Yasutoshi Ezumi

Yasutoshi Ezumi is a Japanese fashion designer born in Hiroshima in 1981. He studied fashion in Japan before graduating from the Fashion and Textile course at Central Saint Martins in London. His early professional experience included work around Alexander McQueen and other collection labels, followed by a 2008 appointment as a knitwear designer at Aquascutum.

After returning to Japan, Ezumi founded Yasutoshi Ezumi in 2010 and established Ri Design in 2012. The label entered the Tokyo collection calendar in 2011, received the DHL Designer Award in 2014 and developed overseas showroom activity in New York and Paris. It was renamed EZUMi in 2018, while Ezumi also expanded into uniforms and commissioned design, including work for Shu Uemura and Japan Airlines.

Ezumi became Costume National's womenswear creative director in 2017, beginning with Autumn/Winter 2017–18 and directing the line through Spring/Summer 2020. His wider career continued alongside his own label; in 2020 he became creative director of Blue Label Crestbridge and Black Label Crestbridge, and his subsequent work has included uniforms, exhibition projects and design education.

Ezumi's work is governed by clarity of construction. Geometry, pattern efficiency and the relation between fabric and volume recur across his own collections, with rectangles, folds, panels and controlled drape used to produce shapes that remain legible on the body. Knitwear training adds close attention to surface, tension and the way a textile changes when worn.

Architecture is a persistent reference in his practice, visible in the use of structural lines, modular forms and garments assembled from clearly articulated components. This interest also supports a pragmatic approach to production: economical pattern layouts, reduced waste and careful material allocation allow complex visual ideas to remain compatible with manufacturing and wear.

Uniform commissions and larger-house appointments broaden that logic beyond an eponymous runway label. At Costume National he worked within an established language of minimal tailoring; projects for airlines, beauty companies and other fashion houses demanded consistency across many wearers and use cases. Across these contexts, function, proportion and precise surface control remain the strongest constants.