Costume National is an

Italian fashion Italy is one of the leading countries in fashion design, alongside France, the United States and the United Kingdom. Fashion has always been an important part of the country's cultural life and society, and Italians are well known for their atte ...

house founded in 1986 by Ennio Capasa,

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

, and his brother Carlo,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. It has its head office in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. The company produces clothing under the brands ''Costume National'', ''Costume National Homme'' (for men) and ''C’N’C'' (an avant-garde “street-couture” line)‘Sequedge and Costume National Join Hands’
, imagesfashion.com, 24 April 2010. as well as scents including ''The Trilogy'', ''Scent Gloss'', ''Scent Cool Gloss'', ''Intense'', ''21'', and ''Homme''.

History

The company was founded in 1986 in Milan by Ennio Capasa, who worked in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as an assistant to

Yohji Yamamoto is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Considered a master tailor alongside those such as Madeleine Vionnet, he is known for his avant-garde tailoring featuring Japanese design aesthetics. Yamamoto has won notable awards for ...

, and his brother Carlo Capasa. Its first womenswear collection was presented in Milan in the same year. In 1991, the ‘Woman Collection’ was presented in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Between 1995 and 1998 the

fashion house Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and plac ...

opened stores in Milan,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and Paris. In 2000, a menswear collection was streamed online in collaboration with

Kataweb KataWeb S.p.A. is an Italian company who offers internet publishing and related services. Its services include a web portal and dial-up Internet access that was launched in 1999. Subsequently, it offered access to more disparate materials, orga ...

. Over the following three years, the company extended its range of products to include

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

eyewear Eyewear consists of items and accessories worn on or over the eyes, for fashion or adornment, protection against the environment, and to improve or enhance visual acuity. Common forms of eyewear include glasses (also called ''eyeglasses'' or ''s ...

ready to wear Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing ...

apparel and

footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves th ...

, plus

accessories Accessory may refer to: * Accessory (legal term), a person who assists a criminal In anatomy * Accessory bone * Accessory muscle * Accessory nucleus, in anatomy, a cranial nerve nucleus * Accessory nerve In arts and entertainment * Accessory ...

targeted at the younger generations.

Distribution and Production

Costume National

The company's Thiene factory is responsible for men's and women's Ready To Wear production. The factory is mainly responsible for the cutting room, pattern-making, and finished product quality control. CN shoe factory, based in Fossò, develops and produces footwear. Leather bags and leather accessories are produced by selected partners and commercialized by CN Production. Leather clothing production is licensed to Leather Company, which works exclusively for Costume National. Costume National has 5 flagship stores which were all designed with the same concept of classical edginess and minimalism. In October 2008 Costume National launched its online store where the Costume National and Costume National Homme collections and accessories are available.

C’N’C Costume National

C’N’C Costume National, produced and distributed through a licensing agreement with ITTIERRE, offers Ready To Wear apparel for Men and Women as well as footwear and accessories. PLUS IT, the accessories division which features shoes, bags, and a line of small accessories, also has a worldwide distribution network. The production facilities are located in Italy, while the distribution has a worldwide network.

Collaborations and Co-branding

In 2005, Ennio Capasa created the DUCATI Black Dogo, a motorcycle that derives its name from the Argentine mastiff. This collaboration allowed him to design a series of special items of clothing under the C’N’C Costume National

Ducati Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. () is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati, headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is Au ...

label. To celebrate its 21st anniversary in 2007, the company presented the book ''21'' (a photographic journal of Capasa's career), a version of the

Absolut Vodka Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, in southern Sweden. Absolut is a part of the French group Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard bought Absolut for €5.63 billion in 2008 from the Swedish state. Absolut is one of the largest brand ...

bottle dressed in black vinyl with images of two women, the Alfa 147 C’N’C 21 (a limited-edition car costume), a unisex fragrance called ‘Costume National 21’, and a line of luxury sneakers under the name ‘Costume National Active’. During

Milan Design Week The Milan Furniture Fair ( it, Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano) is a furniture fair held annually in Milan. It is the largest trade fair of its kind in the world. The exhibition showcases the latest in furniture and design from countrie ...

of 2009, the Dutch designer

Maarten Baas Maarten Baas (; born 19 February 1978) is a Dutch furniture designer. He is known for his Real Time series of clocks in which people paint the time by hand. His career path was influenced by mentors like Jurgen Bey, colleagues like Bertjan Pot ...

presented his show event entitled “Real Time” in the C’N’C Costume National showroom. C’N’C Costume National showed the SS2010 Collection in Piazza Duomo in front of 40,000 guests, rather than to a limited number of those who are active in the industry. To celebrate Christmas 2009 the company participated in the Water Project, an Amref initiative. In 2010, C’N’C Costume National showed the FW2010/2011 Collection at the Teatro dell’Arte of the Triennale di Milano.

Eco-projects

In 2009, the company's ‘Solar Bag’, which featured

solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

s which charged a battery concealed in the lining that was able to supply power to

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

s and other digital accessories, received the “

Chi é Chi Award Chi or CHI may refer to: Greek *Chi (letter), the Greek letter (uppercase Χ, lowercase χ); Chinese * ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter *Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon * Chi (surname) (池, pinyin: ''chí' ...

” for the best eco-friendly fashion product. In 2008 Ennio Capasa designed a limited-edition t-shirt to support the Climate Project, an

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

initiative. To celebrate Christmas 2008 Costume National collaborated wit
Planete Urgence
an organization dedicated to environmental and social change, in a ‘Plant a Tree’ project.

References

External links

Official Website C.N.C. Costume National - Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Costume National Clothing brands of Italy Manufacturing companies based in Milan Privately held companies of Italy Clothing companies established in 1986 Italian companies established in 1986