How C. P. Company Created an Icon—and Became the Grandaddy of Modern Street Style
There are few people, even in fashion, who really know the significance of the name Chester Perry. More, perhaps, know it by the name it morphed into: C. P. Company. Many more should. Because C. P. Company is and was the primogenitor of much of what we now recognize as street style. Celebrating 50 years in business this year, the Italian brand was founded in 1971 by Massimo Osti, a graphic artist from Bologna turned clothing engineer who, with a fascination for functional military and civilian clothing, set out to create an entirely new arm of Italian fashion. Call it Italian Sportswear.
These clothes would be defined by their military look and technical performance—the things they did for you. If street style is defined by creating high fashion out of elevated casual clothing, Osti did it first. There were other pillars of that movement in Italy, including Aspesi and Stone Island. Proving its longevity, both are still thriving. (The latter, by the way, was also founded by Osti.)
One of Osti’s most iconic and lasting designs for CP is the Mille Miglia jacket, a short parka inspired by and named after the classic and often deadly annual sports-car race down and back up the spine of Italy. It comes with goggles built into the detachable hood and a window on the left sleeve so you can read your watch while driving without having to pull back the sleeve.
New iterations of the Mille Jacket, as it's now known, arrive each season at C.P., now with Osti's son Lorenzo at the helm. They come with subtle changes to the design, and despite the constant innovations in fabrication, they feel almost outside of time—and certainly outside of the ebb and flow of trends. One canny way to gauge the continued relevance of the brand is to look for vintage Mille Miglia jackets on eBay, where the old ones looks just as fresh as the new.
C. P. Company started as an idea of style that lived on its own terms, outside of the mainstream of fashion. Osti often developed fabrics—painstaking researched over prolonged periods of time—that had textile specialists scratching their heads trying to create something that sprung from his imagination. The enduring appeal of the brand he founded is based on a premise that led to such innovative exploration: thinking of fashion as both an industrial and artisanal process. Free from the prevailing codes of office-wear and tailoring, the brand has engendered a sense of community for men and women who want more than just looking like they fit in.
There's too little room to do C. P. Company full justice here, but if you want a good idea of its enduring appeal, a monster book called C. P. Company 971-021 is available at cpcompany.com. It features a bunch of lifelong C. P. fans, including, here and there, a few famous faces.
A version of this story appears in the Winter 2021 issue of Esquire magazine. Subscribe to Esquire Select for unlimited access.
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