Introduction
Ennio Capasa is an Italian fashion designer born in Lecce on 12 March 1960. After studying at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, he moved to Tokyo and spent about two years as an assistant to Yohji Yamamoto. He returned to Italy in 1986 and founded Costume National with his brother Carlo, taking responsibility for design and creative direction from the first womenswear collection.
Capasa developed Costume National through a long international runway career. Womenswear moved onto the Paris calendar in 1991, Costume National Homme followed in Milan in 1993, and the house expanded through footwear, eyewear, fragrance, retail and the C'N'C Costume National diffusion line. His remit extended beyond clothing to store interiors and cross-category work including projects with Ducati and Alfa Romeo, alongside costume and cultural projects in film, theatre and art.
In 2009 the Capasa brothers sold a minority stake in Costume National to Sequedge. Ennio remained the house's creative director through the Autumn/Winter 2016–17 collections and left with Carlo on 15 March 2016 when their remaining shares were sold. He returned to independent fashion with Capasa Milano in 2022 and expanded that label into footwear, presenting a new women's shoe collection for Autumn/Winter 2026–27.
Design ethos
Capasa's clothing is built around a lean, graphic silhouette that joins Italian tailoring to the restraint he encountered in Japan. Narrow trousers, elongated jackets, sharp coats and controlled volumes recur across womenswear and menswear, usually carried by black, white, grey and deep neutral tones. Rock culture supplies attitude and movement, with leather, velvet, metal and close-cut tailoring giving the work its familiar nocturnal edge.
Construction stays visible through proportion and material choice. Capasa repeatedly uses tailoring to sharpen the body, then softens it with fluid shirts, knitwear, supple leather and reduced detailing. The same discipline shaped Costume National's stores and product extensions: interiors, footwear and industrial collaborations were treated as extensions of the same clean geometry and tactile vocabulary.
His later Capasa Milano work places renewed emphasis on hand-finishing, ergonomic form and the physical character of leather. Shoes use hand-worked surfaces, shaped toes and carefully balanced heels to keep a precise outline without sacrificing movement. Across both labels, the consistent concern is a recognisable form made through proportion, material tension and close control of finish.
Disclaimer
Career history
2016
Ennio and Carlo Capasa left Costume National on 15 March 2016, ending thirty years of founder control. Ennio resigned as creative director and Carlo left his executive role as both brothers sold their remaining shares.
2013
Costume National returned its womenswear runway to Milan in September 2013 with the Spring/Summer 2014 collection after twenty-two years on the Paris calendar. The move re-centred the house in Italy during Ennio Capasa's final years of creative direction.
2007
For Costume National's twenty-first anniversary in 2007, Ennio Capasa designed a vinyl-black dress for an Absolut bottle project. The commission carried the house's fashion language into a recognisable pop-cultural object during a period of broad cross-category expansion.
2007
C'N'C Costume National and Alfa Romeo unveiled a special 147 series at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September 2007, limited to 1,000 cars. Pearl-effect bodywork, black detailing, leather, perforated Alcantara and custom badging extended the diffusion label's material vocabulary into automotive design.
2005
C'N'C Costume National began a Ducati collaboration with co-branded accessories in 2005 and developed the Black Dogo motorcycle in 2006. The project translated Ennio Capasa's leather-heavy, rock-oriented design language into an industrial object shaped by performance and mechanical finish.
2004
Ennio Capasa launched C'N'C Costume National in 2004 as a younger diffusion label with its own fashion identity and Milan runway presence. Itierre handled production and distribution while Capasa retained design authorship.
2003
Costume National opened the Aoyama Complex in Tokyo around September 2003 as a major anchor for its Asian retail expansion. The site developed into a cultural and spatial expression of the house as well as a commercial flagship.
2002
Costume National established its fragrance division with Beauty San in 2002 and launched Scent and Scent Intense. The line translated the house's dark, reduced aesthetic into perfumery and became one of its most durable extensions.
2001
Costume National introduced its first official eyewear collection in 2001. Frames carried the house's preference for clean line and restrained finish into a licensed accessories category with broad international reach.
2000
Costume National partnered with Kataweb in 2000 to broadcast a menswear collection online. The project opened a runway presentation to a wider digital audience at a point when web transmission was still unusual within fashion.
2000
Costume National formalised footwear as a dedicated division in 2000 after shoes had already appeared in earlier collections. The category developed the house's leather work, narrow proportions and precise finishing as a substantial commercial extension.
1995
From 1995 through 1998 Costume National opened flagships across Milan, Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, Rome, Los Angeles and Paris. Ennio Capasa treated store interiors as part of the house image, while Carlo Capasa directed the international expansion.
1993
Costume National Homme launched in 1993 as a dedicated menswear line designed by Ennio Capasa and presented in Milan. The division extended the house's narrow tailoring, dark colour range and rock references into a sustained men's wardrobe.
1991
Costume National made its official Paris womenswear runway debut in 1991 after beginning its career in Milan. The move placed Ennio Capasa's minimalist tailoring and dark palette on the calendar that would define the women's line for the next two decades.
1986
Ennio Capasa held creative direction of Costume National from its foundation through 15 March 2016. He authored womenswear, menswear, C'N'C and much of the house's wider visual identity, including retail interiors and cross-category projects.
1986
Ennio and Carlo Capasa founded Costume National in Milan in 1986, with Ennio directing design and Carlo leading the business. The first womenswear collection established the label's dark, pared-back tailoring within the Italian ready-to-wear landscape.
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