Ideas from Massimo Osti: the exhibition not to be missed in Bologna
Throughout the summer, until Saturday 27 September, just a stone’s throw from Galleria Cavour, in one of the city’s most iconic historic buildings, we recommend an exhibition not to be missed for all fashion lovers: “Ideas from Massimo Osti” at Palazzo Pepoli. The exhibition recounts the creative legacy of this illustrious citizen of Bologna, a designer capable of revolutionising contemporary sportswear with brands such as Stone Island (currently part of the Moncler group) and C.P. Company.
Visitors will be guided through the inspirations and history of this incredible entrepreneurial adventure between fashion and innovation through archival materials, textile technologies, prototypes and testimonials. It is a truly immersive journey to learn more about the vision of the man considered one of the last pioneers in the fashion industry. Osti, who started out as a graphic designer, began to make a name for himself in the fashion industry in the early 1970s by designing printed T-shirts using methods that had previously only been used on paper, such as screen printing and four-colour printing.
His experimental nature, evident from the outset, soon catapulted him into the world of fashion, where he became a pioneer of new techniques and a great revolutionary. Proof of this is the technique known as “garment dyeing”, which allowed tone-on-tone effects to be achieved with a single dye bath. He was also the father of new patented materials such as Rubber Flax and Rubber Wool: thanks to his intuition, linen and wool took on a new, more resistant and waterproof appearance through a process involving the use of coated rubber. Many techniques commonly used in today’s fashion companies, such as the grinding of combed wool, are thanks to him and his pioneering talent.
After receiving numerous awards and achieving international success through prestigious collaborations with Superga and Levi’s, Bologna is now celebrating his professional and personal adventure with an exhibition twenty years after his death. This is an important opportunity to celebrate an illustrious citizen whose story is perhaps not as well known as it deserves to be to those outside the industry. Among the highlights worth mentioning is the faithful reconstruction of his Bolognese studio dating back to the 1970s, complete with notebooks and garments.