The Massimo Osti Studio label pushes back the technical boundaries of Italian sportswear

The Massimo Osti Studio team unveiled the concept for this new Italian urban sportswear label in a former workshop converted into a venue in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Far from its premises in Bologna, the premium brand wanted to mark its ambition right from its first season by showing during Men’s Fashion Week.

Massimo Osti: a name that has been the ultimate benchmark for generations of workwear and functional clothing enthusiasts. The Italian designer-engineer, who died in 2005, revolutionised sportswear fashion, never hesitating to change the way things were done, from dyeing to screen-printing, and to test and develop new materials for his garments. An approach that has underpinned the success of brands like Stone Island and C.P. Company.

Today, a label bearing the designer’s name has been created: Massimo Osti Studio. His son, who has taken over as CEO of the C.P. Company, is the driving force behind the project and was in Paris in mid-January to remind us of his father’s legacy. Archive items were on display and old interviews with the designer were shown. In the centre of the venue, the brand’s pieces came to life on a huge mechanical rack. The label does not offer seasonal collections and aims to work on a chapter-by-chapter basis. In 2024, three event chapters and five product chapters are to come, each exploiting an ultra-technical material.

“We could have delved into Massimo Osti’s immense archives and work to create this label. But his true legacy lies in his ongoing desire to break new ground and develop new materials. That’s what we wanted to do with Massimo Osti Studio,” explains Silvio Vigato, the brand director. Our teams have suggestions for materials that we can’t always use at C.P. Company, but here we can work with them by combining them with specific construction techniques.

It’s also a way for C.P. Company to accustom the market to new materials and test their commercial potential. Each chapter consists of a look in one or two colours with half a dozen pieces. For the launch, the brand has also created a capsule of basics that have been on sale since January 17 on its website, but the first chapter will go on sale on February 7. These include a loose-fitting parka and trousers made from Alcantara, a tough and comfortable non-woven fabric with a thermobonded construction. A rucksack completes the outfit.

In terms of distribution, the range (some 400 pieces per chapter) will be showcased on the brand’s e-commerce site and in a selection of 20 to 30 leading sportswear retailers around the world. Even though these are new technologies and special materials, we don’t want to position ourselves as a luxury brand,” explains the brand director. Prices will be around 30% higher than those of C.P. Company. But that’s also why we’re presenting it in Paris, because with this work we feel we’ve earned our place on the world stage.”

Clearly, the project is also intended to establish C.P. Company, owned by the Hong Kong group Tristate Holdings, as a legitimate player in premium fashion through technicality and authenticity. Every six weeks, Massimo Osti Studio will present a chapter. This year will see a look in jacquard developed by Limonta 1893 using an assembly technique that limits the number of seams, another in Technomesh, using nylon that has benefited from double digital printing, a Gore-Tex solution with specific waterproofing properties and an original light black colour treatment and, finally, a reinterpretation of the Technowool material used by Massimo Osti in the 1990s for his jackets, with the use of a material called Fresco Wool Gum in a deep burgundy colour.

The cuts and attention to detail in each proposal testify to the expertise of C.P. Company’s design teams, whose dynamism the owner highlighted at the time of its half-yearly financial results for mid-2023, particularly in its strong markets like Italy and France.