Pursuing Innovation With C.P. Company's Design Team
Looking ahead to Spring/Summer 2025, C.P. Company's design team highlights the how its pursuit of innovation influences and evolves the brand's design language.
Since its founding in 1971 by Massimo Otsi, C.P. Company has been heralded as a leader for its forward-thinking approach to military-inspired sportswear. Thrust into the mainstream as one of the most recognisable uniforms of the casual and terrace subcultures during their peak periods throughout the 70s and 80s, the brand has continued to demand attention thanks to its passionate commitment to material research and innovation.
Throughout the past five decades, and entering its sixth, C.P. has amassed an impressive archive of apparel – most notably its highly-desired functional outerwear pieces – spanning well over 40,000 garments. Thanks to the scale of its archive, and its unshakeable desire to research, experiment, and innovate, it continues to reach new heights under Paul Harvey’s expertise.
Following on from our interview with the then Marketing Director, now VP of Brands, Enrico Grigoletti on C.P. Company’s collaboration strategy, we tap in with the brand’s design team to explore:
The importance of material innovation
How to evolve a brand while remaining true to its identity
The fundamentals of C.P. Company’s visual language and design philosophy
What sustainability means at C.P.
Having mastered the art of collaboration in five short years, C.P. is charging towards the midpoint of the decade with a new aura about it. On the surface, it’s the same C.P. that has built a loyal community across Europe for several decades; but it’s more daring; driven by an insatiable need and desire to be at the forefront of material innovation.
As large swaths of the fashion industry struggle to strike a balance between innovation, sustainability, and keeping proximity to their founding philosophies of design, C.P. Company, seemingly, has cracked the formula.
How important is material innovation to the continued evolution and progression of C.P. as a brand and its design philosophies?
Saying that material innovation is important at C.P. would be reductive, to say the least. The constant search for creative inspiration in the development of avant-garde materials leads us to place great emphasis on new, innovative fabrics: we are a brand born with this idea and continue to pursue it to offer our communities something to be excited about. This in-depth approach permeates all our values and facets
of our brand, raising the bar higher and higher.
What’s the key to remaining committed to evolving the brand while staying true to your identity?
The strong commitment to fabric research, quality and innovation is what allows us to be consistent with our identity while we’re constantly looking to evolve our collections to be aligned with the market’s requirements. This tension is a signature trait of the brand that makes it relevant and authentic, appealing to both longstanding fans and new audiences.
What would you consider to be the fundamentals of C.P.’s visual language and design philosophy?
The fundamentals of C.P. Company’s visual language and design philosophy blend a passion for utilitarian design and functional aesthetics with innovative fabric treatments, and a distinctive use of garment dyeing techniques. Our aim is always to create something new that can build excitement in our audience.
What are the most important considerations when utilising or experimenting with new fabrications?
We approach any design exploration without bias, as we realised that, sometimes, the most beautiful discoveries come from errors and mistakes. Our only defined guidelines are trying to create something that hasn’t been done before.
What comes first: the design or the fabrication?
We truly believe that the design and fabrication processes are intrinsically linked and often evolve together since groundbreaking materials can be enhanced through a specific design, but a visionary design concept can also drive the research or the development of a new material.
This symbiotic relationship ensures that both elements are harmoniously integrated, resulting in garments that are innovative and cohesive.
What have been some of the most exciting fabrications you’ve worked with in recent collections?
We always keep in mind the concept of aesthetic refinement combined with everyday functionality. For the latest SS024 collection, we presented PiUM, a monolayer RFD (ready for dye) transparent opaque polyurethane membrane that can be dyed. Its transparent properties allowed us to rework classic silhouettes, such as the bomber jacket, in a unique and highly detailed way.
We were also excited by the introduction of TOOB, a new technology named for its robust, rubber-like texture, during FW023. This summer, we reintroduced it as TOOB-Two, featuring the same two-layer opaque polyurethane film, now on a linen base instead of cotton.
When designing and working with innovative materials, are there any special considerations to be made where sustainability and product longevity are concerned?
Here, at C.P. Company, we strongly believe that creating quality products that can stand the test of time is the best approach to sustainability since the environmental impact of the end-of-life of a garment is extremely relevant. This idea/mindset, born in the minds of our designers, is materialized by our constant research of high-quality materials and then it’s implemented by our garment makers.
To help our customers embrace this philosophy we have partnered with United Repair Center to offer a free repair service for all C.P. Company customers to increase the durability of their products.
What does sustainability overall look like at CP Company?
Sustainability at C.P. Company is a constructive, scientific, long-term and strategic approach, that transversally permeates every single function and operativity of the brand. Our approach can be summarized with three words: awareness, responsibility, and action. As every fashion company, we also have our environmental impacts, we acknowledge this and take responsibility. We can properly act only after being aware and responsible for our impacts.
How does The Metropolis Series play into the bigger picture of C.P.?
The Metropolis Series completes the C.P. Company's broader narrative by somehow being the alternative component to the mainline. While C.P. Company stresses the importance of treatments such as garment dyeing, colours, and classic design silhouettes, The Metropolis Series embraces the radical performance of pure materials, clear use of colours, and a strong focus on creating adaptable, high-performance garments that cater to the demands of contemporary urban life.
It highlights our ability to blend technical prowess with everyday wearability, reinforcing our position as a brand that understands and anticipates the needs of our community.
How does designing a TMS collection differ from mainline seasonal collections?
While the main collection focuses more on textile and aesthetic experimentation, The Metropolis Series is specifically designed to meet the practical needs of the city lifestyle. This includes a greater focus on innovative materials, modularity, and multi-functional design elements that ensure garments are versatile and durable in an urban environment.