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“This is The Famiglia. You will know us by our badge.”
So goes the brand manifesto of Stone Island, the 42-year-old Italian outerwear label that is perhaps most recognisable by the rectangular badges — embroidered with Stoney’s compass-rose logo — sewn onto its vaunted designs. (Have you ever heard of the phenomenon of “getting the badge in”?) The patches imbue the brand with an idea of community, a visual representation uniting its fanatics worldwide.
It’s a global network that’s on display in the technical-outerwear maestros’ new short film called The Compass Inside, which features a bevy of famous Stoney aficionados including director Spike Lee, footballer João Felix, skateboarder Sage Elsesser, and actor Jodie Turner-Smith. Directed by Jeremy Elkin, the film spans 15 locations around the world, from the Stone Island factories in Ravarino, Italy, to a tea-caddy workshop in Kyoto, to the shores of Manhattan’s Inwood Hill Park. Per Stone Island, The Compass Inside — exclusively premiering here on GQ — is “a visual interpretation of our brand manifesto.”
In the clip, members of the Stoney community reflect on their introductions to the brand: “A friend of mine gave me my first Stone Island piece,” recalls the visual artist Soldier, as filmed in his East London studio. “It was like this really old Stoney jacket and I remember seeing it, I was like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ The texture was just really different from other jackets.” Others consider wider notions of community: “New York keeps your ass grounded,” says Spike Lee from his home neighbourhood of Fort Greene, in Brooklyn. “London would not be London without Jamaica and all of its influences,” says Jodie Turner-Smith, walking around Brixton in South London.
All wear Stone Island’s fall 2024 collection featuring parkas, peacoats, sheepskin jackets, and more.