A Journey: To The Origin Of Sportswear

On May 24 C.P. Company and One Block Down hosted a workshop event dedicated to investigating the origin of sportswear with the birth of the brand using two of the Company’s most iconic elements: garment dyeing and the Goggle Jacket.

During the workshop, Lorenzo Osti and the Company’s designer Paul Harvey went through the history of the Italian sportswear brand, from the foundation in 1971 to the creation of the iconic Goggle Jacket to the most recent fabric and

process innovations and techniques which are at the heart of the Company.

One of these techniques – the garment dyeing process – was invented and fine tuned in 1973 by Massimo Osti and his collaborators: a garment - usually made from white or raw un-coloured fabric - is only dyed as a final manufacturing step, subsequent to being fully-fashioned, as opposed to the conventional method of manufacturing garments from pre-dyed fabrics.

While the technique of garment dyeing has long existed, Massimo Osti and his collaborators were the first to attempt the technique with garments made from multiple different fabric or fiber types.

The garment dyeing know how of the brand led to the newly introduced Re-Colour process: first the garment is dyed with an acid based (nylon) or direct/ reactive (natural fiber) dye

Subsequently the piece is cold pigment dyed. The pigment dye does not blend with the previous dye but wraps itself around the fiber of the fabric, choosing the most easily accessible surfaces whilst avoiding seams and creases which results in a zonal tone-on-tone effect.

At the same time of the workshop, a set of Chrome Goggle Jackets were dyed in an unique tangerine orange colorway made only of One Block Down, exclusively available at One Block Down.