Massimo Osti collected something like 35,000 pieces during his career, and 5,000 of them are still preserved in his archive. A remarkable item, I wanted one so very badly, and in hindsight, I should have bought what became an instant collector’s item. The book tells its story through images of Osti's most important designs: his innovations in garment dyeing, his development of new fabrics inspired by the tarps truck drivers use to batten down loads, and other materials such as rubber flax, the "Ice Jacket" that changes colors with the temperature, or "Technowool," a wool and nylon wear-resistant "urban armor. According to Ashley Heath, the editor of Arena Homme+ and The Face, Massimo Osti has been an all-pervading influence on men’s fashion since the Nineties.

For centuries, after the fall of the Roman Empire, we have been a land of little commons and little feuds, and we have always nurtured our genius loci with immense pride, trying to be as different as possible from our neighbours just a few kilometres away. The images in this story, just like my vivid memories, are filled with Stone Island archive pieces that do not smell or spell past, but talk of the now. To dream of adventurous pastimes, of holidays on a yacht or on the ski slopes in a jacket that changed color. The book documents the period from 1978-1986 and it's essentially the best xerox book you will ever see.The book tells its story through images of Osti’s most important designs: his innovations in garment dyeing, his development of new fabrics inspired by the tarps truck drivers use to batten down loads, and othermaterials such as rubber flax, the “Ice Jacket” that changes colors with the temperature, or “technowool,” a wool and nylon wear-resistant “urban armor. It’s no wonder that Osti, with his love of all things functional, was drawn to the design and included it in his first collection for Stone Island.

Two versions of the book are available – the standard 412 page edition, plus a limited Special Edition of 150 with each numbered volume bound in a piece of cloth from the Studio Osti Archive, including some of the most iconic fabrics used such as glass reflective, Ice and Marina. Second Edition of Ideas from Massimo Osti, the 432 page monograph published by Corraini and four years in the making, is the definitive look at one of the most influential and secretly revered names in Italian fashion history (copied from the high street to high fashion, his garments are the metaphorical skeleton in the closet of many of the world's most famous designer's studios).

Daniela Facchinato, Massimo’s wife, has focused on this project since 2008, and the book, edited and written by her, is a fitting testimonial to her late husband – the photography is magnificent throughout and the book has an excellent balance between images and narrative providing the reader with a comprehensive history of Osti’s work. The images that accompany this story, styled by Pearmain and photographed by Alasdair McLellan, are proof of such unadulterated nowness. In our ever-connected globalized world, national identities might appear irrelevant to fashion, but a local spirit is an essential ally in the war on the generic.

Back in the early 1980s, with business booming, Osti had sold a majority stake in Stone Island and CP to Carlo Rivetti, the owner of Sportswear Company. It provides a unique glimpse into the mind of a true design genius and innovator – it is literally a work of wonder. Not only was he creating rugged and hardwearing clothing for the consumer but also designed uniforms for Volvo, the Swedish car manufacturers. By working like an industrial designer and by putting the consumer first, Osti imbued his work with a truthfulness that today has been completely erased by the idea that astute storytelling can help selling nothingness as genius.We are talking about the time of Nintendo, Walkman, Back to the Future, RoboCop, Ghostbusters, Air Max 1’s… colour changing clothes was incredible! His belief that “the important thing is to know how to pick the right moment to revisit a garment, adapting it to current needs” developed his unique understanding of functionality and anticipation in the market. His genius was then to take those ideas and remould them into something totally new and modern in look and feel.

The book tells its story through images of Osti’s most important designs: his innovations in garment dyeing, his development of new fabrics inspired by the tarps truck drivers use to batten down loads, and other materials such as rubber flax, the “Ice Jacket” that changes colors with the temperature, or “Technowool,” a wool and nylon wear-resistant “urban armor. I used to actively look for his designs and my memories are full both of pieces I did purchase – the field jackets, the incredibly supple garment-dyed shirts, and the ruby-red Shetland wool CP Company cardigan that I bought in 1992 as a freshman at university and still wear today – as well as pieces I never managed to get my hands on.Written and edited by Osti's wife Daniela Facchinato, Ideas from Massimo Osti includes over 1000 images, (including 175 newly photographed individual garments from throughout his career), never seen before sketches, notes, dyeing tests, fabric samples and interviews.