#DESIGNERBIO Carol Christian Poell & his Grotesque Techniques

  • story Carol Christian Poell techniques artisanl craftsman

Carol Christian Poell was born in Linz, Austria. He was surrounded by leather making machines since he was a kid, thanks to his father, uncle and grandfather. He is renowned for his technically complex innovative design and manufacturing techniques, and also for his ability to avoid the media and comercial attention in fashion.

He doesn’t make clothes the traditional way, they are meant to be worn and used, and sometimes they can even hurt you until you have used them several times, as they’re made to be comfortable within time. The garments are usually rigid, limiting the movement of the body.

RARE TECHNIQUES:

– Object dying: which consists on dyeing the garment after it is finished. They look incredibly beautiful but also they can dye whaetver your are wearing beneath, even the skin.

– Transparency leather tanning: he showed this in his 2000 show, done by an archaic and previously unseen technique.

– Injected through vains dyeing, making them visible on the garments. In order to modify the colour and give a rare effect to the leather, Carol previously injected paint through the vains of the animals he was going to use to later make the garments.

– Leather smooth by blood: another example of injecting technique was for his 2005 womenswear collection, were he smothered the interior side of the leather with animal blood.

– Self Edge series were clothes that were glued together. It takes four times more the amount of fabric than regular clothes. As a result of this process, the garment is more secured and strongly constructed, but this make the clothes so stiff and uncomfortable.

– Dead End; the clothes of this series never meet together. The garments are literally held together by tape or by chain seam, (a very ancient sewing and embroidery technique that consists of looped stitches that form a chain-like pattern). It gives the clothes a special effect, as if they are being torn appart; and most of the times that’s how they end up. This series is characterised by fragility.

RARE GARMENTS:

– Spiral pants; these are technically complex because of the cut from one single piece of fabric, not like traditional denim where different pieces of fabric are stitched together. The making involves modifying and cutting the pants so precisely. Due to this process, you can notice the spiral look that goes all around the pant.

– Fake pregnant bag; in order to make the wearer look pregnant, obviously.

– Metal protection jacket: which has been object dyed and has metal patches at the elbow and at the knuckles area.

– Human hair coat and tie.

– Pig bag; made of an entire pig in its original form.

Escrito por Gonzalo Cobos

Spain