C.P. Company returns to its 1990s roots with new ‘Metropolis’ collection

In 1999, C.P. company released its Urban Protection Range, a collection that proved definitive for the then-fledging streetwear label. Conceived by Moreno Ferrari while he was head of design at the Italian brand, it comprised a number of pieces primed for city living, many of them ahead of their time – from a jacket that warned its wearer of air contamination via a flashing light, to pieces in dynafil, a highly technical fabric that is hardy against the elements (it is resistant to water, wind and oil, and is also tear-proof).

The first in this range was titled the ‘Metropolis’ jacket, which encapsulated the collection’s hallmarks: tonal branding, complex pocket systems, techniques drawn from industrial manufacturing, and a feeling of ‘urban agility’, as the brand describes.   

C.P. Company S/S 2023

The brand’s new ‘Metropolis’ collection for S/S 2023 – following its A/W 2022 iteration released last September – takes its name from this seminal style, retaining many of Urban Protection Range’s signature features (C.P. Company has said the early collections constitute ‘true objects of industrial design’). ‘The “Metropolis” series continues to represent the more purely urban and technological side of the C.P. Company language,’ said the brand in an announcement.

This latest collection, which has arrived now in stores and on the C.P. Company website, sees this design ideology taken ‘to its most extreme form’, with entirely modular garments that adapt to their environment with a series of clever adjustable seams and buttons originally hidden to the eye.

The ‘HyST’ hooded jacket, for example, has an adjustable hood, hem and cuffs (‘HyST’ refers to ‘Hydro Stop Tela’ fabric, made from tightly woven but loosely twisted cotton which expands when damp to improve natural water-repellent characteristics), while the ‘Infinium’ belted trench coat is made from tough, water-resistant Gore-Tex and features a studded panel along the bottom hem which, when unclipped, serves as protection for trousers in the rain.

Aesthetically, the design language is typically precise, arriving in a cool palette of misty grey, midnight blue and crisp optic white (every garment in the collection is piece-dyed). ‘Hard city colours and modular seamless pockets and hoods give the collection a cold, robotic hand consistent with the series’ original millennium vision of urban life,’ says C.P. Company.

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