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.
