Everyone who works at Proper has experienced the same, strange recurring dream…
Inside this dream, you find yourself in Bologna – the faint smell of olives and cigarette smoke drifts through the Italian city. You enter a quaint house, and as if by magic, begin to drift up the stairs. You open a door to a room, and inside this room is the largest wardrobe you’ve ever seen. Within it is every type of Stone Island garment imaginable – Tela Stella’s, Ice Jackets, Formula Steels. Just as you begin trying some of the garments on, Massimo Osti’s voice calls up from below. And then you wake up.
This dream happens to everyone in the office at least once a month. We swap stories about the jackets we tried on, and the pieces we wish we could pull out into reality.
But some recent news might just bring our dreams to reality. The London-based platform, Known Source, is attempting to make that dream wardrobe tangible. Hosting an event where 15 of the world’s top Osti dealers will be bringing together over 2,000 archive pieces.
Rails are set to be stacked with golden era Stone Island, C.P. Company, Left Hand, Boneville, and even the elusive World Wide Web pieces you’ve only ever seen on Instagram. It’s not simply a sale – it’s a collector’s playground, a treasure trove where obsessives, insiders, and anyone who’s ever awoke in cold sweats thinking about Osti’s genius can finally see, touch, and try on the jackets they’ve been dreaming about.
Lorenzino Piazzi, Osti’s longtime collaborator and co-founder of World Wide Web, is set to be on location to share stories straight from the studio – like a ghost of the archive whispering secrets into the room. Sam Palmer, one of the UK’s most dedicated Stone Island collectors, will be giving back to the community with surprise archive giveaways. Add experimental furniture, thermochromic displays, and the low hum of people geeking out over fabrics and construction, and suddenly it’s easy to forget that you ever woke up from the dream at all.
For everyone who has raided Osti’s wardrobe in their dreams, this is as close as we’re going to get. Known Source has taken our fantasy, multiplied it by ten, and made it a reality. All that’s left to do is step inside – and maybe try/purchase/see a jacket that makes you wonder if you’ll ever want to wake up again.
The Known Source Stone Island Collector’s Paradise Archive Sale is set to take place on Saturday, the 28th of March at The Exchange in Marylebone – more info here
