Costume National (Q1379)
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Italian fashion house
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Costume National |
Italian fashion house |
Statements
An installation by the Italian artist Cateno Sanalitro greeted us at the Costume National show this morning.Reuse Mosaicgathers found objects and arranges them by color, with real flowers tucked here and there amid broken bits of CDs, deflated balloons, toy cars, and sundry other plastic junk. The Sanalitro piece could be considered a critique of our disposable culture, and Ennio Capasa’s endorsement of it, in turn, a silent protest against fast fashion. Milan’s designers have mostly come down against see-now-buy-now collections. Luxury takes time. Alternatively: Expensive clothes are built to last.Collection-wise, Capasa liked the look of 1980s New Romantics for Fall—and their girl-for-boy and boy-for-girl way of dressing. Both genders wore velvet; hers was slouchy, a bit louche, and bright red, and his was snugly tailored and double-breasted, a subtler navy. There was more color than at a typical Costume National show, and Capasa emphasized texture as well. A sparkly green coat had the synthetic look of indoor turf, and a royal blue fur appeared sheared or burnt out in parts where jacquard flowers bloomed. A couple of other pieces were dotted in a grid of glitter; Capasa said he used a technique from the pharmaceutical industry to achieve the effect. On the whole, he seemed more enthusiastic about experiment and novelty than he has been recently, a quality that will help the label on the sales floor. Longevity is one thing, but to actually find their way into real closets, clothes first have to spark desire.The New Romantics vibes came across most clearly in the tailoring, which was attenuated and soft, with jackets that triangled into A-line shapes over ruffled white blouses. Some pants featured snaps running up the sides—a little sporty, a little swashbuckling. The snaps reappeared on the back of slouchy wedge-heeled boots, which count among the more memorable Costume National accessories we’ve seen in a while.
25 February 2016
Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’sVenus of the Rags—a thought-provoking installation in which the classical Venus statue faces a pile of discarded clothing—provided the backdrop forCostume National’s latest outing. Designer Ennio Capasa wrote in a statement: “I was mostly interested in highlighting the mystification of creativity by fast-fashion groups, leading to an excess of products on the market without any attention to sustainability and traceability.”For Capasa, that meant doing, well, what he’s always done. A lot of the brand’s current offerings—tuxedo jackets, black jersey dresses, joggers, Lurex pieces—are riffs on styles introduced in the late ’80s and ’90s. The hint of New Wave—which Capasa also cited as an inspiration, and which contributed to the royal blue, red, and black palette—added to the nostalgic undercurrent.However, advanced fabric techniques—laser-cut velvet applied to silk to look like broken glass, a laser-cut, Lurex python print on velvet—kept things interesting enough not to feel dated. Some of the best looks were comprised of sharply tailored suits that would have won over Debbie Harry, but would look equally chic at theGrammys’ red carpet this week.
9 February 2016
Costume National’s Ennio Capasa used the termcontaminationto describe his Fall 2016 collection. He meant it to convey crossbreeding of clothing genres—couture and combat gear, he said—but Costume National is always contaminated with a few ideas from other labels. It’s a good indication of the way fashion’s favor is currently blowing—less indicative of what we will see in shops than of what they’re already selling. So while the long, skinny shadow ofSaint Laurent’s reed-thin, rock ’n’ roll, oh-my-God-which-member-of-the-band-did-I-just-wake-up-under brand of waster wares is still cast over looks like zip-dissected motocross pants, heavily embroidered blousons, and shrunken blazers, some new notes are seeping in. A billowy androgynous silk blouse with jabot ruffle, say, or an oversize shearling coat, or another tailored in electric blue. There were also a few of the MA-1 jackets that have proliferated for the past couple of seasons.Here’s the thing to remember when watching a Costume National runway show: Don’t look for revolution. Temper your expectations. This label will never shift the fashion landscape; few designers have that kind of seismic influence. What it will do is tinker with already well-established styles, perhaps allowing some newer ones to infiltrate.The models’ brisk pace caused you to grab at the few ideas you noticed. Presumably retailers will do the same, as will customers who want safer, less demanding versions of the garments other labels are proposing more provocatively. Costume National may not move the earth, but it sure does shift clothes.
16 January 2016
Seventies, ’80s, ’90s. Any which way you cut it, fashion is in the midst of a vintage moment. What’s a born and bred minimalist to do?Costume NationaldesignerEnnio Capasa, to his credit, isn’t changing his tune. He’s been around too long for that, a fact he likes to emphasize on his mood board, labeling images from his past with their season and year.ForSpring 2016, he doubled down on the tailoring he’s long been associated with and streamlined his color palette. Backstage he said he focused on fabric development to create “sensuality.” Glitter pinstripes, polka-dot fil coupe, and suede laser-cut to look like lace made appearances. A minidress as silvery as tinsel was gathered at one shoulder with a silk ribbon. Still, you couldn’t help but feel Capasa preferred the simplicity of basic black or white, which he used more than anything else here, perhaps because it put nothing extraneous in the way of his tailoring. This season his suiting had a somewhat softer, more feminine sensibility than it has in the past. Ruffles cascaded down the front of a vest and metal rings connected the front and back panels on jackets, leaving a suggestive slice of shoulder exposed. Minor developments. A single red pantsuit worn with a sheer red turtleneck underneath made a lasting impression, but otherwise this collection could’ve used more spark.
24 September 2015
This Costume National collection had some melodically arresting touches: the pinstripe in a shirtless three-piece that occasionally snapped like a guitar string, and an all-white angelic biker look via fringed key chains, sleeves, and bags. There was plenty of raffish, rockish, roguish, skinny-ish shirting and tailoring—and you can't argue with the impact of a scarlet suit. The chisel-tipped winkle-pickers were fine frontman footwear. Discordant, especially when viewed from the back, was the silhouette of a high-hemmed, cinched trench in a powerful blue over black bell-bottoms. The black biker pants intersected by panels of red and white at the knee jarred, yet the matching satin printed pants and grandad-collar shirt seemed elegantly consistent with designer Ennio Capasa's troubadour template. In his notes, Capasa said, "I worked on melting many of the elements that always inspired me, slightly balancing them in a different way." And this slight rebalancing of his always-there elements made for an entertaining enough watch.
20 June 2015
For Resort, Costume National creative director Ennio Capasa started with the vest and worked his way from there: Here were three-piece suits, vest skirts, vest dresses, and vests sewn into suit jackets. But while Capasa loves the clash of menswear ideas and womenswear ideals, this collection was even more firmly rooted in youth culture. Ultra-wide-leg, drop-crotch trousers were akin to raver pants, made modern when transformed into a strapless jumpsuit. Capasa used "septum piercings" to close up shirts or simply decorate a pieced-together top, reinforcing the aesthetic. The lineup was strongest when the approach was deft. For instance, a red sequined dress overlaid with black sheer organza appeared cooler than 3-D dot leather pieces, which were almost too straightforward in execution. Some of the best pieces were deconstructed silk blouses with elasticized mesh straps decorating the back of a halter or the edges of a tee. It was a sporty detail that looked great with those jumbo trousers. Sort of a luxury version of the JNCO/tank top uniform embraced by '90s raver kids.
9 June 2015
Alongside his brethren Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester, Costume National designer Ennio Capasa defined 1990s minimalism. His particular take on the look was glamorously punky: lots of black, naturally; plenty of leather; and a fair bit of harnessing amidst the louche tailoring. For a twentysomething in downtown New York, the look had an unmistakable cachet.Fast-forward a couple of decades and Costume National is about to turn 30 years old. Capasa rightly thought the impending milestone was worth celebrating, so he dubbed his Fall collection Reset, set the clock at the end of his runway to 00:00, and went back to the proverbial well. His new lineup was almost exclusively black, the color he's been fondest of all these years. It's a handy coincidence that other designers have been feeling that shade this season, too: It puts Capasa in the middle of the conversation. Still, he remains resolutely anti-trend. If fashion is coming around to his point of view again, he'll make the most of it, but you won't find him doing head-to-toe prints, say, when the pendulum swings back toward lavish excess. This afternoon's biggest flourishes were the silver bead trim on the shawl collar of a smart tuxedo and the glossy black feathers embroidered on a sleeveless dress.More often, this collection found Capasa making tweaks to his streamlined tailoring (a three-piece suit in a patchwork of pinstripes was convincing) or leavening cocktail fare with active gear, as in the silk LBD he paired with a sporty zip-front hoodie. On the whole, it was the tailoring that was strongest here, with a satisfying real-world quality that was heightened by the fact that Capasa asked the models to choose the shoes they wore from a small selection of heights and styles.
26 February 2015
Costume National was once known for the consistency of its approach, but today's show seemed to inhabit an obscure aesthetic hinterland where Prada touches Cavalli, and neither feels particularly happy about it. True, one bottle green fur-lapelled coat was sumptuous and touched with a jolt of libertine swagger. But the Duran Duran high-hemmed beige suit with a south-of-the-navel cluster of double-breasted buttons that came three looks before it had already rocked the audience into a state of silhouette anxiety that developed into a recurrent affliction. Knit T-shirts can just about work, but with a turtleneck worn under a polo neck we're in a symphony of wrong. The rainbow-refracting, crystal-dotted trucker jacket was something you'd expect to see at a brasher label, not one that has been described as Italy's Helmut Lang. Costume National designer Ennio Capasa just didn't seem to have his usual tight control of his rock 'n' roll influences today.
17 January 2015
The Pre-Fall season is no longer easy to ignore. But Costume National designer Ennio Capasa made it even more notable this time around, partnering with artist Marina Abramovic for a live performance at this year's Art of Elysium gala in Los Angeles. CalledHeaven, the happening took place in an airplane hangar parked at the Santa Monica airport. Guests were given Costume National pajamas upon arrival, then escorted to one of 100 beds, where they were fed TV dinners while watching Capasa's Pre-Fall runway show.An original presentation, to be sure. The collection, on the other hand, was pretty standard. Capasa was inspired by the rock-and-roll feel of 1970s Los Angeles, as well as the idea of fallen angels, playing into Abramovic's vision of a "state of consciousness where light and dark meet." The light came in the form of a short-sleeved feather dress coat and a fluffy alpaca jacket trimmed in grommet-studded grosgrain, while the dark was best represented in a retro trench made of stiff, wine-colored suede. (There was plenty of black on hand, as well, from feathered skirts to cargo pants.) The strongest pieces included a fuzzy tan alpaca vest whose sleeves were capped off with a bit of fur and a wool, raw-edged coat dotted with oversize grommets—a decal used throughout the collection. Some of the clothes—like the skinny suits—felt a little too interchangeable with what's already on the market. Sure, it's on trend, but is it Costume National? When the answer was yes, the collection worked.
16 January 2015
How many different ways can you reinterpret the 1970s? Milan's designers have been answering that question, some with more success than others, since the first model hit the catwalk yesterday. Costume National's Ennio Capasa, for his part, had Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, and Mick Jagger on his mood board. The Stones and co. are icons of a superior order, their images seared into the collective memory. Capasa had the right instinct this season, but he struggled to live up to those rock legends.Yes, he had the suede vests, he had the purple plunge-front jumpsuit, he had the lacing and the grommets, but the overall picture remained somehow unconvincing. Capasa has always been a minimalist by nature, and Costume National is a brand defined by its sleek, almost anonymous modernity. What we had here was a clash of personalities: Capasa runs cool, and Faithfull and Pallenberg hot. To work, the collection would have needed more of those women's vital earthiness. Capasa got closest to that quality with a pair of abbreviated tops boasting floor-length shags of fringe. Team them with short shorts, as he did on the runway, and you could cause quite a bit of trouble if you took them out for a spin.
18 September 2014
Harnessing the power and provocation of rock 'n' roll is no easy task, particularly the post-hippie, pre-punk variety. People of a certain generation tend to have strongly held convictions about their rock icons and the vinyl of their youth. Nonetheless, this is the tricky terrain Ennio Capasa ventured into for Costume National's Spring offering.Capasa looked to the enduring, if safe, pantheon of rock gods. He cited Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger, but he might as well have included Jim Morrison and at least one of member of Led Zeppelin. The collection was, in other words, charmingly loud and acceptably louche, much like those original peacocks. What it lacked in authenticity it made up for in simplicity—that is, if you could look past several styling devices like jauntily tied neckerchiefs, and blazers and trenches draped over shoulders.While men haven't exactly been clamoring for a seventies rehash, they'll no doubt appreciate the relaxed fit and updated minimalism proposed by Capasa, a skilled reductionist. And while some ideas might have been better left alone—such as a shirtless vest, extra-wide lapels, and flared, front-creased pant legs—the color palette kicked and swaggered in all the right ways. Just shy of neon-bright, monochromatic azure, deep purple, crimson, burnt sienna, and white broke on through to the other side.
20 June 2014
Why mess with success? Twenty-seven years along and Ennio Capasa shows no signs of reining in Costume National's hard-edged brand of sophistication. Here, a veritable parade of rock-and-roll influences were offered up, streamlined with help from the line's signature spruce tailoring. There was a girlishly Gram Parsons-esque fringed navy and black suede vest with studs (more debatably successful was its incarnation as a halter top) and a leather jacket accented by strips of exotic skins. Bursts of tie-dye felt timely; that trend came in off the commune long ago and is presently enjoying yet another runway revival. One louche black leather vest with oversize grommet closures would look every bit as lovely over a white T-shirt as it did styled with a liquid-y charcoal jumpsuit. Particularly keen were the menswear-inspired pieces, Costume National's bread and butter since time immemorial. To wit: A double-breasted jacket and palazzo pant in lush cobalt silk were downright arresting. Impeccable tailoring, upon inspection, boasted lovely raw edges nearly across the board (especially nice on starched, oversize shirt collars). But there was plenty here, from A-line camel skirts to billowing silk maxi dresses, for those who would just as soon take their seams fully intact. In Capasa's hands, rock and refinement made for a winning combination.
4 June 2014
"Cool woman," Ennio Capasa's mood board announced. That's a fairly sweeping statement, but the pictures below it provided some further illumination into his thought process for Costume National: the architecture of Frank Gehry, the iron arabesques of an Anish Kapoor sculpture, vintage pics of Patti Smith and Debbie Harry. "They were women who mixed for the first time in a very modern way this men's energy," he explained.One thing you can say about Capasa, this isn't his first time working the masculine/feminine angle. But you could argue that it was angles that went missing from this collection. Yes, this was a show about tailoring, as Costume National shows have always been and forever more will be, but the designer was making a new point about softness and roundness. To start, he replaced most of his trousers with elastic-ankle "jogging pants," and what a surprise, they looked most convincing paired with double-breasted tuxedo jackets. Beyond those pants, he demonstrated a predilection for fabrics with a lot of body, like bonded leathers and dense felted wools. The latter posed a bit of a challenge on a one-shoulder cocktail dress in navy and black diagonal stripes; wool doesn't exactly slink. He did have a hit on his hands, though, with a sinuous black silk evening dress, the halter neckline of which was a riff on a tux's satin revers. With slits up the sides, you caught glimpses of the cropped pants underneath. Cool woman, in this case, is right.
19 February 2014
The recent David Bowie retrospective at the V&A in London has been percolating through the Milan season. By midday on day one, Bowie's latest single, "Love Is Lost," had played twice (once at Costume National).Aladdin Sane-style lightning bolts crashed through two shows as well.Costume National designer Ennio Capasa was calling up the spirit of Bowie outright. He'd been thinking of the singer's Berlin era in the late seventies. Not only did Bowie record three of his best albums in Berlin—Low,Heroes, andLodger—he undertook to reinvent his look as well as his sound. "He tried to change his aesthetic," Capasa said backstage before the show. "And he succeeded."The challenge for any designer is to walk the line between keeping pace with the rapid changes in fashion and holding on to what's proven to work. Capasa reversed the course of his last few seasons, trading the sharper, shorter tailoring he'd been plying for a swingier, softer look with an echo of what Bowie wore in his Berlin phase: flared trousers, double-breasted jackets and coats. Pant legs swooned over Cuban-heeled Chelsea boots, sweater sleeves dripped like candle wax out of jacket sleeves well over the hand, and jackets themselves flapped about the flanks of the models as they raced along.The rub is that Costume National has been around long enough that it has trod this ground before. Capasa noted that he first tried some of these styles back in 2001. So it's less a wholesale aesthetic renovation à la Bowie and more a periodic shifting of gears. But it did offer a loose-limbed burst of freshness, the likes of which Costume National hasn't seen in a season or two. And Bowie himself has worn Costume—one such moment proudly featured on Capasa's mood board—so the designer can say with all confidence that he's got the master's seal of approval.
10 January 2014
Combining sharp tailoring with motorcycle-inspired elements is a winning formula at Costume National. For Pre-Fall, Ennio Capasa took those ideas and gave them a graphic twist, updating signature biker jackets and suiting separates with a variety of optical motifs. Black-and-white chevron, broken line, and crosshatch patterns clashed harmoniously on several looks, while pops of ruby red added a bit of warmth to the collection. As usual, the outerwear was particularly strong. Highlights included an asymmetric, shin-scraping topper with raw seams that had a rock 'n' roll edge, as well as color-blocked, bonded leather Perfectos featuring laser-cut appliqués. Another noteworthy fabrication shown on one of the T-shirts here was a specialty polyester treated to give it a feathered fur effect. Elsewhere, the designer experimented with high skirt slits and interesting evening proportions, such as a strapless peplum tunic paired with ultra-relaxed wool trousers and elbow-length gloves.
6 January 2014
This season, Ennio Capasa brought his women's show back to Milan after 23 years of presenting in Paris. He justified the move as his own contribution to Italy's regeneration. "If Milan is strong, everything is strong," said Capasa. But it wasn't just Milan that gained from the relocation. Going back to his fashion roots seemed to refresh Capasa as well.Deconstruct/Reconstruct was the collection's theme. It fitted the show space, a huge raw concrete bunker that may eventually become a museum. And it also gelled with an inspiration of Capasa's, the work of young conceptual artist Giulio Frigo. An image of one of his 3-D graphite installations was printed on the invitation. Frigo's world-taken-apart was echoed in Capasa's own dissections of clothing: "My experience of Italian tailoring reloaded in different ways," he called it. So jackets and dresses were deconstructed and put back together with proportions shifted in often fiercely asymmetric ways. If the result occasionally felt like it was trying too hard, it had the paradoxical effect of making the more straightforward outfits in the collection—like the white side-slit tabard over a white skirt, or the kimono-like top in black leather over cropped pants—that much more appealing. Capasa's yen to experiment yielded results with sheer techno-organza shells rendered decorous with handmade brushstrokes (difficult but delightful), or a group cut from a tweedy linen-cotton that had a utilitarian glamour we've never seen from this designer before. He liked the idea ofwork. On his mood board was Peter Lindbergh's famous photo of Kate Moss as a worker girl in dungarees. "She's always made an effort to connect with the time in which she lived," Capasa explained. "And that's my goal too."
18 September 2013
I, Cowboy. Or is that iCowboy, the latest Apple gizmo? The old or the new—either way, it was the title of Ennio Capasa's new Costume National collection. His mood board was covered with photos of the late, great cowboy Johnny Cash. In his later years, Cash—aided and abetted by Rick Rubin—turned to a decidedly different songbook than the country one on which he'd built a career. His cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" is a golden-years masterwork. And Depeche Mode, themselves getting along in years, commissioned Capasa to design outfits for their latest tour, so it all comes full circle. What interested the designer about Cash's cover was the freshness of its approach, its spirit of reboot.That's what Capasa set out to channel in his collection, which played loosely on a cowboy theme, reimagined as a sporty, casual undressing of Italian tailoring. There were silver tips on the shirt collars and even some blazer lapels, soft booties, and straw cowboy hats with painted brims. What there wasn't, really, was a lot of freshness. The collection had much that would qualify for standard-issue wearability, give or take a leather fringe top or two, but it was hard to see the new approach that was meant to be its raison d'être. Costume National's ability to make great pieces isn't in question; Capasa has been doing it for years, with an eye toward preserving the skill. "I love Italian tailoring," he said. "I work really hard at tailoring, which is a value we don't have to forget now." But he shouldn't forget either the restless innovation that once made his shows some of the most exciting on Milan's schedule.
21 June 2013
Anyone devoted to Costume National and its spare, severe aesthetic will know not to look for swimwear and caftans come Resort. Ennio Capasa uses the collection to reiterate his obsessions—New Wave, the nineties (a time in which, not coincidentally, Costume flew high). Tailoring is always important for Capasa, and so it was here, in fluid double viscose fabrications and classic menswear patterns. But from the other end of the spectrum, so were ultra-feminine bits like lingerie details peekaboo-ing out of a sheer paneled dress. (A similar cool effect with sheers was achieved with a sweater, whose metal-inflected knit was sheathed with a shadowy layer of organza to dull the shine.) An alphabet print by artist Kushida Shinichi was new, but the real news here is Costume National's expanding presence in the U.S. Its supersize Greene Street store (formerly the home of Moss, New York's legendary design store) is celebrating its first birthday soon. In the next two years, brand reps promised, it'll be joined by outposts in Miami and L.A.
10 June 2013
Ennio Capasa recently spent two weeks hiking with a friend in the Golden Triangle, somewhere between China and Burma. It's an incredibly volatile region, ruled by drug warlords, so the frisson of terminal danger was never far away. But Capasa's main takeaway from the trip was his encounter with an offshoot of the Miao tribe. It inspired a flicker of ethnic influence in his new collection for Costume National. And it really was not much more than a flicker: the extended shoulder of a Miao cape, some layering, a band of color that reflected a woven tribal pattern. To sublimate such a profound experience in such a reductive way suggested extreme discipline. Equally, it implied an inability to let go. But that's exactly what his supporters wish Capasa would do.Looking back over years—decades?—of Costume National, it becomes apparent that the key to his womenswear is the tuxedo, the apex of sleek male tailoring. In today's show, the first and last looks embodied Capasa's alchemical transformation of the tux, from the relatively conventional to the utterly exploded. Those two looks bracketed a sober dissection of his ongoing addictions: black, navy, asymmetry, androgyny, a formal take on punk. Sébastien Perrin found a track by We Are Wolves to play underneath the show that seemed an ideal aural counterpart to the defiant edginess of Capasa's clothes. And that was the rub: There was nothing challenging for the designer in that formula. It felt like a variant on something we had seen and heard before.Anita Pallenberg was on Capasa's mood board. For boys of his generation—those, at least, with a particular predilection—she was a goddess, a Circe they would willingly follow to Hell. But Hell no longer holds surprises for Capasa. He needs to come back.
2 March 2013
Fifty years ago, Angry Young Men prowled London. Plus ça change. Anger is once again the driving force of today's youth as Ennio Capasa sees it, and his mandate at Costume National is to channel a young man's feelings. On his mood board backstage was Mick Jagger's mugshot. The boys who took the catwalk today, to a thudding Clinic beat, could've been his latter-day inheritors, down to the shags. As it turns out, many of them were plucked from the London streets.If Capasa once skewed more decorative, he's long since burned off the fat. A scattering of lapin-felt fedoras inspired by David Bowie's lent a glamorous touch, but on the whole the collection was tough, leathery, unembellished: skinny skin pants and zippy biker jackets, cropped tailoring and double-faced black and white coats.It didn't feel exactly revolutionary, but it won the guys' endorsement, which just about closes the loop. The boys say, 'Wow, I want that,'" Capasa said backstage. The last one of them was Capasa's 19-year-old son, a psychology student in London. The pull of Britannia is strong, it seems, and probing the angry depths is shaping up to be a family affair.
11 January 2013
Costume National's pre-fall collection hit on biker, military, and tuxedo themes. Designer Ennio Capasa knows that having a go-to coat makes tackling cold climes that much easier, and there were several outerwear pieces here that should make the CN customer look forward to bundling up. An oversize cobalt topper with a detachable hood (big blue riding hood, anyone?) and a short double-breasted jacket with a built-in vest in the same shade both made an impact. Capasa incorporates asymmetric elements into each of his collections, and added a touch of softness to a half tuxedo dress with a pleated chiffon skirt. For evening, Lurex-flecked takes on the classic Le Smoking stood out; we would choose those over this lineup's somewhat shapeless black gowns anytime. If the clothes came off a bit too safe, you couldn't say that about the shoes, which reportedly make up about 50 percent of Costume National's business. The architectural over-the-knee boots were a high point.
8 January 2013
Ennio Capasa wanted to bring some art to Costume National. After Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari guest-curated Costume's Web site in May, Capasa chose two images fromToilet Paper, the photo journal the two artists also curate, to give his latest collection some graphic punch: one a bird's wing, the other an aloe plant, both being cut by scissors. Capasa liked the ambiguity of the images—they could be environmental activists' shock tactics, or punk destruction, or something to do with decoration. But more than anything, they could be a recognition of the necessity of refreshing Costume's shtick, of bringing a new dynamic to the moody avant-garderie that is the label's stock-in-trade.Arch-provocateur Cattelan would certainly be the right man to turn to in such an instance, so it was maybe unfortunate that his input was confined to those prints. His presence could be felt, however, in the bizarre story Capasa told about the shade of fuchsia that, in combination with Chinese red, lit a fire under the show. The powder that produces such a color is so toxic that its use is illegal in Europe. Capasa had to find a local expert who had the will and the patience to duplicate the same shade using a more legal form of alchemy. The designer's dedication to guaranteeing he would be able to useexactlythe fuchsia he wanted for his collection says something about his obsessive commitment to his craft. It didn't, however, help much with his quest for a new dynamic.The show played out as a heavy salute to asymmetric halvsies: half jacket/half blouse, half skirt/half pant, or just plain half anything. There was some skill in the way a lapel was turned into the halterneck on a bustier, and the half-a-tux had an elegance all its own. But it sometimes felt there was just too damn much going on, with a belt here, a strap there, and doodads a-danglin'. Asymmetry for asymmetry's sake. The ever-present undertow of fetish in Capasa's work was amply aired in sheer blouses over dominatrix bras, but they left one yearning even more for light. This was, after all, a Spring collection, and how uplifting would it be to see the ultra-intense Ennio with Spring in his step? Still, maybe that comes next.
29 September 2012
David Bowie had pride of place on Ennio Capasa's mood board. The designer called his Spring collection New Wave Safari, tipping his hat to "African Night Flight," Bowie's song—from 1979'sLodger—about a trip from London to Mombasa. Those two cities made up the breakdown of the Spring collection. Mombasa was represented by forays into the Saharienne, neck scarves, and slightly swashbuckling side-buckle pants. It was, on the whole, more successful than the London section, of tailored pieces playing off New Wave volumes. Bowie's glamorous spirit continues to be conjured by designers of every stripe; in only one day of Milan shows, it's been specifically incarnated twice. It begs the question, how many more rubs of genie's bottle before he refuses to answer?
22 June 2012
For Resort, Costume National is picking up where it left off with its "New Wave-No Wave-Dark Wave" Fall collection, but giving the clothes a lighter feel via fluid fabrics and welcome shots of safety orange and electric cobalt. There was a definite post-punk influence in head-to-toe leather looks studded with grommets, but the rock vibe was subdued considerably on pieces like a crisp white crepe trench with asymmetric leather flap details. Print is something you don't see CN designer Ennio Capasa flirt with often, but the moody orchids on a short-sleeved shift (a reported best seller) and a graphic magnified-linen pattern were definite high points in this sea of solids. For evening, fluttering chiffon gowns, especially a halter-neck style, nicely balanced stark with soft elements and effectively encapsulated the season's message.
17 June 2012
After an atypical flirtation with pink last Spring, Ennio Capasa headed back into the darkness. You might call it his comfort zone, if there wasn't so much skillful experimental tailoring that hit refresh on the usual edgy all-black fare.The major story was asymmetry and cutaway silhouettes, occasionally layered and crisscrossing in flaps. The effect was elegant in gently curving arcs sliced out of the sides of leather and wool coats and jackets, and a bit more jarring in sharper angular chops. But credit Capasa's skill for making the conceit wearable more often than not.He called the collection New Wave-No Wave-Dark Wave. That cocktail of movements lent the proceedings a sort of tough luxury that at times wasMatrix-slick and at others alluringly witchy. A white shirt with a barren-tree motif tucked into a great, lush black leather skirt and worn with killer just-over-the-knee boots struck the balance. Sitting nearby, Capasa fan Marina Abramović leaned over to pronounce it beautiful.The label's other fans will be similarly pleased with this collection, not only for its fab outerwear—that eventually blossomed into other moody hues like bottle green—but also the selection of great big baggy trousers, some with dipped and curved leather waistbands that echoed those cutaways. One pair came all in leather, right on track with a few we've seen this season. If it wasn't already, a trend is born.
3 March 2012
Ennio Capasa came through the hard-living fire that crisped kids back in the seventies and eighties, so there's a punky ethos that underpins his designs. There have been seasons when he lost touch with it, but for Fall, he's re-committed. Bohemians, dreamers—these were the characters he was thinking about, as an antidote to a relentlessly materialistic direction that he sees society taking. Fashion possibly isn't the best arena to take such a stand, but Capasa at least has his dark, difficult roots to trade on. He was calling his collection a remix of those roots. "It's a synthesis of all my experiences. I couldn't have done this five years ago." Given that mandate, it's a shame the collection wasn't more convincing. The space-age bovver boots, the punky mohairs, and the teddy-boy proportions (the elongated tunic tops) all pointed toward Capasa's passion for British youth cults. But maybe the problem was, as Capasa pointed out, a basic masculine issue with innovation. "You have to work with what a man knows," he said. Within those parameters, the hybrids—the trench with the blouson back, the leather-backed blazer, and the cutaway evening jacket with the knit sleeves—were actually quite radical.
13 January 2012
Marina Abramović stopped by Costume National's pre-fall presentation in New York to peruse the racks for an outfit to wear to an upcoming event during New York fashion week (yes, it's only a few weeks away). The famed performance artist is a longtime fan of the Italian label and darted around the room, mercurially plucking pieces for consideration. Abramović ended up going for a dark teal silk blouse with a modest neckline (it was shown with slim trousers, but she plans on pairing it with a long skirt; "at my age, you need to cover up a few things," she said) and a raw-edged, structured topcoat. Both items aptly illustrated the architectural nature of this collection. The focus here was on strong shapes with a tailored menswear look. There were tuxedo suits in a range of colors (the magenta version was the most popular with retailers), as well as an embellished oxford dickey shirt that was ultra-sexy on its own (as seen in the lookbook) but more feasibly chic worn underneath one of Costume National's fitted jackets. The lineup got a youthful rock 'n' roll edge from blinged-out beaded tunics and metal-toe creeper shoes prime for stomping the streets.
12 January 2012
Ennio Capasa has developed his collection via a focused color story for the past few seasons; for Spring, he zoomed in almost exclusively on pink. Not baby pink or hothouse fuchsia, but a pure bubblegum tone that's just about as far from Costume National's noirish origins as possible.Capasa described the tack for his rose-colored vision as "tough but tender." (His inspiration board had Araki florals and bondage images and shots of tough-but-tender icons like Wanda Jackson and Blondie.) He framed the arch-feminine hue with smart tailoring in vests and jackets and boyish cropped pants. It's a look he's really taken to since fashion's big cleanup a year and a half ago, and it suits him well. But since then, sexiness, once his stock-in-trade, has taken a backseat. Today that was remedied somewhat in body-skimming dresses with sheer organza pieced into sweetheart-line décolletages and sleeves, though they were nothing va-va-voom. What gave you more zip were the abstract florals edged in black leather and backed in a white scubalike nylon silk. They were similarly modest in silhouette, but the combination hinted at perversity—certainly a better method of communication than the duo of cage leather looks that sang it loud and proud.
1 October 2011
For Ennio Capasa, rockabilly is not only the roots of rock 'n' roll, it also stands for the energy of change, which ought to make it a usefully stimulating reference point for a fashion designer. In today's Costume National show, it was the oldies—or at least, the pieces that most closely referenced the rockabilly gear of an aeon ago—that were the goodies. Like a little micro-checked short-sleeved shirt with black lapels where a collar should be. Or that same style done in black with matching trousers, which was almost an ingeniously casual revamp of a tuxedo. Even the sole color accent—an eye-popping vermilion—registered like the red the teds wore to fire up their monotone, especially when it was trimmed in black.Red aside, Capasa opted for a color palette that was dun and dusted in shapes that emphasized the deconstructed. The result erred on the drab, downbeat side, which was a pity, because there was actually a lot going on behind the scenes (or rather, inside the seams). Capasa is an arch fashion technologist. An early adopter of the needle-punching technique, he's already moved on to ultrasound, which is used in sails to create seamless, unsplittable seams. It made for a lighter garment, useful when you're toying with multifunction as Capasa did in this collection when he reversed a nylon bomber into a cotton blazer.
17 June 2011
Bikers, rockabilly chicks, and kilts made up the curious mix of influences Ennio Capasa channeled for Resort. The result provided a new answer to the old question about what's black, white, and red all over. It's a Costume National collection. (In this case, one with a few too many moto jacket details.)Capasa's experiments with lipstick red had echoes of Spring '11, which was all about minimal shapes in eye-popping tones. The graphicism here was new, though: Digital prints of Prince of Wales, houndstooth, and checkerboard appeared on short shifts, silk blouses, pleated kilt skirts, and cropped cigarette pants. But the best parts of the collection weren't printed or bright. They were from the small series of blush pink tailored pieces that reminded you of Costume's heyday as the go-to label for a sharp suit. The shade softened them a bit from their edgy former glory, and they looked fresh again. Look closely and you'd notice the technique and craft that goes into them. You could see it, too, in cropped tuxedo jackets that had been heat-bonded. Capasa instructed his fabricators to leave a little note of evidence of the iron: a slight, almost imperceptible burn mark around the pockets.
14 June 2011
The punchy minimalism of Ennio Capasa's last collection was clearly well received. (No less than Anna Dello Russo showed up in an Yves Klein-blue suit from it at today's show.) It makes sense that the designer built on the same clean-lined and colorful foundation for Fall. If it ain't broke…Capasa maintained the exact structure of Spring with its four chromatic groupings, but instead of pure doses of solid color, he set it against black. But that wasn't really the problem. The pairing worked nicely against ivory and lipstick red, but the other two hues in Fall's rainbow were of the wishy-washy, muted sort. That lemony yellow in particular is a color no one's ever dying to wear, particularly when blocked with black.Backstage, Capasa's inspiration board was covered with images of Twiggy and David Bowie. But while there were Paco Rabanne-esque square paillette shifts and a few Mondrian nods, for the most part he actually went beyond the sixties-era cliché. That included a genuine look to the future. The best idea here was the new technique of thermo-welding three fabrics—a black and color sandwich—to create a single piece of material with the texture and heft of neoprene. When cut into a sharp coat or suit jacket, the material's edges were left unfinished to expose the fabric's inner workings. The resulting soft fringe at the raw edge gave slick pieces a crafty warmth. Capasa called it new couture.Whatever the term, a detail like that gives you a reason to buy designer over high street. The worst idea was in the very heavy double-folded cut on those Mondrian gowns, best described as what Twiggy would wear at a monastery. In other words, much less than modern.
5 March 2011
On the mood board for Ennio Capasa's new collection was a photo of James Chance, the New York no-waver who combined the style of Frank Sinatra with the attitude of Johnny Rotten. In other words, the perfect poster boy for Capasa's theme: rebel tailoring. The designer took a scalpel—or rather, a laser—to menswear classics like the black trench composed of three layers of fabric that, when laser-cut, left a striking rim of red thread as a graphic outline against the black. Other hems were left raw and singed by the laser's kiss.Capasa is mesmerized by experimental techniques. He dispensed with stitched seams in favor of heat-sealed bonding, and sliced and diced clothes together. That meant the wool sleeves of a loden coat were replaced by khaki leather, while quilted motocross detailing was hybridized into a cardigan. And the designer did away with shirts and ties altogether in favor of punky striped mohair sweaters.The rawness and urgency worked wonders for the collection, which has lately felt like it was drifting a little too far from Costume National's original appeal. Take the tuxedo jacket on today's runway: A staple of the house, it was reconfigured here in knit with a black leather lapel and modeled by Capasa's son. In March, the designer launches his new venture EEQUAL—120 stores in collaboration with Italy's Gruppo Coin. Selling eight collections a year, it will be, he says, "democratic," i.e., something along the Uniqlo model. So maybe this Costume collection could be seen as a forerunner for the cross-generational action to come.
14 January 2011
Ennio Capasa dialed back the color for pre-fall, trading in the turquoise, orange, red, and royal blue that made such a big impact on his Spring runway for the hue most closely associated withCostume National. That would be black, with hits of taupe, brown, and navy for variety. Cut was center of mind for the designer. "I approached this collection focusing on tailoring and uniform softened with knitwear," he said. "My reference was the minimal sportswear of the seventies that I've always liked." That puts his bouclé pantsuit, a to-the-floor V-neck dress, and the brown leather shift that was worn over a black suede button-down in good company: The seventies are still going strong elsewhere this season, and they're one focal point of the Fall men's shows that are happening in Europe this week. Capasa has always had a way with outerwear, and his new lineup has a couple of standouts, including a cropped shearling bomber and an elongated leather trench. Both had swagger to spare.
6 January 2011
Ennio Capasa based his Spring collection on a simple and salable idea: minimal clothes in a series of high-impact colors. The resulting clean-lined chic was a continuation of the very wearable, menswear-inflected looks the designer did for Resort. He opened with neutrals, in a lean and boyish leather suit and a sleeveless dress that had a sophisticated sexiness, with its V-neck and front slit. The collection then cycled through bright turquoise, orange, red, royal blue, and black.Capasa worked mostly in matte fabrics—silk, leather, and wool—with nary a seam in sight, so that you got a very pure burst of color. But here and there was the subtle shine of organza in a hue close by on the spectrum, pieced into the back of a dress or cut into a blouse tucked into culottes. The color story was completed by contrasting graphic patent sandals and clutches, so there were flashes of orange in a top-to-toe royal blue look. It all added up to lots of great clothes that hit that sweet spot of grown-up yet energetic and, well, cool.
2 October 2010
Ennio Capasa poured on the sex appeal at his last two runway shows, inching hems way, way up the legs and cutting leather second-skin-tight. For Resort, he focused on the label's bread and butter, sophisticated tailoring with a dollop of edge. A white tuxedo with a notched lapel looked sleek and sexy; his gray flannel double-breasted pantsuit was boxier yet still sharply cut. If a pair of tops with built-in scarves to wrap around the neck looked too much like a Phoebe Philo-ism, Capasa was back on home turf for evening. Two black gowns closed the lineup, one fitted and clingy, the other asymmetrically draped—both unfettered and utterly simple. It's when Capasa does understatement that his clothes have the biggest impact.
27 June 2010
Last season, Costume National was the fashion world's version of "Splice," as Ennio Capasa used nanotechnology to blend different materials like leather and wool. It was an interesting idea that could have been explored further, but for Spring 2011 he chose a new challenge, which he called "organic futurism."Capasa took the tenets of traditional Italian tailoring and laser-cut and thermo-welded them into submission. That meant jackets and coats weren't stitched, and therefore had no seams. Pockets were attached via heat-sealing, and buttonholes were laser-cut. The result was clothing that looked familiar, yet felt odd. Though there were some missteps—like a collar and tie mysteriously veiled in gauzy polyester—most of the pieces rewarded scrutiny. On closer examination, a white satin tuxedo jacket turned out to have edges scorched brown by the kiss of the laser. As dark as that sounds, the collection was airier than typical Costume National, thanks to sand-toned linens, organza T-shirts, and a light hand with fabrics; one blazer with a wool front turned to reveal a back of sheer silk. Organic futurism, indeed.
18 June 2010
Ah, Costume National: the label where hems must be high and leather isn't so much an option as a staple. There is nothing wrong with this kind of molto-sexy-with-a-tough-edge signature style—after all, it's far better than the brand having no style at all. But you sometimes suspect that designer Ennio Capasa and his label would be better served by showing the collection at home in molto sexy Milano as opposed to très chic Paris, where the show can come across like a thigh-high boot accidentally placed in the kitten-heel section of a shoe store.Yet perhaps the city is rubbing off a little on Capasa, because this was a relatively toned-down collection. Sure, the hems were still up around the hip-bone area, but the clothes themselves came in soft grays and browns, wool and mohair—a cleansing effect after last season's leather short shorts. There were some very good trouser suits that achieved Costume's necessary sexy quotient, thanks to the excellent fit. The cleverly morphed thicker materials of the short dresses—that wool and mohair—almost seemed designed to distract the eye from the models' upper thighs, although perhaps that only works on fashion editors as opposed to, say, footballers.Quite how any of this fit in with Capasa's surprising source of inspiration, Henry David Thoreau'sWalden, a nineteenth-century book about self-imposed isolation and self-discovery, is anyone's guess. Maybe it just suggests that Capasa is beginning to resist the Italian nightclub scene, staying home instead with a good book and a cup of cocoa. Well, a good book and a glass of Champagne.
6 March 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
15 January 2010
On the same morning that Karl Lagerfeld took pains to emphasize the un-brevity of the shorts he was showing, Ennio Capasa paraded the most impossibly tiny variants of the same idea. His premise was "tender heart, tough exterior," which possibly explained the biker-chick combo of jacket and shorts in a rich, vegetable-dyed leather. Maybe the same woman would also be galvanized by the brocade bib or the embossed tee that offered a more elaborate accompaniment to her truncated nethers. But Capasa's heart really seemed to be in the outfits that dissolved into trailing lamé threads. OK, it may be an effect he's used before, but still, the floating shimmer created a ghostlike effect. In fact, Ghost (as in the currently revived English label) was a timely reference point for witchy, thigh-slashed dresses that would be entirely suitable for the contemporary vampire queen's closet. A potential catch being, how many of those creatures actually exist?
3 October 2009
Style.com did not review the Spring 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
19 June 2009
Ennio Capasa looked to switch gears for Resort, finding inspiration on safari rather than in the nightclub. A shorts suit shaded from black to light gray as if faded by the sun, and a black micro tire print decorated a white shirtdress. Sporty pieces like vests, cargo pants, jumpsuits, and onesies mingled with the designer's usual sharply cut suits and trenches, which came with hand-finished embroideries on the lapels and shoulders. Trendwise Capasa was on point, turning out wispy dresses in suddenly hot-again tie-dye. But there wasn't anything really boho or hippie here. In the end, this was very much a business-as-usual collection, catering to the city girl with a tough streak.
17 June 2009
Ennio Capasa conjures his women from some hard-core planet where it's always time for nightclubbing—and the nightclub is the one from a David Lynch movie. For Fall, the fatale of the Costume femme was slightly rough around the edges: red lips; messy, pulled-back hair; and a one-shouldered dress in ruby duchesse satin with ragged seams. There were dresses with halos of trailing Lurex threads, and others haphazardly ruched and suspended from shoulder straps. The phrase "dragged through a hedge backward" came to mind—but such is the strange, louche allure of Capasa's work.He did, meanwhile, also prove himself quite capable of a certain bandbox smartness, as seen in a gray flannel fingertip jacket over a matching wrapped mini. But it was more the sparkly, scratchy-looking fabric he used for a strapless top or a paper-bag-waist mini that betrayed the true Nationality of Capasa's Costume. Now and forever, he loves a bad girl.
7 March 2009
Backstage, Ennio Capasa said he found a starting point for his Spring show in conceptual architecture: "The kind of buildings that don't get built because there's no technology for them yet." While that doesn't exactly sound like an auspicious beginning, there was nothing overly intellectual about the collection. In fact, it was fairly standard Costume National fare.But this time, the body-conscious dresses and sharply cut suits with pushed-up sleeves and cropped pants were cut in crinkly, light-reflecting materials and built up around the shoulders for a slightly sci-fi look. The vest-jacket that's been turning up everywhere since Stefano Pilati showed one a year ago also made an appearance here.Softening things up were fluid dresses airbrushed in black and white to evoke the reflection of the sky on buildings. The architecture motif continued into the accessories: Platform sandals with open metal heels evoked steel girders, and silver necklaces were made of interlocking 3-D rectangles. As far as visions of the future go, it wasn't earth-shattering, but it'll keep Capasa's fans in his clothes.
30 September 2008
Thirty-six ideas for the future: The name that Ennio Capasa gave his collection was timely to a fault. At a moment when the world is poised for major change, it would be uplifting to think that a fashion collection might offer additional pointers. But when the actual show started, the uplift quickly turned downward. Nothing ultimately wrong with that—Capasa was operating perfectly efficiently within his own frame of reference. Sustainability was one of the points he wanted to make, and he did a great job with recycled fabrics (particularly a silk bamboo and a sheer aluminum). He also wanted to underscore the fact that a modern man would rank global warming alongside looking hot. So he conflated activism and eroticism by layering sheer shirts and outerwear in that recycled aluminum. But Capasa's heart belongs so completely to the dark glamour of his formative years that he just can't help himself when it comes to a sequined lapel or shirt placket. The silvery palette of this collection suggested there is now a little moonlight in his night, but I'm still waiting for at least another 32 ideas.
20 June 2008
Ennio Capasa relaxed the aggro-chic stance he took for Fall and eased into summer with a Resort collection that was surprisingly colorful. To his preferred palette of black, the designer added red, blue, khaki, white, and gray. These lighter colors showed off Costume National's trademark tailoring details to advantage. Some of the dresses were even—dare we say it?—ladylike. This is soft-serve the way we like it.
3 June 2008
Ennio Capasa said this was the third part of a trilogy on "the future"; it started with his Fall 2003 line and continued for Spring 2007. If memory serves, his space walks have never been as out there as those of his peers, and this season was no exception. The final frontier was really just a framework around which to build another collection of the sharp, angular tailoring he favors—now almost exclusively in black. It also gave him an excuse to add some aerodynamic ruffles and furls to cocktail dresses. As for that tailoring, it included coats with high, swooping collars out ofThe Matrix, strong-shouldered jackets, a cropped satin pant with a new wider leg, fit-and-flare tunics, and strict pencil skirts. A pastel turtleneck gave a sleeveless gray shift with a looped-up hem an air-stewardess touch circa 1960. But everything else—in particular, the little black dress with stiff ruffles spinning about the torso and around the model's neck that closed the show—was severe and sexy. Space is a place Capasa should visit more often.
26 February 2008
Ennio Capasa claims he was mesmerized by the look of London's many style tribes when he launched Costume National in 1987. Still, it's primarily punk that has shaped his sensibility over the subsequent years. Now, with the generosity of spirit that years of success can bequeath a guy, he has initiated the next decade of his career with a return to roots. Big clue: Capasa has shaved off his Three Musketeers goatee. "Cleaning up," he called it backstage. And the fashion equivalent was a collection that drew in elements of ted, mod, skin, and—natch—punk to create a dish that was, as the designer said in his show manifesto, "for tomorrow." While Radiohead blistered the ether with key tracks fromIn Rainbows, Capasa marched a mod-worthy pied-de-poule trench, a plaid shirt, waistcoat, and white jeans combo (sheer skinhead), and a red plaid mohair jacket (echoes of vintage '77 King's Road) down the catwalk. The brothel creepers and the trilbys pushed casually back on the models' heads added the requisite fifties vibe. But Capasa is more than a fashion archeologist. There will always be a detail that lets you know he feels what he does—maybe something as minor as a signet ring pushed over a fingerless mitt, or as striking as the bugle-beaded lapel on a washed-out jacket. You might have done that yourself to juice up a vintage purchase, but Ennio did it first.
11 January 2008
It's always a bit of challenge for Ennio Capasa when fashion moves in a romantic direction, as it's doing right now. The designer, who is making a point of celebrating his 21st anniversary in business this year (why 21, exactly? It¿s a lucky number, he says), is at his best when he's working along sharp, sexy lines.For Spring, he tried to resolve his dilemma by going Goa: "A cool and chic traveler after a long journey to India returns home," read the show notes. Instead of attempting clothes for her voyage, though, Capasa smartly set about designing for her life after the trip was over. These were pieces aimed at urban sophisticates, though touched by light strokesà l'indienne, i.e., rich jewel tones (persimmon and hot pink, Vreeland's "navy blue of India") and softened shapes. A khaki suit with long flared pants came piped at the waist with two stripes of citrine, a short coat borrowed sporty details from mountain anoraks (her subcontinental sojourn included a trek through the Himalayas), and dresses were wrapped and draped from one shoulder in the style of saris.The sheer fabrics present Capasa with the same problem other designers are facing this season: Back home in the real world, there's little room for transparency on city sidewalks and in office elevators. But an amethyst silk dress sashed at the waist and cut short above the knee would make a fine addition to a downtown girl's closet long after the scent of sandalwood has faded.
2 October 2007
If Ennio Capasa wasn't quite a changed man (he is still claiming inspiration from the most far-out fringes of the music world), there was enough of a new spirit in his latest collection to suggest that his holiday detoxing in Kerala had indeed opened his mind a little. The easy layering, the languid drawstring pants, the loose-weave knits with deep V necklines all brought a bit of the relaxed beach vibe into the city. Even the requisite indie-rocker rig (narrow suit, tiny-collared shirt, skinny tie—can anyone see this look without thinking Hedi?) was roughened up so it had a little freshness. Think Nick Cave in beige, not black, and you'll get the picture.All the same, Capasa admitted he had re-toxed since he got home, so it's still clearly dark, urban pleasures that appeal most to him. Anyone in search of such diversions would be appropriately dressed in a blouson covered with old silver sequins, or a lamé-lapelled jacket. And there were shirts with plackets of stitched-flat roses or frills or even oily feathers that cried out topoètes mauditseverywhere.
22 June 2007
¿I wanted to mix two different worlds, uniforms and dresses,¿ said Ennio Capasa backstage before his show. As a point of departure, this concept sticks pretty close to Costume National¿s successful formula: strong tailoring that doesn¿t ignore sex appeal. The opening coat, a side-closure number with an asymmetrical lapel and utilitarian-looking belt slung low across the hips, established a military theme that was echoed by camo-green pieces in fine wool and alpaca, along with fur Cossack hats and mufflers.The suits were an exercise in sharp simplicity. One in banker gray and another in black satin were cut broad and boxy through the jacket but pencil-thin through the pants. Many of the evening looks, on the other hand, were overdone. The colorful duchesse satins on the narrow, knee-length dresses might have been pinched from Prada—in this, Capasa wasn¿t alone—and their strappy necklines were fussy. Capasa is capable of doing both structure and sensuality (witness the navy cape dress, complexly draped yet effortless), but this season only the tailored side of the equation added up.
27 February 2007
Accept that fashion is society's mirror and it's only a matter of time before global warming makes its presence felt on some catwalk somewhere. For Ennio Capasa, that time is now. He was mortified that here it was, mid-winter in Milan, and the temperature was a balmy 19 degrees Celsius. And this freak occurrence was well after he'd created his new collection "in the hope that winter will still exist in our future." So, for Fall/Winter 2007, Capasa set about celebrating cold-weather wear with—among other striking items—a fur-lined trench, glossy mountaineering boots, and a fox blouson. Still, the collection's overwhelming aftertaste was the shiny new-wave style that has always been his signature. Capasa has, after all, built his career on a brand of arctic cool that has been more about attitude than temperature (let alone sociopolitical comment). Which meant his models looked more like chic cat burglars than hardy polar explorers in their balaclavas. The designer was quick to point out that the masterfully quilted silk lining in his coats and jackets would ensure its wearer's comfort in any climate, but somehow the Lurex-placketed evening shirt—with its hint of decadence—seemed much closer to the heart of Costume National, as did, in their own showy way, the tuxedo-striped gray trousers and the quilted jacket in flagrant Chinese red.
13 January 2007
Sci-fi futurism has hijacked the good sense of many a designer this season, but Costume National's Ennio Capasa managed to avoid that trap. Though he showed his fair share of metallics and holograms, he came up with a concise collection that was more jet set than space-age chic. His strong suits have always been a sense of realism and an awareness of what's sexy, and for spring he concentrated on the silhouettes in which he's always specialized—the sleek, sharp pantsuit (this time with an elevated waist), the abbreviated cocktail dress, the trench. Foundation established, he then added a silver leather belt, say, or harness detailing as reflective as high-polished chrome.Beyond the great outerwear—from a streamlined cream cape to an uncomplicated silver leather trench—there were some evening missteps, though. A sheer, hooded gown with slits up the side, for example, might've been killer in a knit jersey, but as it was, it could never walk off the runway. His cone-heeled slingbacks, meanwhile, came a little too close for comfort to those that appeared on the YSL runway a year ago. Overall, though, this show had more of that familiar Costume National edge than his last couple of outings.
2 October 2006
Ennio Capasa feels fall is the season when Costume National truly shines. As far as he's concerned, a man's ideal state in summer involves no clothes at all (not such a bad idea really, given the astonishing heat wave that seems to descend on Milan every June). So the challenge he set himself with his latest collection was to create clothing that would allow a man to dress and yet feel naked at the same time. He was most obviously successful with gauzy-silk knits, as well as a shirt in linen netting. Less practically, he sometimes chose to do away with shirts altogether, showing his body-cleaving Costume jackets with just a scarf or a waistcoat.He also relaxed the tightness of that signature silhouette a little: The collection's key item was an elasticized-waist shirt jacket, and the trousers it was paired with were full and pleated. Pants that rolled up and fastened with tabs, meanwhile, were positively frisky compared to the designer's customary hard-urban edge (they were even worn with sandals!). But the collection's major concession to summer was the silvery glaze on fabrics; it suggested the sparkle of sun on water or—as Capasa might prefer us to think of it—the sheen of bare skin.
25 June 2006
In his program notes, Costume National's Ennio Capasa suggested that the rock chick he dressed in the nineties has grown up. Unfortunately, the designer seems to think that growing up means losing your edge, judging from his uncharacteristically muted fall show. Despite experimenting with both long and short, eighties-tight and sixties-loose, suggestive and naïve, the collection felt a bit repetitive. There were eminently wearable minicoats, trenches, and the season's de rigueur half-wool/half-fur overcoat, but they lacked a recognizable identity that will make women seek them out.Pants, once a Costume National strong suit with their masculine yet sexy fit, inexplicably came with pleats beginning at the top of the thigh. They're as likely to see the light of day as the stiff leather floor-grazing skirt that was also shown. Thankfully, for evening Capasa took a more sensual approach. He mostly abandoned last season's superfluous jeweled embellishments—save for one sleek sheath that was fully beaded in front and plain in back—and focused on cut. Bustier dresses were fitted to just above the knee, as were his skirt suits, and he threw in a couple of voile gowns. The stronger of the two came with braided straps and fell in soft tiers to the floor—at last a hint of what grown-up rock chic might look like.
27 February 2006
Ennio Capasa's earliest inspirations, even before he fell in love with punk, were poetic decadents like Byron, Shelley, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire. For his latest collection, he imagined introducing them to new technology. What would Lord Byron have put on his iPod? Capasa couldn't answer that question, but he singled out a moleskin coat (with pocket chain, beaver collar, and frayed edges) as something the poet might sport were he around to raise hell in the 21st century.Capasa offered a random shuffle through a few centuries of rebel poses, from the silk-scarfed dandy to the biker, the Teddy boy, and the glam rocker. There was even a whiff of aClockwork Orangefuture. The signature of the collection was a faded glamour, as in a top-stitched tailcoat, an old gold jacket cropped short like a waiter's, or a paillette-covered blouson worn over an almost-sheer cashmere undershirt. A black velvet jacket and trousers, jean-detailed and fitted like a second skin, were paired with a homburg and a white silk scarf knotted into a high cravat at the throat (a look that would probably make sense to both Beau Brummel in the 18th century and Alex the droog in the 21st).Such edgy dressiness, also evident in a sheer black evening shirt with gold pleated front, or a black drape jacket with beaded lapel, had more impact (and was definitely more seductive) than the military references Capasa is equally drawn to.
16 January 2006
Ennio Capasa cited the heroines of Michelangelo Antonioni's movies as influences for spring. But on the evidence of the clothes, he was thinking more early sixtiesLa Nottethan mid-decadeBlow-up. The one exception was a navy Empire-line minidress, its neckline and straps trimmed in royal-blue crystals, which seemed tossed in at the last minute as a nod to fashion's new direction.Capasa was at his best when he focused on the waist, cinching it with wide raffia belts or showcasing it with a strictly corseted jacket. Slick tailoring is his strong suit; superfluous details like a row of buttons across the shoulder blades of a suede trench distracted from his collection's impact. And though embellishments like a jeweled shoulder clip or a bodice of swirling rhinestones gave his evening looks a luxe touch, the gowns would have looked just as sexy—and more modern—without them.After a quiet beginning, the show finished with jarring colors like chartreuse, candy apple red, and kelly green that didn't jibe with the otherwise-subtle pleated and ruched cocktail dresses. Like Antonioni's films, the graphic designs that Capasa is known for are plenty powerful in black and white.
3 October 2005
"There's too much marketing in fashion," said Ennio Capasa after his show. "We need a small revolution." So, in the interests of what he called "trying a new code," he put his love affair with the '70s on ice and looked back to the rebellious spirit of the '50s, a decade when disaffected youths first began to toy with sartorial defiance. For Capasa, that meant the style of England's Teddy boys. The first passage was a long, tailored drape jacket over a waistcoat, collar, and tie and a pair of narrow, striped trousers. The look was Edwardian undertaker, with quiffed hair for rock cred. The next passage featured waistcoat, jeans, and a gossamer-fine jersey shirt with sleeves rolled up as high as they would go, more bovver boy than mortician.Between them, these two outfits defined the collection, alternately dressy and tough but always with an eye on '50s-style rebels: Teds, bikers, bad boys. So a slubbed gray-silk jacket over black shirt and pink tie could have stepped off the dance floor at a greaser's prom. When Capasa used color, it was the synthetic shades of old school rock 'n' roll: electric blue, hot pink, chrome yellow. And the card print he showed—hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades—was also straight out of the '50s. All this had a certain thematic correctness, but it was with some relief that we eventually zoomed forward a few decades to the pure elegance of a dove-gray nylon trench over white leather jeans.
26 June 2005
Designer Ennio Capasa cited enduring sixties boho icon Marianne Faithfull as a starting point for his Costume National fall show, which had "folk chic" in the details. With its willowy chiffon dresses worn with seventies boots, and romanticDoctor ZhivagoRussian coats (accessorized with foxy Cossack hats or oversize fedoras), the collection seemed ripe for Sienna Miller—the latest in an It girl continuum stretching back to Faithfull herself.Capasa captured theMitteleuropaflavor of the moment thanks to strict tailoring, embellished with hussar military frogging details and this season's ubiquitous passementerie and crochet embroideries—very much part of his house's handcraft vocabulary. But he wanted a look that was "graphic outside and very fluid inside," so he underscored that shapely tailoring with saucy peasant dresses built around fitted and corseted velvet midriffs, in chiffons that were printed in various different paisleys.For all its boho credentials, the collection was ultimately geared to a hippie with a very heightened sense of luxe—from the strips of black mink worked into a coat's sleeves to the whorls of golden sequins on the finale's siren sheath gown.
28 February 2005
Ennio Capasa's recent encounter with Rudolf Nureyev via an exhibition of photographs had a huge effect on the designer. "He was an icon of modern couture," Capasa rhapsodized backstage after his latest show for Costume National. He included specific Nureyev signatures in the collection—the cap, the tight trousers tucked into boots, the scarf tied around the waist—but the generic seventies mood of the clothes could also be traced back to Nureyev's influence. "It was the first time men could be sexy," Capasa claimed.There may be modern men who beg to differ, especially when confronted with silk shirts with bow ties over fine-gauge turtlenecks or severely tailored double-breasted velvet suits with huge peaked lapels (today's disco dandies tend to favor less fey ensembles). But even they would appreciate Capasa's finely honed appreciation of sensuality in clothes. It was most obvious in the slink of his silk shirts, in the fit of a caramel gabardine peacoat and a lamb-collared suede trench, and in the fetishistic lure of a monkey fur–trimmed waistcoat. Rudi would have approved.
18 January 2005
Costume National presents an interesting case study in the evolution of an image. Normally this involves the tricky transition from ultrahip label to fashion mainstream. Some designers occasionally return to their avant-garde roots to reclaim past glories; others meander along, each new collection sadly a case of diminishing returns. There is another way, though: Simply stick to what you're known and loved for, but work in some more au courant ideas, so that your designs signalnow. If that approach works, you may no longer be white hot, but you'll have dedicated followers who return time and time again.That's the line of thinking that Costume National's Ennio Capasa follows. For next spring, Capasa still believes in slickly tailored trenchcoats, biker jackets, and straight skirts, but he has polished them with safari-suit detailing (buttoned pockets and wooden-buckle belts) and African-style adornments (appliquéd strips of black-and-red patent leather that run along the seams, emphasizing the second-skin fit of his clothes). There were times when the theme was heavy-handed: Capasa's use of traditional Masai necklaces as straps on evening dresses looked cumbersome. It was when he introduced a softer, easier element—a long suede djellaba-esque dress under a safari jacket, say—to temper the more overtly sexual moments that the show fell into step with fashion's current direction.
4 October 2004
The 1970's have been good to Ennio Capasa. After he mined the decade for endless variations on punk-tinged edginess, current events have got Capasa thinking about the kids from his youth who co-opted cast-off military clothes and ethnic warriors' emblems in the name of peace and love. Toying with a mix of the spiritual and the savage, Capasa opened his show with a pregnant, ringletted woman in white and closed it with a model in a black tuxedo jacket over a pair of black cavalry-inspired trousers in silk shantung. In between came a mini army of urgent young men in clothing adorned with beads and "tiger teeth" (actually pig's choppers from Papua New Guinea). These weren't noble warriors. The Capasa signature pieces—elegant, hyper-tailored jackets and trousers—took a back seat to roughened, worn-out items, like a waxed-cotton flight suit and a rose-pink waistcoat in washed leather. And those cavalry pants, dropped in the crotch, laced at the ankle, looked like Civil War long johns—a perfect match for the little peaked caps. But even if he were dressed for battle, it was clear that the Costume National man would rather make love, not war.
26 June 2004
Now, here's a conundrum. You are a designer who has created a highly successful signature that's marked by a way of dressing that's slick and sexy. But fashion is shifting away from that toward more romantic, dreamy, eclectic territory. What do you do? If you are Costume National's Ennio Capasa, you attempt to move to pastures (somewhat) new, by softening up and adding a richer sense of detail and decoration. Capasa's change in direction is also driven by the launch of the label's diffusion line, C'N'C. "With C'N'C being so casual," Capasa said, "it was really time to make the main collection that much more luxurious and couture-inspired."Did it work? Somewhat. Capasa kept his silhouette close to the body as usual but broke up his usual ultra-minimal look with intricately seamed and paneled chiffon dresses, tight-fit flight jackets with billowing bell sleeves, and fur-collared zippered satin trenchcoats. And he introduced rich jewel tones—ruby, emerald, sapphire—mixing them with the omnipresent black. But mixing brights with black is tricky: Neither ever really comes off looking as good as it could. One longed for Capasa to nix the noir all together and to focus on working his Asian-meets-psychedelic-inspired palette throughout the collection. Sometimes moving on means you really do have to take a leap of faith and break with the past.
6 March 2004
Suede pants laminated to the body. Leather jackets that fit like a glove. Hemlines that leave little, if anything, to the imagination. If this is what turns you on, then Costume National designer Ennio Capasa is your man.The collection wasn't all about steam, though. It takes a confident hand to stitch a web of seams into a pair of skintight blush-pink suede pants without making them look either clumsy or banal. And there was plenty of skill evident in skinny hand-brushed leather jackets and cotton macs, with sheer side panels, that emphasized the designer's beloved hourglass silhouette. Or wispy chiffon tops whose butterfly-shaped sleeves fluttered as the models glided by.Capasa also served up some surprises with color: Combinations like lemon and powder pink (!), mint and mauve (see the suede accessories), and lilac and pale blue suffused the raunchier pieces with a fresh, upbeat spirit. Which is not to say there wasn't plenty of his trademark noir, spun into curvilinear satin micro dresses, or long evening gowns in—what else?—transparent chiffon. This is fashion that favors the brave.
7 October 2003
Sleek, dark, graphic, sexy. For Fall 2003, Costume National designer Ennio Capasa did more of what he does best. Sensual silk dresses slunk their way down the models’ shoulders as they walked. Curve-hugging overcoats featured kinky corset bones and lingerie lacing. Skirts and dresses were short enough to cause serious gawking, if not a Fifth Avenue fender bender. Capasa’s love for noir was much in evidence—there was black leather, ebony jersey, deep-charcoal jacquard, and midnight mink—but shots of Easter-candy violet and deep peony pink provided welcome points of light.At its strongest, the collection, which Capasa named “Digital Beauty,” gives modern urban women more of what they need (or, at least, want)—slim jackets, A-line skirts, printed dresses, great black pants. But at times the clothes crossed the line from chic and modern to futuristic and far-fetched. Stretch-leather jumpsuits, which fit like a latex glove, are perhaps best left to actual digital beauties likeTomb Raider’s Lara Croft.
5 March 2003
If fashion designers were each assigned a signature car, Costume National’s Ennio Capasa would undoubtedly end up with a sleek, dark Ferrari. Capasa strips trends down to their essential elements without taking away the slick sex appeal, and the result for spring was a collection with both visual and commercial clout.The predominantly black palette was a bit heavy for a spring show, although it was leavened with white, gray, and occasional bits of apricot and mauve or beading and embroidery. Capasa kept it skinny (tight pants, slim skirts), mini (the briefest dresses, skirts and shorts) and bare (lots of spaghetti straps and sheer chiffon, including some tops worn over puzzling strappy bondage pieces reminiscent of Helmut Lang). It wasn't a groundbreaking show, but there was plenty to appeal to that trend-hungry customer who wants her clothes to look as cutting edge as she is.
2 October 2002
Like many designers, Ennio Capasa of Costume National went dark for Fall showing a collection that was mostly black, lit here and there by some winter white ensembles and touches of gold. As somber as the palette was, these were clothes not for goths, but for well-bred girls who like to think of themselves as "bad." Costume's hooded coat, leather bombers and cigarette-slim pants conjured nothing so much as a twenty-first century Sandra Dee.Capasa was on-trend with his furiously furry jackets (a major theme of this season), but generally offered individual pieces rather than a fully focused collection. Which is not to say that some of those pieces weren't highly desirable. The smoking pantsuits and the short-as-they come mini dresses cinched with masculine-style leather belts (perfect for cocktails at eight) were strong, and provided an alternative—perhaps an antidote?—to some of the tougher leather looks, which seemed more suitable for an evening of chain-smoking and high-decibel rock.
6 March 2002
Ennio Capasa's Costume National collection, executed almost entirely in black and white, was thankfully short.At heart, Capasa is a minimalist who emphasizes form above everything else—he is at his best designing sharp jackets and no-nonsense trousers. Why then, would he choose to cinch most of his looks with unflattering bodybuilder belts-turned-corsets? The effect was jarring and distracting.Worn without those unfortunate accessories, many of Capasa's clothes will work just fine as sensible everyday uniforms—the roomy overcoats, eyelet-trimmed skirts and peasant shirts are all in touch with current trends. Nonetheless, it was disappointing to see Capasa strike only one note through the entire show.
7 October 2001
It's an undeniable fact that black reigns supreme this season, but at times runways are acquiring decidedly funereal overtones.Ennio Capasa has always favored an austere silhouette, so he surely feels at home now that fashion is infatuated with everything dark. Capasa showed a plethora of jackets—oversize with extra-long sleeves, single- and double-breasted, satin-trimmed and plain—paired with an equally exhaustive range of turtleneck tops that seemed to blend into an endless parade of black. A couple of olive coats with pointed shoulders, a miniskirt or two, and several bright green satin suits did little to lighten the weighty atmosphere.Capasa's cocktail dresses—puzzling collages of embroidered lace, satin and leather—played up the all-too-familiar juxtaposition of hard and soft fabrics that most designers are exploring for Fall, but failed to deliver an innovative twist.
11 March 2001
Looking for a dainty, girly, embroidered little spring frock for that garden party with the in-laws next May? Forget about it: You won't come even close to finding something like that at Costume National.Designer Ennio Capasa went for his usual lean, mean and sleek silhouette. Masculine tuxedos were the inspiration for sexy pantsuits with wide cummerbunds, many with the jacket tucked inside the pants, some with glittering barely-there pinstripes. The black-and-white procession of bustiers, blazers and pegged trousers was only momentarily interrupted by several chocolate- brown suedes and leathers, as well as some violet-blue satins.The look at Costume National was certainly consistent, but at some point everything tended to blur together; one would've liked to see more ideas at play.
8 October 2000
Costume National is best known for its sleek, modern take on urban ready-to-wear. The label's loyal following of no-nonsense, minimal-inclined clients will have no trouble revamping their fall wardrobes with supple leather tops, slim pantsuits and satin copper blouses. To lighten the mood, they will turn to off-white suede jackets worn with leather skirts (skin on skin is an unbeatable combination), and cowl-neck sweaters. Of course, everyone needs a bit of spice once in a while. Not to worry—houndstooth-print red-and-black satin dresses, sheared fur sweaters and glittery black suits for evening should do the trick.
27 February 2000
"Leather and chiffon" essentially summarizes Costume National's presentation, which did not stray far from the familiar looks of the season: simple, light, gauzy, often beaded and transparent dresses with plunging necklines and revealing backsides. In this case, they were shown alongside fitted leather coats, miniskirts, and very short suede shorts and skirts. The predominant color was black, though bursts of green, gray, and copper livened up the atmosphere.
3 October 1999