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Costume National

MILAN, June 27, 2005
By Tim Blanks
"There's too much marketing in fashion," said Ennio Capasa after his show. "We need a small revolution." So, in the interests of what he called "trying a new code," he put his love affair with the '70s on ice and looked back to the rebellious spirit of the '50s, a decade when disaffected youths first began to toy with sartorial defiance. For Capasa, that meant the style of England's Teddy boys. The first passage was a long, tailored drape jacket over a waistcoat, collar, and tie and a pair of narrow, striped trousers. The look was Edwardian undertaker, with quiffed hair for rock cred. The next passage featured waistcoat, jeans, and a gossamer-fine jersey shirt with sleeves rolled up as high as they would go, more bovver boy than mortician.

Between them, these two outfits defined the collection, alternately dressy and tough but always with an eye on '50s-style rebels: Teds, bikers, bad boys. So a slubbed gray-silk jacket over black shirt and pink tie could have stepped off the dance floor at a greaser's prom. When Capasa used color, it was the synthetic shades of old school rock 'n' roll: electric blue, hot pink, chrome yellow. And the card print he showed—hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades—was also straight out of the '50s. All this had a certain thematic correctness, but it was with some relief that we eventually zoomed forward a few decades to the pure elegance of a dove-gray nylon trench over white leather jeans.

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