UPDATED: Lorenzo & Agata Osti Live Q&A Transcript.
Posted on September 20, 2009
Filed Under Other Brands, C.P. Company, Stone Island
Updated. Thank you again to the Ostis for taking the time to chat with all the FOUND_NYC members about Ma.Strum, their father and the Osti Studio’s up coming projects. Some great questions asked an answered, including the debunking of one of the biggest Stone Island myths of all time, the origins of the Stone Island name. Click below for full transcript.
September 22, 2009 : Transcript of live chat with Lorenzo and Agata Osti with fnyc members:
Click here to view the full conversation.
–
Lorenzo & Agata Osti Q&A with members on FNY. Questions submitted by users have been chose at random to be answered.
Lorenzo & Agata: Hello everybody. I’m here with my sister Agata in our Studio in Bologna, we thank Gene and all of you for this opportunity. Me and Agata will move through your posts to try to answer to your questions. I think will be impossible to answer all of you but we’ll do our best 
What do you think of our little community?
L&A: We’re really proud of it! We discovered found-nyc about one year ago and were happily surprised to find so many people with such affection and dedication to our father’s work
What do you think about sites like this, are you amazed at how higher regard we hold your father?
L&A: Wow, of course we do! This community is amazing! as I wrote before, I never suspect to find so much affection from customers to our father’s work. He is very appreciated and respected in the industry, but in Italy he is not so popular within the final customers (he is known for his brands but not personally). It was really a surprise for me
Who is the most famous / unlikely collector that they know of?
L&A: Gene for sure 
I feel we do an awful lot for SPW, would it be possible to have some sort of limited edition designed jacket for FOUND_NYC members?
L&A: Actually we’re in very good relations with the Rivettis, but we don’t have nothing to do with SPW now, so we can’t do that. But we’re working on other projects from the Studio
Just where did the name of Stone Island come from?
L&A: The name Stone Island came from a research made within Joseph Conrad books. Our mom selected few keyword to invoke the naval/sea/adventure inspiration of the brand. Massimo than picked and put together two of them, and invented Stone Island
Which is the true story of the boat name origin?
L&A: The boat was called Coast to Coast, was the name of a brand which had a short life during SPW if I remember well… I can do some more research if you are interested in
What do you think of the way SI/CP has progressed after your father left?
L&A: Well… different stories for SI and CP. Paul Harvey has certainly evolved the SI concept and we really appreciated his work. CP in my opinion has had more problems due to frequent change of designers
Did Osti design for Boneville, if so for how long and what is the history of the Navy Arctic line?
L&A: Sure. Boneville was a brand of SPW company, in the mood of C.P./SI but more affordable. He always designed it until he worked for SPW. Navy artic was a part of Boneville collection inspired by SI Marina
Did Osti design for Taverniti, if so for how long?
L&A: No, he never did it.
What was your father’s favourite sport?
L&A: Basketball
Outside of the fashion word where did he draw his influences from?
L&A: For sure military and work wear
Did your father have a great deal of interest in environmental issues?
L&A: Yes, besides the Rainforest Foundations he financed the creation of an electric racing car which won a lot of competitions
What was Massimo Osti’s favoured labels away from his own and SPW?
L&A: Well… rather than the brands, he was fond of designers. In particular Paul Smith and Armani for the coherence of their work and their managing capabilities
Did your father really ‘invent’ the concept of stonewashing denim?
L&A: Massimo didn’t invent the stone washing, it’s an urban legend
If you were pushed, what is your favouite label… SI / CP, and why?
L&A: Well, personally SI for the work done by Paul Harvey these years
What is in your opinion the best coat made that has given the most satisfaction and renouned reviews?
L&A: The 1000 miglia of course
What was Massimo’s favourite piece and what are your favourite items he designed ?
L&A: He didn’t have a favorite piece over all, but the field jkt the model he liked more. He was always wearing one over the blazer
I’d like to know what the great man was like away from work? What sort of personality did he have? What hobbies did he enjoy?
L&A: He was quite a private person, he really love to sail and he was used to spent most of his free time on his boat (he had a Swan 65 ketch for many years)
What was the reason behind starting the label and where the name comes from?
L&A: First of all, we have to clarify that Ma.Strum it’s a project from Donrad Duncan. So actually it’s not us who decided to start the brand.
We had the opportunity to meet him in the early stage of the project (he was quitting Victorinox and planning to build his own brand) and we immediately became friends. We really appreciated his approach to design that is very similar to our fathers’. Of course the work of Donrad is clearly inspired by Massimo, especially in the fabric research, even if they never had the opportunity to meet.
These are the reason why we decided to collaborate, by allowing Donrad to access our fabrics archive to get direct inspiration. The garment that he developed starting from our father fabric research are labeled with a inner label indicating “Inspired by Massimo Osti Archive”. Each season some selected items, which will have these characteristics, will have that label
Will pieces be made in italy, will they be top quality and a reasonable price?
L&A: Ok, this is again a key question.
I’ll tell you my personal opinion: each production source has his pro and cons. Of course Made in Italy it’s the best quality possible (and also easier to manage). But there is no way to have affordable price. Far east sourcing it’s much more complex: to reach a good quality you have to know the factories, the people, have quantities, spend time there. But you can get great quality there at a reasonable price. It’s just harder.
Even our father has experimented far east sourcing, and he was proud of it. Beside Massimo Osti Production brand in the ‘90, he created “Far East Project”, a brand totally sourced in far east. He was really happy with the result because he got a great quality and a good price.
Ma.strum for now is not made in Italy, and Donrad really surprised me with the quality he reached sourcing in HK. You will see yourself touching Ma.Strum products, and the price/quality ration is great
Will all of the Ma.Strum stuff be based on Ostis old designs or will they be doing stuff of the own?
L&A: Ma.strum is designed by Donrad Duncan with completely brand new concept and his own styles (of course we recognize the strong influence from Massimo’s work). The inspiration from the Archive it’s mainly on fabrics. Moreover, just a small part of the collection will be inspired to our fabric research. So… yes, he will do things by his own
Will he be using fabrics such as Kevlar, metal, glass as Osti did, push the bounderies of textiles etc…?
L&A: Regarding the fabrics, Donrad does a lot of research into the US military world, both on fabrics and accessories. so yes, he is pushing on fabric research
Would you possibly consider a joint osti studio/found nyc garment for our members?
L&A: We are working on a t-shirt limited edition project in collaboration with Fabio of 12th Man. Of course you guys will be the first to know
Is there an achive of your fathers work. Samples, materials, sketches etc..?
L&A: Yes, we have here in our studio in Bologna an archive of more than 5.000 pieces and 50.000 fabric samples
Is there any plans to have this made into an exhibition, or a book, DVD, or perhaps an online resource similar to the article number look up on Found, but obviously far more indepth?
L&A: We made an exhibition at La Rinascente in 2006 and we’re working on a book on Massimo’s work, which it taking a lot of time… we hope to have it ready by the end of 2010
Does your archive include pieces from Stone Island and CP Company only, or do you have pieces from the various other sister labels as well?
L&A: We have prototypes from almost all the brands Massimo worked for, plus military and vintage items
Lorenzo are you still involved with D-Sign or the Ma.Strum project is taking all your time?
L&A: I’m dividing myself between d-sign, my advertising and webdesign agency, and the Studio where we are working on several project: Ma.strum, the Archive, the book, new fabric research, other collaborations and new secret projects, which you’ll be the first to know!
–
We really want to thank you all… beside rhetoric, your passion for our father work is what give us the motivation to bring on his legacy. As you can imagine it’s a big responsibility, and it’s far away to be an easy job.
thank you for your support, will be a pleasure to talk to you again in the future
Lorenzo and Agata
September 22, 2009 : Transcript of live chat with Lorenzo and Agata Osti with fnyc members:
Click here to view the full conversation.
Comments
3 Responses to “UPDATED: Lorenzo & Agata Osti Live Q&A Transcript.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Descent clobber
how much will the ma.strum knits be,and where can i see some pictures of the whole collection cheers boy’s famous stoke city casuals.
Thanx once again to Ostis and Gene for all of this. Hope we have them back here soon.
As far as MA.Strum, it looks decent in pics, quite a few interesting pieces, definitely some potential there. Can’t wait to see the whole collection, and next S/S season.