Since we’re in Italy, let’s start in the kitchen. This particular kitchen has around 60,000 recipes, but rather than whipping up ragù, this is where Stone Island’s impressive range of fabric colours are cooked up. The brand might be best known for its badge, but its true essence lies in its material innovations, such as its dyeing processes.
‘The design team build a palette, then we give that to the colour team for them to start doing the recipe,’ says Sasha Kanevskyi, Stone Island’s design director, as we tour the brand’s HQ in Ravarino, Emilia-Romagna, first taking in the ‘tintoria’, an old warehouse full of dye drums, archaic-looking washing machines, Wonka-esque pipes and flasks of bright potions. The classic white lab coats come with the Stone Island signature: the brand’s compass on the upper arm.
