STONE ISLAND FAKES / HOW TO TELL

STONE ISLANDIf you're sick to the back teeth of 'AUTHENTIC', '100% GENUINE', 'BOUGHT BY MY GIRLFRIEND', 'STAKE MY LIFE ON IT' (and some of them should),GARBAGE Stone Island garments, have a read of this.

I bought three different coats, Raso Gommatto (sure !) ,various sizes and all 'Pukka'. What a load of crap! All three went back having paid what i thought would keep me out of 'Fakesville' an average of 130+, let me tell you that you are waisting your money !! I moved heaven and earth to get my money back and so should you.

I do own severaloriginals,bought in Firenze( Florence, Italy)with no bull promises,so here's what i know............

First of all, the tags should be identical. The sewn in tag number and the tie-on tag number. As stated elsewhere, 2006 items WILL start with a 44 or 45. If the tags don't match, bin it.

The sewn in tag (S.P.A., ART etc) WILL show country of origin(various countries involved are Italy,Romania,London..for ventile jackets(woven in Great Britain)..and Cina....this last one is actually China,but as with the word CIAO,the italians pronounce 'C' as ..ch.....) these countries produce various parts or materials and the tag will always readRAVARINO (Mo), ITALY in smaller print.

Next,the patchbuttons WILL be unique, black with stone island etched around the outside and the middle of the button WILL be a '+' sign,this will make the holes where the thread goes quarter circles, NOT regular holes as any other button with a '+' sign between them.....Since i first started writing this,i have updated this guide with information gained first hand, so, there seems to be yet another arsehole making fakes out there, someone can now immitate the '+' sign buttons, tho' not very well !! The new batch of fake buttons have a '+' sign for the eyes,BUT,they areDULLplastic copies,as opposed toGLOSS S.I. originals. Also, the fakebuttons place the '+' sign very deep into the button,noticeably deep. The fakes are also sharp edged to the inside of the button, whereas S.I. are smooth. The final damnation is this, on the back of these buttons, (usually the patch button ), the fakes are smooth. The original buttons havetwo round indentations,almostholes, on the reverse of the words 'STONE' and 'ISLAND', this is where the buttons were held in the press.

The arm patch, a great source of pride, should be silk backed,but more importantly,it MUST have the badge detail (compass and writing ) showing in FULL on the reverse side, many fake badges are only part sewn onto the reverse

If i cannot see clear pictures of any garment,my initial reaction is they are trying to hide something

I hope this helps, these bastards should be exposed for selling fake gear to a,(sometimes),unsuspecting public.

The only buttons with holes will be the larger buttons,the sleeve patch buttons and all other small buttons will be as above

Zips are not just for doing up the jacket,they too must be quality items YKK,LAMPO etc ...not kanglidanglicheapaschipsbutrightcolourshite (mine are all YKK or LAMPO)

Next is the sizing, go on the stoneisland.co.uk site and you will see the european size chart is different to ours. A jacket marked M, WILL be a small in our sizing, L medium and XL obviously large. This IS the case,all those fakes sold as M are medium in our sizing but then prove themselves fake, they'll fit you great if you're used to a 40''-42'' chest size,but they'll be fake

Many ebay sellers are genuine,butIT WILL COSTfor quality........MOST are CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My advice.............if you want something special (and stone island are special) dig deep and pay for it, the feeling of wearing such quality is magic

cheers