Ennio Capasa has developed his collection via a focused color story for the past few seasons; for Spring, he zoomed in almost exclusively on pink. Not baby pink or hothouse fuchsia, but a pure bubblegum tone that's just about as far from Costume National's noirish origins as possible.
Capasa described the tack for his rose-colored vision as "tough but tender." (His inspiration board had Araki florals and bondage images and shots of tough-but-tender icons like Wanda Jackson and Blondie.) He framed the arch-feminine hue with smart tailoring in vests and jackets and boyish cropped pants. It's a look he's really taken to since fashion's big cleanup a year and a half ago, and it suits him well. But since then, sexiness, once his stock-in-trade, has taken a backseat. Today that was remedied somewhat in body-skimming dresses with sheer organza pieced into sweetheart-line décolletages and sleeves, though they were nothing va-va-voom. What gave you more zip were the abstract florals edged in black leather and backed in a white scubalike nylon silk. They were similarly modest in silhouette, but the combination hinted at perversity—certainly a better method of communication than the duo of cage leather looks that sang it loud and proud.
