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SIMULACRA

Carol Christian Poell

Carol Christian Poell1994–MilanFASHION / Creator or studio profile

Menswear built and then treated as a finished object, dyed or rubbered after assembly, so seams and leather record the process unevenly.

Sleeveless jacket worn over a sleeved waistcoat, c. 2010. Wool with silk lining. V&A, given by Charlie Porter (T.115:1&2-2015).

PHOTOGRAPH © Victoria and Albert Museum, London / collections.vam.ac.ukReferenced from its source. Rights not established by SIMULACRA.

Plates 3

Overview

Carol Christian Poell is an Austrian designer, born in 1966 to a family with a long background in tanning and leather, who took a postgraduate design course at Domus Academy in Milan. He founded his label there in 1994 with Sergio Simone. The Westminster Menswear Archive credits his family's tannery background for his experimental methods of cutting and assembling clothes.

Two treatments recur in the current work, both applied after a garment or shoe is assembled. Object dyeing dyes the finished piece whole, which The Library, his London stockist, says produces surface variation unique to each piece. Drip rubber applies liquid polyurethane to the completed construction so it runs and sets on the surface, which the stockist calls a melting aesthetic. The footwear adds whole-cut leather uppers with no seams and exposed titanium prosthetic ankle inserts.

Selected works

  1. Trousers

    Autumn/Winter 1997 · Mint cotton, striped viscose half-lining · Westminster Menswear Archive, 2018.109

  2. Cord jacket

    2003 · Grey cotton needlecord, unlined, seams taped · Westminster Menswear Archive, 2016.090

  3. Mainstream Downstream (collection and canal presentation)

    Spring/Summer 2004, shown June 2003 · Red-dyed leather, white tailoring

  4. Jacket and waistcoat

    c. 2010 · Wool, silk · Victoria and Albert Museum, T.115:1&2-2015

  5. Object Dyed Drip Rubbered Leather Gloves, AM/2459

    Date not verified · Kangaroo leather, object dyed, liquid polyurethane

What to notice

  1. 01Looks together, isn'tOn the V&A piece the jacket stops at the shoulder and the sleeves come from the waistcoat underneath. Charlie Porter, who owned it, said it 'looks together but also not quite right'.
  2. 02The legs swing backThe Autumn/Winter 1997 trousers are cut so the legs fall backward when laid flat. On the body that leaves extra cloth gathered at the knee.
  3. 03Process left on the surfaceDrip rubber runs where gravity takes it, so on the gloves it pools and points at the fingertips. No two pairs can set the same way.
  4. 04Seams as informationThe 2003 cord jacket is unlined and every inside seam is covered in a 1 cm black tape glued on. The construction is meant to be seen from the inside.

Historical context

Poell is known as much for where he shows as for what he shows. The Westminster Menswear Archive lists a slaughterhouse, a morgue and Milan's Naviglio Grande canal among his venues, and an Autumn/Winter 2001 video presentation, Public Freedom, with models locked in the cages of a municipal dog pound.

The canal show was Mainstream Downstream, for Spring/Summer 2004, staged in June 2003. i-D describes models carried down the Naviglio Grande on inflatable floats with arms outstretched, wearing red-soaked leathers with white tailoring and garment edges joined by threads like medical stitching. As i-D quotes him, Poell said “This collection and this presentation are my take on the state of fashion now.”

Connections

Shared context

Formal resemblance

Personal association

Sources and further exploration

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