AN EVENING WITH CARLO RIVETTI HOSTED BY ANGELO FLACCAVENTO @ END. MILANO — EVENT RECAP

With our latest instalment of END. Talks — an ongoing series where we host discussions with cultural luminaries in our flagship stores — we kickstarted the first in our overseas calendar, inviting the CEO and Creative Director of Stone Island, Carlo Rivetti, to our all-new Milano store. The evening saw Carlo sit down with Angelo Flaccavento, one of Italy’s most coveted fashion journalists, to delve deep into the relentlessly innovative world of Stone Island. The talk wasn’t only just a first for END. Milano, either, but also Carlo, marking his debut talk in Italian on home turf.

The atmosphere inside the store was palpable, with a sea of diehard fans wearing some of the finest jackets to be born out of Ravarino: special process, Ghost, Shadow Project, you name it. It’s a testament to the community that Stone Island and Carlo Rivetti has fostered in the four-plus decades since the brand’s inception, with varying individuals united through a shared love of Stone Island and its ground-breaking product.

During the talk, Carlo and Angelo took a deep dive into a variety of topics, such as Carlo’s love of football and his very own team, Modena FC, the importance of Ravarino and the brand’s science lab-like headquarters and why Carlo does what he does. When touching upon the latter of the three, Carlo’s answer boiled down to not only a pure love of the brand, product and innovation, but also the brand’s community and family spirit; his close family, many of whom were in the crowd and helping Carlo display the archival product, all play active roles within the brand.   

To act as reference points throughout the talk, Carlo had brought along a rail filled with what can only be described as the holy grail of Stone Island product: an electric blue Kevlar special process jacket from A/W 2000, a Pure Metal Shell down jacket from A/W 1999 and a 30th Anniversary Tela Stella smock from 2012, to name just a few. Carlo would routinely pull each piece out and display its properties in his proud, infectious manner, ranging from spraying an Ice Knit to showcase its thermosensitive properties, to showcasing the results of the Compact fabric process, whereby garments are boiled at 130 °C under pressure to make them magically shrink by 50%.

After the talk, fans were given the chance to speak to Carlo up close, a sight which really drove home the knowledge and passion of Stone Island’s tight-knit community of fans, each person wrestling with their excitement as they approached Carlo. This is where Carlo really comes into his own, passionately communicating with fans who all mirror his enthusiasm for Stone Island and its boundary-shifting product.