By Editor Design.nl / 09-02-2010

It would seem that in the post-war reconstruction of Rotterdam, there would have seemed little place for fashion. Yet knowing that, Carl Gelling (1930) under his label Cargelli, strove to give the industrial city a sense of glamour and style.

With strong designs and festive shows, Cargelli played a significant role in the fashion industry in Rotterdam and beyond from the fifties until the mid seventies. With his inimitable style, he dressed the most fashionable personalities of Rotterdam, the first TV stars of the Netherlands and the hostesses of the Euromast. In celebration of his work, the Historical Museum Rotterdam draws attention with an exhibition in the Schielandshuis, to this almost forgotten Dutch fashion icon.

Idiosyncratic
Cargelli distinguishes itself with unique creations. Unusual combinations of colours, materials and fluid lines, always with a great sense of femininity and wearability. Alongside every collection, Cargelli produced characteristic illustrative drawings of his elegant creations. Even now, at at almost 80 years of age Cargelli, still draws several collections a year in his house in the French countryside and dresses his wife in his creations.

Unorthodox
The exhibition puts Cargelli in the spotlight with interviews, film footage, photographs, original drawings and of course more than 50 creations. Designs by his contemporaries Dick Holthaus, Max Heymans, Cees Terleth Ferry Offerman and show the Dutch fashion climate in the postwar period. Additionally, a piece from Fong-Ling and an installation by Bas Kosters puts Cargelli in a context of a headstrong designer who possessed an unorthodox way of working and a love for illustration and show.

Shows
In 1952, Cargelli was the first fashion design graduate from a Dutch academy: the Fashion Design course at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts. He designed costumes for the Rotterdam Comedy and dressed the new stars of the television, such as Karin Kraaykamp and Kitty Janssen. About four times a year he hosted fashion shows featuring over one hundred catwalk models. In 1959 he opened his flamboyantly furnished boutique Casa di Mode. The salon was received well initially, but the growing popularity of jeans and casual wear meant that Cargelli closed shop in 1974. He is director of the Vrije Academie in Rotterdam and is still a practicing fashion designer.

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