Mason’s Historical Archive: The Green Book
The Green Book is not just a volume — it’s a manifesto. It gathers the history, vision, and principles that have defined Mason’s since its origins. Bound in military green gabardine, the same fabric that has long accompanied the brand’s production. A symbolic object. A bridge between archive and contemporaneity.
Curated by journalist Cristina Morozzi, the Green Book tells the Mason’s story through words and images that have shaped its identity. Utopia, freedom, journey, democratic aesthetics: four coordinates that guide every collection.
Origins and History
Each page of the book is a visual dialogue: on one side the original military garment, on the other Mason’s reinterpretation. Past and present meet. They don’t speak only of clothing — they speak of experience.
For Mason’s, a garment is never static. It lives, changes, wears. In its traces, it preserves the memory of those who wear it.
The philosophy is clear: function generates form, and form, over time, becomes language.
This is how Mason’s first trousers, worn and marked by time, became almost a second skin — an extension of body and identity.
Freedom as Foundation
The Green Book has its roots in the founding myth of the brand. It all began in South America, when members of the company discovered garments from the Colombian Liberation Army. Those pieces, designed to resist and adapt, contained a principle that would define Mason’s philosophy: freedom as a form of discipline, uniform as a metaphor for individuality.
From this concept was born the Libertador fabric, the first symbol of this pursuit. Its name is not accidental: freedom of movement, freedom of thought, freedom of aesthetics.
The Libertador fabric became the starting point for the use of Mason’s historical textiles: gabardine made with double-twisted cottons, using premium Colombian yarns. This construction ensures resistance to wear and a superior fit.
Thus was born a tension that still drives the brand today — between rigor and instinct, between uniform and uniqueness, between structure and freedom.
Journey and Movement
In Mason’s universe, travel is not a metaphor — it’s a language. The same language that animates figures like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, symbols of rebellion and movement, ideals and discovery. Their spirit lives on in the names and shapes of Mason’s garments: men’s Chile cargo or women’s Judy. Inspired by military archives, yet made modern through cuts and refined details.
But travel is also inner. Over the years, Mason’s has collaborated with Italian designers, architects, and artists who have interpreted its garments as wearable design objects. The brand doesn’t just dress — it designs. As an architect builds spaces, Mason’s constructs garments meant to last: functional yet never devoid of form.
Design and Identity
The Green Book reveals the deep link between Mason’s and Italian design. It’s not just about aesthetics — it’s about method: the idea that a garment must be functional, authentic, and timeless. For Mason’s, a pair of trousers is like a great design object — it doesn’t age with trends; it gains character through use.
Every seam, every treatment, every wash tells the story of balance between utility and beauty. The camouflage of fabrics, the robust stitching, the lived-in materials, the pursuit of perfect proportions — all merge artisanal tradition with contemporary design.
Aesthetics at the service of function, always guided by desire — freedom turned into tangible form.
Living Archive
The Green Book is not just the story of a brand. It’s the identity card of an idea. It speaks of garments, but also of people — those who make them, those who wear them, those who travel, those who seek traces of freedom in matter itself.
Mason’s continues to focus on essence: the quality of craft, the endurance of things, beauty that lasts. The Green Book does not close a chapter — it keeps opening new ones. A living archive that grows with each new collection.
For Mason’s, true modernity means remembering where you come from to know where you’re going.
FAQ – Mason’s Green Book
1) What is Mason’s Green Book?
The Green Book is Mason’s identity manifesto. A volume bound in military green gabardine that tells the story, philosophy, and vision of the brand. It presents original military garments alongside contemporary reinterpretations — tracing the journey that transformed function into style, discipline into freedom.
2) Why is the Green Book important to Mason’s?
Because it preserves the brand’s origins and reflects its authentic essence. Born as a historical archive, it represents continuity between past and present, between craftsmanship and innovation. Founding values — freedom, journey, aesthetic research, attention to design — still define every Mason’s collection.
3) How does the Green Book connect Mason’s to the world of design?
Mason’s shares the same philosophy as Italian design: to create objects made to last. Aesthetics and functionality coexist in balance. In the Green Book, Italian architects, artists, and designers reinterpret Mason’s garments as design projects — trousers, jackets, and shirts as timeless pieces to live every day.
