Christa de Carouge

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Christa de Carouge (actually Christa Furrer; born August 6, 1936 in Basel ; † January 17, 2018 in Zurich ) was a Swiss costume designer and internationally renowned fashion designer.

life and work

Christa de Carouge grew up with her parents and four siblings in Zurich. Her mother was a tailor, her father was the chef of the cold kitchen at the 5-star Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich . She attended the preliminary course of the School of Applied Arts Zurich (now Zurich University of the Arts) and, after stopovers in several graphic design studios at the advertising agency Gisler & Gisler. In 1963 she married Rudi Hegetschweiler. From 1965 she worked in fashion design. In Geneva , the two ran the “Boutique pour Monsieur” and “La Garçonne”.

In 1971 Christa de Carouge got divorced. After nine months she separated from her second husband, a textile specialist in St. Gallen. In 1978 she opened her own studio in the Geneva suburb of Carouge . Christa Furrer, as her real name was called, decided, after consulting the mayor at the time, to adopt the stage name Christa de Carouge.

In 1983 she presented her first collection entirely in black. She opened the studio shop in the Mühle Tiefenbrunnen in Zurich five years later. From 2004 she lived and worked only in the city on the Limmat. Their fashion shows were actually performances. She surprised the audience with scattered white salt, live sheep, and a bed of a hundred green heads of lettuce. Her extensive clothing collection is kept in black, the garments can be worn in layers on top of each other. She attached great importance to the durability of the textiles she designed. The practical black clothing was their trademark. Carouge says: “Black is the concentration on the essentials”. The materials used, such as silk, wool and cotton fabrics, mostly came from Switzerland, occasionally from Beijing or Marrakech. Occasionally she also used Tibetan red or muted white. At the end of 2013, she closed her business in the Tiefenbrunnen mill. At the age of 77, she handed over her life's work to her friend Deniz Ayfer (born in Istanbul , grew up in Switzerland): Christa de Carouge ended her career in 2013 and handed over her work and her Zurich business to her long-term employee, who ran the thread under the name De Niz spins on.

Christa de Carouge also designed in dance and theater, gave workshops and held exhibitions. In November 2017, an exhibition curated by her opened at the Kunsthaus Zug, which was conceived as an overall view of her work in the field of textile design.

In January 2018, Christa de Carouge died of cancer in Zurich at the age of 81.

Presentations / performances / fashion shows

  • 1983 Présentation en noir , first collection, Palladium, Geneva
  • 1984 Hommage au Japon , Grand Casino, Geneva
  • 1987 fashion show of Syndicate Avantgarde Fashion Trends , Zurich
  • 1988 Cortège , moving through the streets of Carouge
  • 1991 Performance en blanc - contre la guerre du golf , Carouge
  • 1993 la route de la soie , Carouge Museum
  • 1993 Le mouton noir , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen
  • 1994 Tibet , Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (Geneva) , Miller's Studio Zurich
  • 1996 Pack ice , Tiefenbrunnen mill, Zurich
  • 1997 Homeless , Miller's Studio Zurich
  • 2000 La sacre du printemps , Carouge
  • 2002 Swiss Fashion Show , Toni Areal Zurich
  • 2003 Opera , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, Zurich
  • 2004 Zug-Berlin return , Zug
  • 2004 Zündstoff , dance performance, Miller's Studio Zurich
  • 2005 Brotteilätä , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, Zurich
  • 2006 Kimono - Japan , Zurich
  • 2007 Metamorphosis , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen
  • 2008 Collections permanentes , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, Zurich
  • 2008 Stony draft , Bivio rock festival
  • 2008 anniversary show , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, Zurich
  • 2009 Still life , Tiefenbrunnen Mill, Zurich
  • 2009 Construction site , Tiefenbrunnen Mill, Zurich
  • 2010 Red Symphony , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, Zurich
  • 2011 Above the clouds , Mühle Tiefenbrunnen, Zurich
  • 2011 Living in style, Mühle Tiefenbrunnen , Zurich
  • 2013 The last black collection , Miller's Studio, Zurich

Books about Christa de Carouge and her work

Exhibitions

  • 1995 La réserve de la Patronne , Center d'Arts Appliqués in Geneva (traveling exhibition)
  • 2017/18 Christa de Carouge , overall view, Kunsthaus Zug

Awards

  • 1995 Prix de l'artisanat de Genève
  • 2010 Glory Award, Glory in the "Style" category
  • 2013 nominated for the SwissAward , Culture

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bettina Weber: The woman in black. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch from January 17, 2018, accessed on January 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Nadia Steinmann: Musemsreif. In: raised ground floor . Magazine for architecture and design, issue 11, 1995.
  3. ↑ https://www.annabelle.ch/leben/karriere/zu-gast-bei-modedesignerin-christa-de-carouge-30312 , accessed on August 23, 2020.
  4. ↑ Peter Wächter: A "black sheep" with success. In: Textile Revue. 2003.
  5. ↑ Bettina Flitner : Women with Visions - 48 European women. With texts by Alice Schwarzer . Knesebeck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89660-211-X , p. 56.
  6. ↑ Melanie Kollbrunner, room sheet for the exhibition on Christa de Carouge, Kunsthaus Zug , November 18, 2017-18. February 2018.
  7. ↑ Georg Weber: Presentations that one spoke of. In: ders., Christa de Carouge - Black on White. Zurich 2013, pp. 246–249.
personal data
SURNAME Carouge, Christa de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Furrer, Christa (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss fashion designer
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH 17th January 2018
Place of death Zurich