Stone Island unveils new chapter of 'Community as a Form of Research' for fall/winter 2026/2027

Stone Island has presented a new chapter of its 'Community as a Form of Research' platform, an ongoing project exploring the dialogue between product, culture and the global community that shapes the brand's evolution, alongside its fall/winter 2026/2027 collection.

The initiative brings together people from different creative disciplines whose perspectives and practices feed into an ongoing exchange of ideas, with each participant contributing to what the brand describes as a shared investigation into innovation, identity and contemporary culture.

The collection is built around what Stone Island calls its 'lab and life' concept and is presented through a series of portraits pairing product innovation with individual expression. According to the brand, the project shows how its research extends beyond the laboratory into the lives, experiences and communities that engage with it.

Participants

The season opens with world champion table tennis player Xu Xin, DJ and watch dealer Adrian Douzmanian, filmmaker Nick Love, three-time WNBA champion, two-time WNBA MVP, Olympic gold medallist and Unrivaled co-founder Brianna Stewart, and photographer and Hugan Books founder Simjae.

Further portraits will follow throughout the season, featuring Fakemink, Skepta, 3House, Stephen Graham, Samir Bantal, Monika Sprüth and Jia Zhang-Ke.

Creative team and format

The portraits were photographed by David Sims and styled by Max Pearmain, under the creative direction of Ferdinando Verderi. Each image is set against Stone Island's white background, a format the brand uses across the series to focus attention on the relationship between wearer and garment.

Each portrait is paired with a set of questions curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, alongside films in which participants respond to those questions in their own words.

Featured pieces

Among the pieces shown is a hooded jacket in slick nylon tela worn by Fakemink. It is garment dyed, then finished by hand with resins brushed across the surface before being heat pressed to a glossy, oiled finish. The fabric is 74 percent recycled.

Skepta wears a hooded jacket in dense oxford nylon, a structure more commonly used in cotton shirting that Stone Island has reworked for added strength and lightness. It is garment dyed using specific recipes and an anti-drop agent. The lining is quilted PrimaLoft-TC insulation that is 70 percent recycled.

3House's short parka uses a lightweight tela made from Japanese polyester and polyamide yarns with a star-shaped cross-section. The garment is dyed under pressure at 130 degrees Celsius, then hand-painted with two tones of pigment blended with a polyurethane component. Stone Island says the process makes each piece unique, and the parka is finished with an anti-drop treatment and a quilted, padded lining.

Stephen Graham wears a coach jacket from the brand's Ghost line, made from lambskin with a sprayed finish for a technical, rubberised look. The leather is bonded to a wool-nylon cloth for added comfort and thermal protection. Ghost pieces are monochromatic, and even the Stone Island badge appears in a matching monocolour version to blend with the garment.