Stone Island - Spring/Summer 2011 - Heat Reactive Jacket

Another Highlite of this Season is the Stone Island Heat Reactive Jacket. Similar to the ICE jacket, the fabric of this Jacket changes its colour when the temperature changes. Not when the temperature falls (like the ICE jacket does), but when the temperature rises. The label says at 27 degrees celsius, but even when you touch the fabric, wich is described as cotton nylon canvas with thermosensitive liquid crystals, the colour starts to change. The same happens when the sun hits the surface of the jacket. You can see the colour change pefectly in the video below, wich features the green version of this jacket. And yes, the colour change is really that fast like shown in the video.

This jacket comes in 3 different "colours". Well, 3 different colours it changes to. Blue, green and yellow. It`s a very thin and light jacket, perfect for the summer months and it also has some kind of ventilation system on the back because of a clever way of tailoring. So no need to sweat in that jacket. I can see this to become the most worn jacket in the upcoming months, again a typical quality Stone Island piece, with a stunning feature!

43499 HEAT REACTIVE JACKET from Stone Island on Vimeo.

Vintage Berghaus Trango Extreme

I`ve been after this iconic jacket for a while and finally i found an original Berghaus Trango Extreme from 1986. This jacket is nearly as old as i am but still in a very good condition. This jacket was designed for the 1986 K2 expedition in the Himalaya and was named after the impressive Trango Towers which the expedition passed whilst walking up to the Baltoro Glacier. And indeed, this jacket is the perfect armour to take up the fight with the extremes, it`s made out of a nylon and Gore-Tex mix. Gore-Tex was a very innovative fabric at this time and is still the first choice when it comes to outdoor clothing.

This is by far my favorite Berghaus jacket, i love this design and the funny "Playmobil" colours. It`s hate or love, isn`t it? It took a while to source an original one in my size and luckily i found a seller who even got the seams professionally retaped by Berghaus in London. The old ones have gone off due to the age of the jacket. But the rest is still in very good condition for 25 years. That`s just pure Berghaus quality made in Britain.

Stone Island Spring/Summer 2011 - Reflective Jacket

This is by far the best SPW piece i`ve ever purchased. Normally i am not that keen on recent seasons, but when i heard there will be a yellow reflective jacket released in spring/summer 2011 i wanted this jacket so badly. There have always been reflective jackets in the last years, always in blue and silver. Great jackets, but yellow is a "must have" colour in my eyes. When i saw the vintage yellow marina reflective jacket i thought to myself: "This colour has to be re-released!" And here we go. Actually the jacket has a lime-green colour in non-reflective state, a very nice summer colour, wich makes a good match with the white details. Only when light hits the jacket it reflects in a bright yellow.Responsible for that is a garment that is made of a special high refraction fabric capable of reflecting even the slightest amount of light, such as a single torch beam at the distance of 300 metres or weak moon light. The fabric is coated with thousands of glass microspheres making the jacket visible in even complete darkness. It has a concealed hood, wich can be hidden in the collar if you don`t like hoods, but i think a hood makes it even cooler..

The opinions about the recent Stone Island efforts are very different at the moment. We have the collectors who still have love for the old days of SPW and dont rate the latest efforts as good as the vintage pieces and we have the people who still think Stone Island releases very great jackets. Well when i look at the recent S/S range i can only second that. The reflective, the heat reactive jacket, the ventile, just to name a few. I think the whole range is desirable and when i look on the upcoming autumn/winter range and the new ICE jacket, wich will be released... I think Stone Island still has much to offer.

40848_REFLECTIVE JACKET from Stone Island on Vimeo.

WAYWT?

New Balance 420

Just got myself two pairs of New Balance 420, probably the only range i really like from New Balance. I like the clean vintage look and the shape of the 420s and they are always a perfect addition to the collection. They come in lovely colourways as well.. roll on, spring/summer 2011!

Inside Stone Island - Episode 3 - "The Product"

A VOYAGE INTO STONE ISLAND_EPISODE 3 - "THE PRODUCT" - THE PASSION OF STONE ISLAND from Stone Island on Vimeo.

In this third episode of the documentary dedicated to the Stone world, Andrea Moro - the company's Head of Product - carry us right to into the core of the Stone Island product, unveiling the details of manufacture while stressing a crucial element of the brand's DNA: passion.

Wood Wood Stockholm

Wood Wood is a young and small label from Denmark. It hasn`t much to offer that attracts me but the Stockholm jacket is a very nice lightweight summer jacket. It looks a bit like an oldschool american mountain parker but it has something own and the whole style is a bit cleaner. It has a yellow nylon lining, wich is quite a nice and funny detail and it fits perfect to the royal blue of the jacket. Maybe that`s why it`s called the "Stockholm" jacket ?! This jacket was also released in red and also looks very great. Hopefully the red one will cross my ways one day, would be a nice addition to the wardrobe as well.