A new and impressive tome is ‘Archivo ’982-’012’, the recently published book celebrating the 30th anniversary of STONE ISLAND, the Italian brand renowned for its spectacularly technical coats. The book is a manic 307-piece distillation of the brand’s archive: five coats from each of the 60 seasons and seven special pieces for good measure. We rang stylist SIMON FOXTON to speak about the brand and the book, whose images he styled and photographed along with his business partner NICK GRIFFITH.

We: How long have you been working with STONE ISLAND?
Simon: For five years or so, when NICK and I started consulting for them. Before that, I always admired them from a distance, because of their technical skill.

We: What do you like about what they produce?
Simon: I like that it is not a fashion brand. They make interesting clothing that is concerned with technical references and attention to detail, not seasons. If something’s beautiful, it should be beautiful forever, which is why it’s a true menswear brand in my opinion. The details are often so intricate, that they’re not totally evident until you’ve bought the jacket and have actually worn it.

We: That must be difficult to capture in a photograph.
Simon: It is. We photographed the jackets for the book in a very cold, dispassionate way so that the garment is as close to how you get it as possible. We photographed the type of guys I’ve started to see wearing it again. For a long time STONE ISLAND had an ageing fan base, those who had started wearing it in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s exciting to see it become more democratic.

We: Do you wear STONE ISLAND yourself?
Simon: I’m not really much of a clothes horse, most of my clothing is fairly anonymous, but I have a couple of jackets that I wear all the time. One of them is particularly beautiful. It’s padded and is a fabulous colour that seems to change from brown to green to bronze depending on the light. It’s like the sea. Facebook  Twitter