COLLEZIONE 0

Ennio Capasa: “I’m starting again with a new brand, driven by the same urgency for change that led me to found Costume National in 1987, with the long ride that followed. On the label I only wanted my family name: because it is a personal project which, however, is about timeless continuity, not my ego.

Today we have to deal with a new geography of fashion communities, new generations of consumers who look at fashion in a personal way, taking to extremes the attitude towards gender fluidity that I too have contributed to codify with my past work, and paying close attention to problems related to environmental and social sustainability.

The CAPASA style is the style I always favoured: tense and essential, even more open to crossover and dialogue. I would like to involve the community that will grow around the brand in an active way, finding channels that lead to the exchange of ideas and proposals.

My quest for timeless modernity will be condensed in limited editions that will come out regularly and pieces imagined to have a long life. Less but better, scarcity instead of excess: the opposite of throwaway. Products that combine the utmost in tailoring with the utmost in technology: laser cuts and nanotechnologies instead of scissors and sewing machines without giving up hand stitches; 3D designs and extreme customizations. Integrated technology to safeguard artisan knowledge and the Made in Italy, because progress is in the fusion of different know-hows. A tailoring approach therefore extended from ready-to-wear to accessories and beyond, in transparency and traceability.

Today it is the creative quality that informs the very concept of luxury, and it is on the creative quality that I focus, not on the quantity. I imagine a few unexpected stores and boutiques, hubs or meeting points for our community, but most of the distribution will happen online. The idea is not only to sell but also to rent the products through the internet and create a channel for the recycling and reuse of the products themselves.

Over the years I have changed, but the values ​​I believe in and that guide me will stay. The approach, as far as I’m concerned, must always be avant-garde, because this is how it works if a designer wants to innovate. It sure works for me. CAPASA is my expression, here and now, of the never dormant desire to innovate.”

This is collection zero, the preamble before the beginning, the process revealed in fieri.

This is CAPASA, before it starts.

CAPASA signed a licensing agreement with HIMCO for the production and distribution of footwear.

CAPASA produces and distributes clothing directly.

UNCONVENTIONAL TAILORING

All together in the backstage of a modern theater famous for its events and concerts, to attend a dress rehearsal. Again, an open backstage to participate in the birth of the project: “Before it starts”.

Ennio Capasa: “I have always worked with the desire to break the boundaries between formal and informal, between day and night, against considering gender as a convention.
All the items presented in the collection are genderless and can be purchased in a wide range of sizes.
The suits are worn with skirt or trousers, or with both, sportswear with bare legs and dresses with trousers, often fluid.

Tailoring and couture at the center of the collection are treated in an unconventional manner. They are often laser-cut and heat-sealed with techniques borrowed from sportswear and enriched by sartorial interventions on the sleeves or in the lapels.
On the contrary, sportswear is built with tailoring techniques.

I worked on individuality. Each interpreter of the show has a personal attitude, tells a story about him. With make-up, hairstyle, jewellery or the garment itself, creatively customized but without excessive styling. The prints and jacquards represent animals from my original drawings and paintings dedicated to safeguarding the “CAPASA for earth” ecosystem. In some cases they have been “hacked” by my staff, printed on fluorescent patches applied to blazers or jackets.

The materials and manufacturing are sourced according to the main criteria of environmental and social sustainability. I have often applied circular economy criteria to my creations and events in the past. The venue was dressed using only materials and furniture already present in the theater.

FABRICS Shantung materials and animal print jacquards, taffeta couture, eco-nylon taffeta, velvet tie dye, yarn dyed tailoring, randomly pleated taffeta, washed cashmere, crepe couture, eco-fur, pixelated animal jacquards, doubleface raw cut wool.

KNITWEAR Made by MODIT International, compact tubular sweaters, second skin, large handmade.

COLORS black, grey, dark or bright green, white Indian yellow, a touch of red.

FOOTWEAR horn sculpture detail, “Capasa for earth” made in Buccio, a leather layer covering the heel. Pointed or square shapes, décolleté, raw cut ankle boots and boots, sculptural or spool heel. The footwear is made and distributed by HIMCO.

JEWELRY Genderless and fluid JEWELS, in ethical silver and gold, blue pearls from Tahiti extrapolated with sustainable systems. Created by Ennio Capasa in collaboration with Gianni De Benedittis of futuroRemoto. The “Unconventional Jewelry” capsule is created and distributed by futuroRemoto.

CREDITS
Styling: Veronique Didry
Casting: Plus Three Two
Hair by Mustafa Yanaz @ Art + Commerce
Products by WELLA Professionals
Make-up by Jen Myles @ Streeters
Live on stage @starcontrol.band_Frontman @anotherdavide
Press Office: Karla Otto
Social media managing: We Are Social
Set Design e Show Direction: Upper Storeys by Fausto Poli e Cristina Tomada
Lighter designer: Valerio Tiberi

SPECIAL THANKS
HIMco
futuroRemoto
Modit
PR Imballaggi
NT Next

We would like to thank the TAM Teatro Arcimboldi Milano, the general manager Marzia Ginocchio and the artistic director and Gianmario Longoni for opening their doors to an innovative theatrical program where culture and entertainment meet fashion. Because different art expressions always generate authentic and unrepeatable beautiful emotions.