Stone Island Unveils ‘Community As A Form Of Research’ Project With AW 25-26 Collection

Stone Island’s latest project opens with Carmelo Anthony looking straight down the lens. There’s no performance in the image, no pose. It’s more about his posture. The collection is already on his back.

This is Community As A Form of Research, the Autumn/Winter ’025 - ’026 campaign. A continuation. The format is familiar, photographed by David Sims, styled by Max Pearmain, and directed by Ferdinando Verderi; but the frame shifts with each of the subjects. Don Johnson, Alessandro Borghi, Oleksandr Usyk, Chokkan. The cast cuts across disciplines, oceans, and generations. This is about as far as you can get from a set of mannequins. The collection comes loaded with context.

Stone Island has never really needed to stage relevance to begin with. Its pieces are made to be worn, like actually worn. In this series, that principle holds. The garments fall naturally across bodies that carry their own relevance, in portraits that leave room for the voyeur to look again. Alessandro Borghi carries ease. Oleksandr Usyk carries weight. Chokkan doesn’t move. He doesn’t need to.

Borghi wears a tonal flannel overshirt from the Ghost line, crafted in carded wool with a breathable membrane under the surface. It’s structured, clean, and deliberately flat (even the badge seemingly disappears into the fabric). Usyk’s cotton ripstop parka changes tone through layers of gloss, dye, and engineered fading, giving the coat a fractured finish. Chy Cartier is photographed in a translucent jacket over a cotton moleskin lining, the colour underneath beaming through in fragments. Chokkan wears fleece cut loose with nylon mesh lining, drawcord hems, and a concealed hood - functional, oversized, and not overly-styled.

The portraits themselves feel clean without being clinical; the lights feel even. The images are intentional. No filter needed, just what’s in front of you. And in the visual silence of the set, there’s a clear sense of precision. The clothing materials show up exactly as they are: structured, technical, well-considered. The same could be said for the faces wearing them.

There’s also a set of questions, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. The questions sit open-ended and unanswered, leaving space for interpretation.