Deconstruction in contemporary fashion design: Analysis and critique

One of the most important phenomena in fashion, which practically forced the researchers to rethink their former language, is deconstruction. Appearing almost in parallel with deconstruction in architecture it uncovered previously unseen fissure in the discourse used in constructing the object of research. Deconstruction is usually described as one of the many fast-changing trends in fashion, but fashion scholars rarely pay attention to the sources or consequences of this trend. This study constitutes an attempt to develop such a historical and theoretical take on deconstruction in fashion, to analyse its descriptions and conceptualizations. For this purpose, the author reconstructs the sources of this phenomenon in fashion, with particular attention being paid to two fashion houses: Maison Martin Margiela and Comme des Garçons. To situate deconstruction in a broader context, the article refers to this term in the philosophy as well as the architecture and the graphic design. The last part of the article is devoted to alternative theoretical perspectives – the conceptions of Michel de Certeau and John Fiske – which are used to look again at deconstruction in the context of youth subcultures and its importance in the contemporary fashion system.