"Right from the very beginning it is clear to Massimo that “the destiny of a garment is tied to the function it serves” and that a piece of clothing must be understood as an “object for use”. He takes garments from
a specific context and amplifies or distorts them.
In 1976 he studies the nylon down jacket of alpinists and transforms it into an urban jacket.
The down jacket, in its “urban” version will become an irreplaceable alternative to the woollen overcoat which, up until the 70s, had been the dominant style of winter jacket worn in Italian cities.
Massimo’s point of departure for the transformation is the substitution
of nylon, from which these jackets were always made, with a more urban fabric: a gabardine, produced specifically for him, extremely light and soft, which then undergoes
a treatment to make it resistant to water, while nevertheless allowing it to maintain the tactile characteristics of cotton. The filling is a cotton padding specially developed by Bayer for the competition skiing market. The success of this innovation is such that near the company’s warehouse in Crevalcore (Bologna), an inflatable geodesic dome, strange sign of modernity in the countryside of Emilia, is rapidly set up to house the thousands of voluminous jackets waiting to be shipped. " Annalisa Colussi, “Non più status ma storia”, interview with Massimo Osti, Gap Italia, Apr. 1991