Costume National's Ennio Capasa has found success with his less is more approach to design
The softly spoken, stubbly Italian, who once worked with Yohji Yamamoto, has championed a clean, graphic aesthetic since starting the label with his brother in 1986
"Hong Kong is still the fashion capital of Asia, with Tokyo," says Ennio Capasa, founder and creative director of cult label Costume National (and diffusion line C'N'C), as he inaugurates the opening of two Hong Kong stores this year, with more planned for Shanghai.
The softly spoken, stubbly Italian, who once worked with Yohji Yamamoto, has championed a clean, graphic aesthetic since starting the label with his brother in 1986. Costume National has since expanded to include menswear, womenswear, accessories, and streetwear. The label has a strong following in Asia, especially Japan. But despite its minimalist, hypermodern and rock 'n' roll image - beloved by fashionisti like Mick Jagger, Orlando Bloom, and Keith Richards - Capasa prefers more abstract associations.
"I like it when you can catch the feeling but without putting too much into it," he says, dressed in trademark black.
"Edgy chic is at the core of my brand."
Capasa's been catching the right - and innovative - feeling from the outset. Born into a fashion family in Leece in the Apulia region of Italy, his parents still run (his mother is 78) a store that sells brands like Yves Saint Laurent and Japanese labels. Despite a predilection for fine art, which he studied at Milan's Art and Design Academy, Capasa swapped canvas for cloth after graduation, drawn by fashion's "magic and escapism". Influenced by the exotic of the orient he left Italy to work as assistant designer with Yohji Yamamoto in Japan.
"It was like going to the best university at the right time," he says. "For three-and-a-half years I learned the discipline of work - and a lot of technique. The studio was very atelier-like - very old couture style."
Working alongside Yamamoto allowed Capasa to culture a love for simplicity, "this essence of oriental feeling", still a major influence today. "But then, I'm Italian - I love rock 'n' roll," he laughs. "So I incorporated it all together." That juxtaposition has won a cult following. Few menswear designers of his generation - outside Japan and Antwerp - were combining such disparate fashion ideologies.
Capasa returned with an original stylistic language, a reaction to the excessive and "over-the-top" fashion pervading the West in the '80s. Soon after, in 1986, Costume National was born. "I changed the silhouette so that everything was very skinny," he says. "I wanted to make clothes that you enjoy for yourself, not just for the ego of the designer. I think we were very radical in that way."
"I still think it's important for me to make clothes that people can wear every day," Capasa says. "You know, the relationship with real life, the street, with useful clothes, is one of my main objectives."