Stone Island Shadow Project 10th Anniversary collection

Ten years ago the term techwear was barely known, and even fewer had ever heard of the brand Acronym with its head designer Errolson Hugh. I remember even finding stores that carried the brand, almost entailed a necessary pilgrimage to various continents and countries in order just to see them. So when Stone Island announced that they were inaugurating a new sub-line called Shadow Project, with Hugh as its designer, I was incredibly excited to see what a brand with such an unrivaled depth of research as Stone Island would spawn when combined with the forward-thinking creative perspectives of Hugh.

The name Shadow which is often represented by the letters CXADO is the word Shadow in Esperanto, which is an artificial language developed in the 1870-80’s, combining several European languages in an attempt to make one truly universal language. Starting in 2008 the first few collections revolved around what became know as PARSEQ GRID, the letters being an acronym for various categories what were meant to work in a modular way, to be combined freely across collections regardless of their year of production.

P was for PROOF which meant Total weather Protection, meaning no amount of rain or snow will make you wet basically.

A stood for AUGMENT, the purpose of which was for adaptation and customization, these were mainly modular liner layers that could be combined to give a little more or little less warmth underneath other top layers depending on the weather.

R was for RESIST, a shell layer like PROOF, it protected against everything short of a total downpour.

S stood for SKIN, as the name suggests these were contact layers that insulated next to the skin.

EQ the last category was EQUP, these were for access and support or in another words, accessories to help aid the others garments

Though the PARSEQ system did fade out, it laid the foundations for the innovative and forward-thinking perspectives that remain in the Shadow Project until this day.

Recent collections one could define as more avant-garde in their approach where the ever closer relationship between Stone Island's Carlo Rivetti and Hugh provided a lab for Hugh to wield his sorcery. For many of us that have followed the line since its inception, the definitive Stone Island Shadow Project pieces were the Stealth Jackets.

Existing only for a few short seasons, the king was the Stealth Jacket MK II, released in 2011 I spent pretty most of accumilated wages from a DJ tour to get it. The stealth jackets were nothing short of spectacular, dual-layered, looking almost like a simple jacket blazer when closed, the jacket when open revealed 9 hidden pockets in addition to the standard two side pockets. It was a cross between a tailored blazer and a S.W.A.T team jacket. Each of the internal pockets were made in Trylon flock fabric, with the pocket layout using alternating sides of the fabric so you could locate the pockets simply by touch, without looking, and the most exciting thing about this new 10th anniversary collection is that the Stealth Jacket is back!

Updated with an incredible iridescent lining called SCARABEO, a name surely taken from the scarab beetle whos shell also shines, the look brings thoughts to Ghost in the Shell-esk thermo optic camouflage as it reflects in brilliant colors when opened, to then slip away when closed. The SCARABEO fabric is also used in almost all the jackets, as either shell or in detailing. The collection also features a plethora of the usual tops, t-shirts, and pants and a new version of the slip-on shoes, which to date is still my favorite pair of none sneaker shoes ever created.

A truly remarkable feat of fashion lineage, we wish Stone Island and its Shadow Project a happy birthday and can't wait to see what's coming in the next 10 years. Check out the whole collection above.