Edition: U.S. / Global

Fault Line of a New Generation

Published: December 17, 1996

Ennio Capasa is the No. 1 designer for Hollywood hipsters haunting the Fred Segal/Ron Herman Melrose boutique. Celebrities actually buy his clothes at full retail price, instead of demanding designer handouts. His style has influenced heavyweight labels like Calvin Klein and Gucci. He, along with Helmut Lang, is most often credited for inventing the mood of men's fashion for the 1990's, much as Giorgio Armani did for the 80's.

So, why hasn't anyone outside the fashion industry ever heard of him?

Maybe because what is most 90's about Mr. Capasa's collections, called Costume National for women and Costume National Homme for men, is that they are against everything that designer fashion in the 80's held dear. They are anti-hype, anti-self-promotion and even anti-designer. Mr. Capasa named his Milan-based collections Costume National after an antique book about French uniforms, because he couldn't stand the idea of his own name decorating an object.

It could even be argued that, like Mr. Lang, he is anti-change.

''These designers have developed in a linear way,'' said William Mullen, the creative director of Details magazine. ''It's improving on the last collection rather than imposing something new. Both Helmut and Ennio look like guys that wear their clothes, cool minimalist guys that probably have good taste in music. But oddly, they're classicists. They're doing timeless dressing for a post-rock-and-roll guy, a guy who's experienced rock-and-roll. Your father didn't. You have. And you never get it out of your head: the guy in black always gets the girl.''

The Italian fashion industry is no different from the American one when it comes to awards: they tend to get passed around at the top, among four or five huge commercial names. So, Mr. Capasa was more surprised than anyone recently when he was given the highest honor a men's-wear designer can receive from the industry, an invitation to be the featured collection at Pitti Immagine Uomo, a men's-wear trade show in Florence on Jan. 9.

The honor has previously gone to Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace and Donna Karan.

''I think the reason why the organizers asked me to do it is they felt a big generational change in fashion,'' said Mr. Capasa, 36, who was recently in New York looking at a location for a boutique. He already owns stores in Milan, Rome and Tokyo. ''They said, 'We've followed you a few seasons and we feel you represent a change.' ''

Mr. Capasa is oddly divorced from the cozy love affair that usually exists between the press and influential designers.

Even the top Italian journalists don't go to his shows. ''Never are there mentions in Italian magazines or newspapers, never, ever, ever,'' he said.

The same is true of American magazines: except for Details, which has an esthetic closely aligned with his own, they almost ignore him. He is never next to editors at cloying dinners or celebrated by the celebrity-sprinkled parties that increase stature.

And yet, he's been a retail darling since he left Yohji Yamamoto in 1987 to start his own line with only the assurance that his parents would buy the collection for their upscale boutiques in the south of Italy.

''He always had a strong silent mood to his clothing, and in the last two years people have gotten the message,'' said Barbara Weiser, head of Charivari's women's division. ''It's part of that hip, urban, unadorned but sexually charged kind of look.''

Those who have learned to love his clothes do so because they are so un-self-consciously hip and difficult to pigeonhole. As he is pushed into the designer spotlight, the only questions are: Will all that chic anonymity that comes with the label be lost? And can any designer keep a cool cachet as an outsider while winning publicity?

''I was quite happy, in a way, that in my country someone recognized what I was doing,'' he said of the Pitti honor, an event invented for the promotion of men's fashion.

It was high time for someone to recognize what the younger generation in Italy was doing. Most Italian establishment designers are pushing 60, and until now, little has been done to nurture the industry's future.

Clearly, Mr. Capasa will play a big part in it. Especially since there is an obvious parallel with Mr. Armani, who also formed his women's look from the style of his men's wear. In 1993, Mr. Capasa designed the kind of sexy men's clothes he himself wanted to wear and had an epiphany that the women's collection should have that same spirit.

''It was right when Helmut started to actually produce garments for men,'' said Nina Garduno, a vice president of Ron Herman/Fred Segal. ''The industry was seriously hungry for something different. His timing was amazing. And he's inspired a lot of people.''

His first collection for women in 1987 was dedicated to the poverty-stricken proportions of Charlie Chaplin. It got the somewhat discouraging response from the Italian press that it had no right to exist.

''I had an inspiration that I needed to find a new silhouette for the 90's,'' he said. ''Which meant no shoulder anymore. So I said, if I start from the shoulder to remake the silhouette closer to the body, more relaxed, it means more style than fashion, not to change every season. I felt immediately I had to do something that reflected my generation.''

When he began showing his women's line in Paris, he found himself in the midst of a movement. Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Jean Colonna and John Galliano were all young, starting out and challenging the French fashion establishment. They all became friends, debating over dinners what their role would be in the industry.

''Sometimes, with this kind of talking you clarify your point of view,'' Mr. Capasa said. ''We thought it was a generation change. We saw that each one in a different way was influencing big fashion. We struggled. We said, 'O.K., we have to change, we want to change, people are ready for change.' In a way, very naive points of view, but in a way very exciting.''

Each arrived at the same solution.

''I don't care if it looks like fashion or not,'' Mr. Capasa said. ''I want evolution, development. Even if we are different, my generation of designer is like that. If you analyze Helmut, he's like that. Martin is like that. Colonna is like that. Ann is like that. It's based on a style of continuity.''

The group was more influenced by Japanese designers than by Paris-based ones. Mr. Capasa had an advantage in that he had worked for Mr. Yamamoto in Tokyo from 1983 to 1986, years when Japanese design was most influential.

He had first heard of Mr. Yamamoto at home in Lecce, when his parents bought the line for their boutiques, called Smart. Of course, because it was his parents' business, he hated fashion. ''For me, fashion was a club, for tired rich people,'' he said.

To avoid Italy's mandatory military service after he finished art school in Milan, he ended up looking for work in industrial design in Japan; the industry he got a job designing for was fashion. The designer was Mr. Yamamoto, and on the strength of a few sketches, Mr. Capasa started there and learned to drape, cut and sew.

When he told Mr. Yamamoto he was ready to leave, the designer said he should start his own label, something he had never considered.

''If you analyzed the growth of Costume National, it is one that grew very unusually for the fashion business,'' Mr. Capasa said. ''Because, normally, you are pushed by the press, then you get credibility and people buy you, and you invest in advertising and that's the way. But our way was very different. It grew because the gossip was that it was a good sell.''

He thought for a minute and added, ''Perhaps if I were pushed by the press I wouldn't have pushed myself so much.''

Photos: With rib-knit sweaters and fitted suits, Mr. Capasa has created a sexy style that has defined fashion for men in the 90's, one small step at a time (from left): Costume National Homme from spring 1995, fall '95, fall '96 and spring '97. Mr. Capasa's sleek men's wear informed his women's collections, which slowly evolved to meet the mood of the men's: (from left) Costume National from fall 1994, spring '95, fall '95 and spring '96. (Photographs by Corina Lecca for The New York Times); Spring/summer 97 for Costume National men and women: a lean silhouette fitted from the shoulder. Ennio Capasa of Costume National will be honored on Jan. 9 by the Italian men's-wear industry. (Photographs by Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times)