London
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When right-wing protestors took to the streets of London in September, the turnout was one of many largest in a long time. More than 110,000 individuals confirmed as much as rally against immigration, many carrying flags of England and Britain as they scuffled with police. But alongside the Union Jack and St George’s Cross, one other image was unexpectedly seen: the emblem belonging to the Italian style model Stone Island.
A nautical star and compass overlaid on a button-on material badge with inexperienced, yellow and black detailing, the design continuously seems on Stone Island’s garments — and throughout the protest, they had been worn by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the far-right anti-Islam activist and English Defence League co-founder higher referred to as Tommy Robinson, who had organized the march. The brand additionally appeared on the garments of protestors and a number of other high-profile Robinson supporters, akin to the English podcaster Liam Tuffs.
It wasn’t the primary time that Robinson — a former member of the British National Party, who has a number of legal convictions for assault, monetary and immigration frauds — has been seen carrying the label. Robinson has been photographed carrying the model on a number of events, together with in June, when he confirmed up at a magistrates’ court docket on fees of harassment and inflicting fears of violence, and at another far-right rally final July. (Robinson has entered not-guilty pleas for the June fees and a five-day trial in October 2026 has been set.)
Brands have restricted management over the people that purchase and wear their garments. Robinson and his supporters haven’t claimed to make use of the Stone Island brand or its garments as an emblem for far-right views. However, their obvious desire for carrying Stone Island has not gone unnoticed.
Robinson’s pseudonym is derived from a distinguished member (with the identical identify) of the Men In Gear group related to the Luton Town Football Club. “He came out of that world, with all the clothing that comes with it,” mentioned Joe Mulhall, the director of analysis at Hope not Hate, a UK-based advocacy group in opposition to racism and neo-fascism, citing manufacturers like Stone Island and CP Company (the 2 share the identical founder). “I can’t think of a time when he hasn’t worn those at public events.”
However, at a time when violence across the political spectrum is on the rise globally, manufacturers “should be wary of being associated with groups or movements that promote, celebrate, or have been engaged in violence, no matter the ideology that motivates it,” mentioned Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a Washington, DC-based sociologist and professor in The American University’s School of Public Affairs and within the School of Education. Stone Island and its father or mother firm, Moncler Group, didn’t reply to NCS’s requests for remark.
Stone Island isn’t the one label to have been worn by individuals related to extremist actions lately.
The Italian model Loro Piana, which is owned by the world’s greatest luxurious group LVMH, noticed one among its $14,000 parkas worn by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin throughout a televised 2022 rally on Russian state TV, as he celebrated the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. The jacket was recognized by public observers and Loro Piana was closely criticized on social media for not condemning Putin. Loro Piana declined to remark.
In some instances, particular designs from style manufacturers have been co-opted by political teams as their uniforms. In 2020, the British sportswear label Fred Perry quickly pulled one among its signature polo shirts in black and yellow stripes after it grew to become related to the Proud Boys, a far-right group within the US.
The undesirable endorsement led one among Fred Perry’s ambassadors, “Trainspotting” writer Irvine Welsh, to say that he would now not wear the model’s clothes as a result of it had been adopted by the self-described “western chauvinist” group, regardless of his long-standing appreciation for the model’s subcultural ties. The firm has repeatedly distanced itself from the Proud Boys, describing them in a press release on its web site as “counter to our beliefs and the people we work with.”
In 2016, a neo-Nazi web site declared New Balance sneakers “the official shoes of white people” and inspired its supporters to purchase them, “so we will be able to recognize one another by our sportswear.” At the time, the US sportwear firm, which is headquartered in Boston, responded by posting on its social media accounts, together with Facebook and X, that it “does not tolerate bigotry or hate in any form.”
The American University’s Miller-Idriss traces the earliest makes use of of in style style manufacturers as political symbols to early Nineteen Nineties Germany, which noticed a pointy rise in far-right road actions and violence following the autumn of the Berlin Wall and subsequent reunification.
During this time, neo-Nazi gangs grew seen at concert events, soccer matches and in public squares. But, because the state banned overt Nazi symbols beneath Germany’s strict anti-Nazi legal guidelines, and swastikas and SS runes grew to become unlawful, extremists turned to coded clothes as a workaround, notably co-opting two manufacturers, New Balance and Lonsdale, within the course of.
“New Balance became a staple because the big ‘N’ stood for neo-Nazis, so in the summer they’d swap out combat boots for New Balance sneakers,” Miller-Idriss informed NCS throughout a a telephone interview.
Meanwhile, British sportswear model Lonsdale’s blocky brand on T-shirts unintentionally contained a Nazi reference. “If they zipped their bomber jacket halfway, you would see the letters ‘NSDA,’ evoking the first four letters of the German initials of Nazi Party, but if the police stopped them, they could just unzip the jacket and it was an innocent Lonsdale T-shirt,” Miller-Idriss mentioned. Clothes subsequently grew to become a intelligent signifier that might be displayed or hid relying on the scenario.
Intriguingly, in newer a long time, political and extremist teams have shifted away from a extra provocative look, like skinheads, in direction of a extra pedestrian aesthetic involving khakis and polo shirts. Miller-Idriss recollects seeing a method information from a former distinguished neo-Nazi weblog stating that “people will be more likely to listen to our ideas if they like the package it comes in.” In that regard, “fashion became the new camouflage,” she mentioned.
Founded in 1982 within the northern Italian city of Ravarino by designer Massimo Osti, Stone Island is understood for its garment-dyeing experience and technical materials, seen through merchandise like its thermo-sensitive jackets, which change coloration in response to temperature. Its clothes doesn’t come low cost — a nylon tunnel down hooded jacket prices $1,075 — however its funding in materials innovation and appreciation of (and talent to intertwine with) fashionable tradition has contributed to its enduring reputation.
Owned by the Moncler Group, the model has been charting a course ahead beneath CEO Robert Triefus, who joined in May 2023 from Gucci. While Stone Island’s 2024 revenues of €401.6 million (about $471 million) was down 1% from the earlier yr, the sentiment across the label has been largely constructive because of its savvy model positioning and significant ties with subcultural communities globally.
Take for instance, its advert marketing campaign launched in September 2024 that includes Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, cleverly timed to the band’s reunion announcement and Gallagher’s standing as a long-time fan. (The singer, who acquired his first Stone Island parka aged 7, famously took his prized jackets by the model on tour in 2017, solely to have them stolen.) The advertising and marketing initiative final fall positioned Stone Island on the Lyst Index, a quarterly report that ranks the buzziest manufacturers and merchandise in style.
These days, the model counts followers as various because the actor Jason Statham, filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee, rappers Drake, Kano, and Dave, the soccer participant Erling Haaland, heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk, and even the British prime minister Keir Starmer. Its feminine fanbase can be rising and consists of the pop star Dua Lipa and the DJ and songwriter Peggy Gou.
Much of Stone Island’s loyalty, nonetheless, has traditionally stemmed from its roots in soccer tradition, the place its iconic compass badge has develop into an emblem of belonging, exclusivity, and identification for followers — significantly among the many Nineteen Nineties British “casuals” (often known as terrace tradition), when a big variety of younger males attending soccer matches wore the likes of Burberry, Fred Perry, Lacoste, and Ellesse, as an alternative of team-specific clothes, as a option to specific social standing and tribal identification whereas eluding police and rival followers. (Many die-hard soccer followers had been additionally a part of different subculture teams, such because the skinheads, who had been largely related to violence. By dressing in costly sportswear as an alternative of their normal wardrobe staples, these people — typically dubbed as hooligans — might simply slip previous police on patrol, who sought to stop violent outbreaks between rival groups.)
Stone Island’s former affiliation with hooliganism could also be engaging to some extremists, whose members share the identical emotions of pleasure and connection, defined Miller-Idriss. Among ardent soccer followers, it’s part-and-parcel to have sturdy emotions in opposition to the opposing staff, and the necessity to defend one’s turf and membership. Many far-right teams reframe this tribalist considering as their nation versus outsiders.
This is arguably the case with Robinson and his penchant for Stone Island. “It’s a status symbol, an expensive product, which is the very basis of why people wear it in the first place on the terraces — to show off,” mentioned Ollie Evans, the UK-based founder and inventive director of classic reseller-turned-creative company Too Hot. By carrying Stone Island, Evans mentioned Robinson could also be “signaling that he’s the top boy” — British slang for somebody on the high of a social hierarchy.
While the launch of the Premiere League, the UK’s skilled soccer affiliation, in 1992 has led to the game changing into more and more regulated and “family friendly,” in accordance with Dr. Tim Ellis-Dale, a senior lecturer in historical past at Teesside University in Middlesborough, the terrace hooligan scene that after adopted Stone Island has “largely faded — though some of that past identity has lingered in the brand’s reputation.”
The rise of the web and social media implies that manufacturers have considerably much less management of their narrative, however for Miller-Idriss, there are methods to bypass messaging that doesn’t align with their values. Lonsdale, for instance, combated its unfavourable affiliation with neo-Nazis and far-right teams by sponsoring anti-racist occasions and initiatives, akin to its memorable 2003 “Lonsdale Loves All Colours” marketing campaign, which emphasised non-white style fashions and “helped reclaim the brand,” mentioned Miller-Idriss. She additionally suggests manufacturers can donate a portion of their earnings to causes that “stand for their values.”
Crucially, the objective is to not alienate a model’s core fanbase — which, within the case of Stone Island, hasn’t appeared to have been the case. Evans mentioned he wasn’t thwarted by the model’s adoption amongst Robinson and different political figures due to their lowbrow tastes. “It’s not just about the jacket he’s wearing; it’s how he wears it,” Evans defined, citing Robinson’s desire for distressed denims and logo-heavy sneakers.
Evans provides that Stone Island’s Osti was a staunch supporter of the political left, an lively member of the Italian Communist Party, and even served as a metropolis councilor in Bologna. “If all these people adore him and still celebrate his work to this day — 20 years after he passed — someone like Robinson wearing it is not going to affect that,” Evans mentioned.