Sportswear brand Stone Island is making its way into the USA with a New York City flagship store in the trendy Soho neighborhood. The company, affectionately known as, “Stoney,” is noted for pushing boundaries in garment technology, innovative fabrics, and colors. The store fuses signature Soho high ceilings and bold columns on the exterior, with the brand’s customary display fixtures and fittings on the interior. Matching the company’s modern appeal, innovative materials such as Dibond aluminum composite panels, carbon fiber, fiberglass, and tinted glass walls are used to display the fashion line.

Massimo Otis founded the brand in 1982 as the head designer and set the foundation for what the brand would continue to become when he left in 1995. Headquartered in Ravarino, Italy near the Modena area, the Stone Island brand has enjoyed a cult following in the UK since the 1980’s – when football fans brought garments back from Italy. It is only in the last few years, that the company has expanded across the Atlantic to a broader audience not as familiar with the history and cultural significance of the label. Rappers like Drake are bringing exposure to the brand in the US.

The Soho flagship design features a minimal color palette, strategic lighting, and masculine fixtures made of metal and wood. Marc Buhre, an industrial designer from Heidelberg, Germany and founder of Zeichenweg Architecture Studio was tapped to create the defining look. The design concept emerged from the brand’s philosophy into an object of architectural design, as well as, a showcase for designer products.

Displays of male models dressed in the brands “redefined street wear” in distinctive futuristic hues are set against stark white backgrounds. The photographs mark the well-lit glass tinted walls on signs made of durable, lightweight aluminum composite. Each garment photographed and on display undergoes extreme research in fibers and textiles and is adorned with the famous compass logo.

The 1,000 square foot space in Soho is the company’s 20th flagship store with recent openings in Los Angeles, California. From a culture of research, experimentation and function the attention to innovative garment design is applied in equal measures to an architectural retail display. Natural and metal materials such as the Dibond signage advance the tone of the label’s boundary-pushing scheme.

information and photography courtesy of Highsnobiety