From the JCReport: (
http://www.jcreport.com/mailer/issue66/index.html)
Clever Carol
Milan
Iconoclastic Austrian designer Carol Christian Poell is at it again. Well, almost. This designer's designer has minded the requests of his retail supporters, a rarified group that includes L'Eclaireur in Paris and Maxfield in Los Angeles, and has reintroduced a womenswear collection that is not exactly a collection per se, but rather an edit of his highly-coveted menswear, reconfigured for a growing coterie of women.
This approach to gender modification is not dissimilar to the offerings of Dior Homme's Hedi Slimane or Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, designers who have the financial structure to create more media attention. Poell's womenswear is marked by the same tenet that elevates his menswear: a chilled, sensual precision.
Poell's oeuvre is established on his superb skills as a tailor, his experimentation with fabric and textiles, and his melancholic yet droll sense of humor — he is the Nick Cave of fashion. This is the same man who envisioned for the fairer sex a lean strapless dress reconstituted from trousers, and a neck accessory that resembled a dog's flea cuff. Despite these attention-grabbing conceits, Poell understands the modern Orlando and her sartorial needs.
This season, Carol Christian Poell examines such seasonal concerns as color and texture. Via the use of differently colored yarns in the weaving, cottons appear printed, while pure silk fabrics look like coated technical textiles, and another exclusive fabric combines cotton and kid mohair. Leather pieces, in horse and cordovan, are "object dyed" for unique color striations. Some of the objects are folded, rendered flat, causing slight ruptures in tone, such as the shoes in kangaroo. One style of boot is made with transparent horse leather, and another has a transparent sole — surely a joke on the consumptive acquisition of status accessories.
Adapting an industrial "overlock" machine (traditionally used for sewing the sacks that carry building or agriculture material), Poell has given his tailoring a new look. Even the fine shirting fabrics and skin-thin leathers are fashioned in this manner. Now, more women will have the opportunity to don Poell's exquisitely crafted jackets, which are unlined to reveal the elaborate construction that forms the garment. The upshot of wearing such a jacket exposes Poell's sense of irony. By wearing the garçonne look on the outside, any woman can appreciate the workmanship of a couture gown — on the inside.
-Roger Joseph
