Ennio Capasa was born in Lecce, in the south of Italy. After completing his studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, he moved to Tokyo where he worked for two years as the assistant to Yohji Yamamoto. Upon his return to Italy in 1986 he founded CoSTUME NATIONAL with his brother Carlo, and in the same year presented his first womenswear collection. Designer and creative director of Costume National, Costume National Homme, and Costume and Costume, the brands new contemporary line launched as a response to the current market trends of becoming more retail and web oriented and designed to act as a continuation of the main line. Ennio Capasa is known for his iconographic esthetic – minimal, chic, Rocknroll; Passionate about architecture and art, he has also collaborated in contemporary film, theatre, music and the art world. The New York Times has defined him as the designer who “inspired and revolutionized fashion in the 90′s the way Giorgio Armani did for the 80s.”