When you stumble upon a pair of crazy spiral pants listed on Grailed or come across various memes and videos on the internet that hilariously describe a designer as a person who “skins rats and makes hats,” and read comments like “something about him gives me the heebie-jeebies,” you might just be intrigued enough to dig deeper. This leads you to the webbed world of Carol Christian Poell. His work is indeed absurd, and it takes some time to appreciate it fully. You may not instantly like his designs, given the often grotesque techniques he employs, but there’s no denying the respect his work commands. It leaves you questioning, “How on earth did anyone think of that?” CCP has played a pivotal role in reshaping our perception of contemporary menswear. His technique and tactic continue to endure, even though it’s been 14 years since we last witnessed a comprehensive collection of Poell.

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Simply put, CCP is characterized by anti-fashion, avant-garde creations, and artisanal clothes that defy conventional fashion norms. He quite literally embodies the concept of Anti-Fashion.

Born in Linz, Austria, into a family of leather developers, Carol Christian Poell initially studied tailoring at the Costume Michel Beuern School for Tailoring and Dressmaking. This early training and familial background laid the foundation for his approach to design. But it wasn’t until he moved to Milan did he learn the depths of how a brand works. Post-graduating from the Domus Academy in 1995, Carol Christian Poell established his label, officially known as “CCP,” choosing the acronym as a deliberate move to separate his work from his personal identity.

Poell is known for his fiercely independent, elusive and enigmatic ways. Keeping his distance from the fashion establishment and constantly using his platform as a way to criticize the field’s unforgiving and consumerist nature. He describes himself as cynical, challenging everything he creates and vehemently protective of his creative philosophy.

Wearing a CCP piece is meant to be painful. The relationship between the wearer and the garments is initially characterized by a perverse and almost painful connection, but this gradually turns into an illusion of comfort. This relationship is hardly harmonious; it’s a battle. His Anti-Fashion ideals transcend conventional thought and creation. Think of it as a complete departure from what we understand—clothes are often required to be comfortable, functional, and based around the concept of utility, CCP deliberately seeks to cause discomfort. The use of materials can cause literal pain, from scratches to stiffness. The pieces are treated as autonomous entities, not designed to merely serve the wearer; they represent a broader concept, with the wearer becoming a voluminous canvas for the clothing. He has a unique ability to manipulate the wearer through CCP, altering posture and proportions to transfigure how the wearer stands.

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Over time, Carol Christian Poell’s work has only become more audacious, pushing the boundaries of clothing further. A noticeable pattern of collections that challenge extremes, dichotomies, and deeply provocative themes. Contrasting ends of scenarios, life and death, beginning and end, ecstasy and sorrow, freedom and imprisonment. Often, the human psyche tends to gravitate towards the negative aspects of these scenarios as they dominate the spectator’s viewpoint. Emotionally, you’re to experience everything with him. He does play dangerously above the line of the acceptable and unacceptable. A pig taxidermied in its original form and turned into a bag, animal blood smeared across the inner lining of leather pieces to offer an element of the living to something which had once been alive, veins injected with blood prior to its final transitional treatment to “injure” the clothes, just a glimpse into his unorthodox methods of designing.

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In 1999, Carol Christian Poell moved to designing women's wear, drawing from his already established men's wear philosophy. However, he described this transition to be particularly challenging. In an interview he expressed:

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"Because I really try to portray how they feel and often it is not good. I find it too easy to just make women look desirable for how they are seen by men; I see women as handicapped in that sense. I try to include the suffering and vulnerability in women's collections. All the bullshit that women go through. It is not so beautiful. Women are always stronger (than men) maybe even I am a bit afraid of them."

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CCP’s women's wear serves as a vehicle for the expression of emotional strength, with each piece acting as an independent means of communication, free from the need for overt styling and excessive accessories. The emphasis placed on the autonomy of each garment is a fundamental aspect of his philosophy. While fashion caters to the masses, Carol’s dedication to individual pieces underscores his commitment to preserving singularity in an industry where it is often overshadowed.

The disproportionate and rigid nature of his garments is said to be a reflection of his mindset (as he doesn’t like speaking about what he creates and would much rather have it depicted).

 

He designs at his free will, with a complete refusal to fashion’s seasonal structure. His first collection in 1995, titled the “Unintended collection,” comprised men's wear staples intended to serve as a palette for future creations. Two later collections that showcase the stark dichotomies he explores are “Self Edge” and “Dead End,” both depicting ingenious designs despite being at odds in expression. In SELF EDGE he created garments with hems glued together, resulting in stiff, sculptural pieces. They can stand erect when placed on the ground, underscoring that the wearer is not required to give them a specific purpose. In DEAD END he pursued unconventional techniques by creating clothes held together at the seams by tape. The extreme fragility of these clothes serves as a metaphorical representation of reaching a literal “dead end.”

 

This is also where the complex debate of fashion and art comes into play. Carol Christian Poell is an artist who creates clothing. Time plays a very crucial role in everything he does. Embracing wear and tear, filled with angst and animosity in the beginning and later evolving into contentment. Take the “drip sneaker” for example. The rubber drips on these sneakers are initially uncomfortable and seemingly devoid of purpose. However, with each wear, the rubber smooths out, gradually transforming into a regular sneaker. Poell even incorporates metal prosthetics into elbows and knuckles of jackets and gloves, compromising joint movement but also serving as a protective shield. While conventional clothing aims to protect the wearer, CCP clothes safeguard against their own destruction.

 

One of his most established shows and a significant collection that serves as a blueprint for modern menswear is the Spring 2004 collection,

“MAINSTREAM DOWNSTREAM.”

The collection's name itself satirizes mainstream fashion's descent into decline. Poell openly critiques the state of mainstream fashion. The fashion industry is portrayed as floating into nothingness. Held at the Naviglio Grande canal in Milan, the CCP presentation left onlookers initially bewildered. Imagine their state of mind, staring at a canal with no idea of what to expect. The experience lingers in your thoughts for days. The presentation began with articles of clothing floating in the water, emphasizing the notion that these garments can exist autonomously, without the presence of a body. Some pieces from this collection offer glimpses into Poell's techniques, such as a jacket with nine stitches per centimeter, yellow knitwear made of rubber twine, and leather shoes that seem incomplete, as if the final steps were abandoned. "Object-dyed" clothes and shoes, essentially a reverse technique of dyeing a finished product, were also featured. Seventeen "dead bodies" of models floated with flotation devices attached to them, into nothingness; this was also the first and final attempt at the presentation. There was no prior practice of playing dead. Poell often presents his work in unusual locations, including models caged in dog kennels, hidden under sheets in a morgue, and set in a slaughterhouse. It's certainly not for the faint of heart, as his themes often evoke a sense of life intertwined with death.

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His Spring 2002 collection, "Traditional Escape," defied the conventions of the fashion world. It featured blindfolded men escaping through the CCP office, challenging the constant elitism in fashion. This is somewhat ironic, considering that CCP's fans are among the most elitist in the industry. His Fall 2001 collection "Public Freedom" depicted men locked in dog kennels, desperate to break free. Each of his collections communicates discomfort intentionally, and his manipulative design approach is evident.

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"I do not think of a dress as a complement to the body. Rather, I seek to annul the body. I consider it only a volume and a three-dimensional form."

 

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CCP refuses to glamorize the body; in fact, neglects it entirely. Visually, the narrow, slim, imposing, and erect silhouettes may appear empty, but without even touching the clothes, you can sense the craftsmanship that went into each piece. His garments demand space, and when you wear CCP, you are constantly reminded of what you have on—the construction, the discomfort it may cause, and the imposing presence of the piece. The deliberate disregard for the wearer and the emphasis on the importance of the clothing itself are what make Poell's work so distinctive. Amidst the abundance of celebratory fashion and glamorous trends, the industry needs CCP to reintroduce vulnerability to its pieces. Carol Christian Poell's work serves as a reminder of the vulnerability and artistry that can be discovered within fashion. It challenges viewers to delve beneath the surface and explore the emotional and philosophical dimensions of clothing. The fact that Poell remains an elusive and enigmatic figure in the fashion world only adds to his mystique.

 

The return of CCP to the fashion scene could potentially reshape the trajectory of an industry that is, unfortunately, often driven by media trends, influencers, TikTok, and more. We can only look forward with anticipation and hope for a resurgence that encourages a reevaluation of what we have come to accept in the fashion world.