection would also hopefully get the media talking as the designs would be very innovative with new techniques being used. All the designs would obviously stick to stone islands brand identity but would be much more out-there than what they have on offer currently. Every 2 weeks a new graphic t-shirt would be released as part of the ‘innovator’ collection- this t-shirt would be priced much lower than the rest of the items in the collection at around £80- this would allow people to buy something from the collection without shelling out on one of the much more expensive pieces.

I do feel stone island is in need of at least a small re-fresh with at least getting new designers on board because at the moment I can picture many of the pieces in the store being sold at places like Uniqlo- which is why the ‘innovator’ collection is a good idea as it gives people a specific place to go when looking to buy a more experimental piece.

I would also use the iconic stone island badges more- each new release in the ‘basic’ collection would have an embroidered number underneath the logo symbolising what date it released. And with the ‘innovator’ collection I would use new embroidery techniques on the badge and change the colours on the logo, and these colours/ techniques will all mean a specific thing such as what fabric was used or what designer came up with the garment. You could use 3M reflective embroidered thread, glow in the dark thread, heat-sensitive thread etc. All these things would likely grab the attention of the customer and make each release better and more innovative than the last.

That is not to say stone-island is not innovative because it most defiantly is- every dye used is produced in house and every piece is cut and sew in house also. There is great passion at stone island but my suggestions are what I would do in order to bring the brand to the forefront of people’s minds once again, creating luxury innovative high-quality pieces.

Hopefully you liked this blog, it’s a bit different to what I normally do but I think I'll do a brand re-fresh included every week from now on.

What I would like to apply to jelno: At jelno, I want to have a strong belief in quality and producing pieces of clothing that can last for years, and possibly have multiple uses. I really want to innovate, constantly applying new print and embroidery techniques to the pieces I create, eventually having all pieces from jelno being cut and sew using fabrics made in-house. Innovation is hard for me at the moment as I have very limited funds but I still want to experiment with techniques like tie-dye, glow-in-the-dark prints, reflective prints and more. I don’t want to just follow other people and brands but I want to innovate and carve out my own style and trends. It's important to really understand the chemistry and engineering behind fabrics to make a really quality product and I think this is what made Massimo Osti (who designed Stone Island and CP company) so good at what he did.

I’ve included some pictures of some different innovative stone island pieces down below, which one do you like the most?

See you next week with another blog, if you have any interest at all in JELNO try and spread the word as much as possible it's a massive help <3

If you ever want to ask a question or just get in touch the Instagram is: @jelno_uk, email is: jelno.uk@gmail.com and you can always comment down below.

Have a good week ;)