Stone Island has spent decades looking inward, at fabricsc dyes, finishes and the small details most people never notice at first glance. That mindset comes fully into focus with one of the brand’s most conceptually pure ideas in recent memory: 100 knitted jackets, each created in a different colour. Rather than releasing a new cut, a new logo, a new treatment or a wild campaign, Stone Island places its faith in repetition and variation. One jacket, one material, one construction. Then colour, explored to its absolute limits.
Built on Research
To understand why this project matters, it helps to understand Stone Island’s DNA. Since its founding in the early 1980s, the brand has been defined by a scientific approach to garments. Military fabrics, garment dyeing, resin coatings, reflective materials, they were all tools for learning.
The 100 Colours project leans into Stone Island’s lineage. Instead of thinking about what’s next?, the brand thinks about what happens if they stay in the same place, and go deeper. They do this by stripping everything back to a single knitted jacket. Materials, colours and construction is all there is, bringing in the fundamentals that Stone Island is built around.
Why Knitwear, and Why Now?
Historically Stone Island is best known for outerwear, bombers, field jackets and technical shells. Garments associated with protection and utility. Knitweae has always been a quieter part of the brand’s output. By using knitwear as the base for this experiment, the label shifts conversations from protection against elements to comfort. The jacket itself is constructed from a specially developed knit, often described as an air-blown or laminated cotton chenille, it has a structure and has a certain warmth without being overwhelming, and still being soft.
The Language of Colour
If there is one area where Stone Island has consistently pushed boundaries, it’s colour. Garment dyeing has been central to the brand’s identity for decades, creating shades that feel deep and complex than conventional dyed fabrics. By creating 100 jackets in 100 different colours, the brand turns colour into the main character. Stone Island perfectly shows what colour can do when treated as a material.
Each jacket is seen as a case study in how pigment interacts with knit structure, light and movement. Some colours, out the 100, seem traditional, navy, olive, grey, they all anchor the project roots. Then there are more unexpected colours, chalky pasyels, dusty earthy tones and rich saturated hues.
A Spectrum Built on Purpose
Looking closely at the 100 colourways is where the real depth of this Stone Island project begins to unfold. The brand has always treated colour as a technical discipline as much as a visual one, and that mindset is visible.
At one end of the spectrum sit the familiar colours: deep blacks, charcoal greys, cold navies, and softened off-whites. They lean into the brand’s utilitarian DNA. On the knitted jacket, these darker and neutral hues emphasise texture and construction, highlighting the ribbing and stitch work.
Moving outward, the collection opens up into earthy territory. Olive greens, moss tones, clay browns, rusts, and sand-inspired beiges echo Stone Island’s long dialogue with the natural and the tactical. These colours feel worn-in even when new, as though they’ve already lived a life outdoors. On a knit, they soften the silhouette, making the jacket feel relaxed and human.
Then come the blues, which arguably form the emotional backbone of the range. From washed-out sky blues and coastal tones to richer teals and inky maritime shades, they nod quietly to the brand’s historic links with uniforms, workwear, and the sea. The brighter colours are where the collection becomes bold. Yellows, reds, oranges, and sharper greens. These shades bring energy, but they still respect the garment’s functional roots.
Pastels and softer tones round out the spectrum and arguably feel the most unexpected. Pale pinks, dusty lilacs, light mints, and soft blues challenge the idea of what Stone Island traditionally looks like. On a knit, these lighter shades highlight softness and comfort, reframing the brand’s toughness through a more contemporary lens.
What makes the full set of 100 colours compelling is not any single shade, but the equality between them. No colour is framed as more important than another. There’s no hierarchy, no “main” story colour. By giving each tone the same silhouette, the same construction, and the same platform, Stone Island places the emphasis entirely on personal connection. The jacket becomes a canvas for preference.
The Prototype Research Series
The Stone Island Prototype Research Series sits at the very core of how the brand thinks, designs and experiments. This line is about process in its rawest form, garments created to test ideas, materials and construction methods without compromise.
These pieces are built to explore how fabrics behave, how dye interacts with structure, or how function can be pushed beyond familiarity. In an industry obsessed with perfection, the Prototype Research Series embraces experimentation, uncertainty and progress, reminding people that innovation doesn’t start with a finished product, but with questions.
