The pool has been drained. In its place, Capsule Plaza on Via Achille Maiocchi holds six jackets, each cut to the same pattern, each rendered in a different fabric, all in piombo. Stone Island and the Milan studio NM3 have built the quietest installation of Salone.
No Seasons opens during Salone and closes on 26 April. A disused swimming pool off Viale Piave has been lined with long, generous benches upholstered in fabric samples. An LED ceiling carries new work by Vittorio Maria Dal Maso. The jackets sit in display vitrines at the level of your hand.
Massimo Osti introduced the original No Seasons line in the late 1980s. The programme ran until 1994. His thesis was simple. A garment belongs to its material, its weight, its resistance to rain and cold and heat. The argument lands harder now than it did then.
Six fabrics
The archival pattern is a zip-front blouson cut straight through the body, slightly squared at the shoulder. Tela Resinata, a resin-treated cotton canvas, reads almost matte. Nylon Prismatico-TC catches the LED light and holds it. Raso Gommato is a cotton-satin bonded for strength. David-TC arrives from a Japanese mill in a tight technical polyester. Crinkle Reps NY, a recycled nylon, carries the texture of something folded and re-folded. Panno, a wool-nylon blend, reads softest of the six.
Standing in the pool, you can move between vitrines in a few steps. The jackets are the same object and six different ones at once. You notice the weight of each material before you notice the detail. This is what Osti meant.
Milan Design Week lets the brand speak purely through material and process, without the usual grammar of seasons.
Camille AshworthNM3
NM3 was founded in 2020 by the architects Francesco Zorzi and Nicolò Ornaghi with the photographer Delfino Sisto Legnani. The studio has built a reputation for interiors that feel like editorial sets and editorials that feel like interiors. The Stone Island collaboration suits them.
Zorzi told me the commission felt personal. He and Ornaghi have worn Stone Island since they were teenagers. Their design choices do not lean on nostalgia. The pool is treated as a neutral found object, a vessel for looking. The benches invite visitors to stay. A small audio programme runs in the evenings.
No Seasons at Capsule Plaza, Via Achille Maiocchi, Milan. Photography courtesy of Stone Island, via Wallpaper*
Process as argument
Robert Triefus took over as CEO last year. He has been visible in Milan this week, speaking about the brand's relationship to material research and about keeping the Ravarino lab at the centre of the company. The installation extends that argument in a physical space. The jackets are here in an unfinished environment, and the visitor is asked to pay attention to the fibre rather than the label.
No Seasons runs through Sunday. Entrance is free. The pool is quiet on a weekday morning, loud in the evenings. If you are in Milan this week, go early and take the time to handle the benches.