EXCLUSIVE: Military Jackets and Ballgowns Inspired Dior’s Capsule With Cult Brand Stone Island
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PARIS — Stone Island is getting the couture treatment.
Dior has joined forces with the cult Italian sportswear label, worn by everyone from British action hero Jason Statham to rapper Drake, on a capsule collection that melds utilitarian staples with rich embellishments rooted in the French fashion house’s archives, the brands revealed to WWD exclusively.
Kim Jones, artistic director of men’s collections at Dior, is a longtime fan of the brand founded by Massimo Osti in 1982 — so much so that he is one of the faces of its upcoming campaign featuring members of its community.
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“Stone Island is something that I’ve worn since I was a teenager. I could afford one piece. I remember saving up for it and it was so hard to get,” Jones said in an interview at the Dior showroom in Paris. “It was just a little sweatshirt, but with the patch, and I was probably about 19.”
The designer was referring to the buttoned badge bearing the brand’s signature compass logo that has been a beacon for subcultures ranging from the paninari teenagers of Milan in the ‘80s to British football fanatics in the ‘90s and more recently, U.S. hip-hop fans introduced to Stone Island through its collaboration with cult New York skatewear brand Supreme.
For Jones, Osti remains a key reference in menswear.
“His work is something you always look at, especially when you’re doing outerwear, because he’s one of the best in the world,” he said, lauding Stone Island for maintaining a strong brand identity. “It’s kept its DNA really strong and its technique really strong, and I just think there’s nothing like it. It means a lot to me personally.”
Jones saw parallels between founder Christian Dior and Osti in their quasi-obsessive quest for perfection. “The detail, the fabrication, the consistency: it was working with the silhouette, and refining and refining,” he said.
Owned by Moncler SpA since 2021, Stone Island is in the midst of a rebrand spearheaded by Robert Triefus, the former Gucci executive who took over as chief executive officer last year. Conversations with Dior were already underway when Triefus arrived.
“It fit very well with the vision that we have for Stone Island in this next chapter,” Triefus said. “Our intention is to reach broadly different communities and certainly the partnership with Dior will reinforce, perhaps for a more elevated customer, the values that the brand Stone Island brings to life.”
Osti, who died in 2005, was known for developing scores of new fabrics, treatments and dyeing processes, many of which found their way into the 74-piece collection, which includes ready-to-wear, shoes, leather goods and accessories.
“This is a brand and a label that was founded in a certain part of Italy that is not necessarily known for fashion per se, but for industrial design,” noted Triefus.
Stone Island is based in Ravarino in the region of Emilia-Romagna, home to the so-called “motor valley” that houses leading carmakers including Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati and Maserati.
Channeling Italy’s world-class manufacturing capacity, the brand has elaborated cutting-edge materials like heat-sensitive and reflective fabrics, in addition to a library of 60,000 colors.
Among its inventions is Raso Gommato, made by coating a military-origin cotton satin with a polyurethane film that makes the fabric wind resistant, and dyeing the garment with a mixture containing a special PFC-free, water-repellent finish.
The weatherproof textile was used on a number of looks, ranging from outerwear pieces like a marbled pale gray jacket with deep front pockets, to tailored options like a suit in oilskin yellow, one of the key colors in the collection.
Another example is its proprietary blend of Habutai silk and nylon. The slightly iridescent material was employed for washed black or pale green suits with Dior’s signature oblique-buttoned jacket, as well as detachable quilted waistcoats that fasten to jackets and coats using Stone Island’s so-called “dutch rope” system.
Both houses also brought their clothing archives to the table.
A field jacket from Stone Island’s spring 1988 collection, originally made of cotton and rubber, was reworked in cotton silk with a leather pocket embossed with the compass rose and Dior’s trademark cannage motif.
More surprisingly, sweaters, bomber jackets, field jackets and coats were embellished with tone-on-tone 3D floral embroideries inspired by Raf Simons’ spring 2013 haute couture collection for Dior, in a fanciful twist on the ghillie suits worn as camouflage by soldiers.
The pièce de résistance is a black raincoat embroidered with bows, rhinestones and gray bead pendants directly lifted from the Première Soirée ballgown from Dior’s fall 1955 haute couture collection.
At 80,000 euros, it’s the most expensive piece in the line, which starts at 300 euros for a keyring and runs around 5,200 euros for jackets.
“I just thought if we’re going to do it, and there is that collector of Stone Island and also of Dior that wants a special piece that they love, I think that’s a very important thing to have,” Jones said. “It’s molding the stories together in a very luxurious way.”
As a tribute to Stone Island’s color expertise, accessories include a circular leather trunk stamped with a compass rose that contains a painting kit produced with Maison Sennelier, the French store founded in 1887 that has supplied materials to leading artists including Picasso and Cézanne.
The partnership is bound to resonate with collectors, given that Dior has produced only a handful of co-branded collections, including a luggage line with Rimowa in 2019 and a capsule with Japanese label Sacai in 2021.
“Seeing those two brands together is a sign of the immense respect that each has for the other, and the legacy that each brings,” said Triefus, noting that the Rivetti family, which previously controlled Stone Island, was also highly selective in terms of brand collaborations, a strategy he plans to maintain.
These included several collections with Supreme between 2014 and 2023; a range of bags with Japanese accessory brand Porter from 2015 to 2020; a capsule with Nike Golf in 2019, and an ongoing tie-up with New Balance, with the next sneaker set to drop in June.
The capsule collection with Dior will land as Stone Island starts to deploy the next chapter of its campaign, which will include a female participant for the first time, and prepares to bring its e-commerce back in-house with a website to be unveiled in August.
“Certainly we believe strongly that this partnership will increase brand awareness for Stone Island and we can imagine that there are certain parts in the world that will benefit particularly,” Triefus said.
This includes Paris, where the brand plans to open a new store on Rue Saint-Honoré designed by Rem Koolhaas and his Rotterdam-based studio OMA before the end of the year.
The collection will be available exclusively in Dior boutiques, going on sale in Milan on June 14; Paris and London on June 18; the U.S. on June 27, and the rest of the world on July 4.
Dior x Stone Island Collection: A Closer Look [PHOTOS]
Launch Gallery: Dior x Stone Island Collection: A Closer Look [PHOTOS]
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