Carol Christian Poell, Carpe Diem...

[CactusArmy]

Has anyone seen anything by them in person and how they feel...etc

[leviathan]

They're each quite different. CCP is quite a formal line - Poell was a tailor - with "accents" like taped seams or overlocked stitch seams. V interesting leather, including see through kangaroo leather. Very expensive. About £600 for shoes, £2000 for leather jackets. Non leather slightly more affordable but still not cheap. If you're looking for a bargain to try it out, yoox has some.

C Diem is a bit more "rocker" oriented, but moving away a bit from that now to more minimalist pared down clothes. It is very very very expensive, probably more than any other brand you will find for men at least. Linen shirts are about £700, sweatshirst/sweaters from £300 to £800, leather shirts about £1300. The leather shirts are the signature look from them, beautiful things.

Sold in H Nicks and the Library in UK, L'Eclaireur in Paris and Atelier in NYC.

[CactusArmy]

Thanks for the wealth of info mate! Speaking of online, besides Yoox do you know anywhere else I could snatch up some pieces?

[leviathan]

Sorry, there's nowhere online that you'll get this stuff, other than Yoox for CCP and some Japanese auction sites. Very few places actually stock it at all. CCP is not doing a collection this winter anyway - taking some kind of sabatical. Neither brand really ever does any fashion editorial so it's pretty obscure generally. The only way of getting it is to go to the stores that stock it. The prices are such that you really don't want to make a mistake with it anyway!

[CactusArmy]

I remember seeing some nice carpe diem stuff here - http://www.mattotti.co.jp/col/mens/c-diem2/index.html

The prices are definitely steep or are the ones there on the site steeper than usual?

[juxtaposed]

also up there, in the really expensive league are great china wall and lucien pellat finet..

[raijin]

I own a fair bit from Altieri and Poell.

As Leviathan said, Poell's is a more tailored line while C Diem is supposed to be ultra-casual.

If you are going for a suit or long-coat, Poell is without a doubt the guy. I tend to find his things easier to wear. They are masterfully cut clothes in beautiful fabrics with a few interesting design twists. C Diem is a whole look unto itself, not much goes with it other than more C Diem and its not really fit for formal occasions or anything requiring collared shirt, formal trousers and tie.

C Diem is actually based on work-wear, and in my opinion develops every season to get better (altieri is an artist..so his original experiments have evolved into the items we see every season in this brand today)

You can think about looking into Linea and Fattoamano, two experimental lines of Maurizio Altieri. Linea has been discontinued and is selling at maxfield, very little at A, Chegini, and Lift Etage. It runs $800-$1400 for non-leather pants, $500 for shirts, $2400+ for leather pants and shirts, and $3-5k for leather jackets. All the items are made in extreme small quantities with experimental fabrics.. they can almost be seen as one offs. The look is completely different.. being ultra-slim (more so than dior homme) with black,white,and grey as the main colors. Fattoamano is like the reborn line of Linea.. so far no us stockists for it.

However, I think if your only seeing the stock at A of these brands.. your opinion would be pretty biased because the buyers there buy very little of these two designers (everything must be slim and black.. no leather) compared to places like Lift Etage in Tokyo and Leclaireur.

Its quite hard to mix the two, with the exception of the boots.

[Pop Wars]

c diem is simply unbeatable! Love the fine leather and simple detailing! their shirts are probably my all time favourite garment