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New Developments in Fashion Studies

Edited by
Laura Petican, Mariam Esseghaier,
Angela Nurse and Damayanthie Eluwawalage
What Is Clothing Hiding, but Fashion Can Make Visible? The
Connection between Deconstruction and Surrealism
Agata Zborowska
Abstract
Clothing, as a meaningful system, hides not only the body, but also various cultural
contents. Deconstruction, developed for more than ten years in the area of fashion,
makes visible what previously was hidden, i.e. absent from discourse.
Problematising the way of constructing clothing or its presentation exposes the
cultural consequences and frames. In the ‘episode’ of deconstruction, the fashion is
both the object and the tool. It operates within the system, simultaneously being
directed against it. Fashion designers do not go beyond the system, but still being
entangled in it they destruct its order using the tools they received. Several dozen
years ago the surrealists had similar premises, continuing the rebellious approach
of the Dadaists and aiming at achieving creative de(con)struction. According to the
ideological assumptions of the group, the surrealists wanted to break the ossified,
habitual stereotypes, and patterns of capturing the world rooted in peoples’ minds.
While surrealists directed their attempts both at the external, visible world as well
as the internal world of human dreams and desires, deconstructionists appeal only
to what is evident. Therefore, patterns, even though internally imprinted, in fashion
always have external reference. An example of manipulating perception in those
two trends may be, on the one hand, the illusion and play with the perspective.
Once trompe l’oeil is recognised the illusion of ready-made sense finishes - and the
image reveals itself as an image. On the other hand, an attempt to discover new
meanings takes place thanks to the use of the alienation effect, i.e. moving some
elements out of their proper context or juxtaposing elements from different orders.
By this intellectual provocation based on recipients’ habits the elements obtain
new, frequently absurd meanings. The aim of the chapter is to look at
deconstruction techniques used by modern fashion designers in the context of
surrealism. Because even though the anti-fashion movement makes the cultural
clichés evident, upon closer look it turns out that simultaneously it constitutes a
repetition of ideas already implemented several dozen years ago.
Key Words: Deconstruction, surrealism, culture, structure.
*****
1. Deconstruction and Surrealism: Theoretical Frame
For several dozen years the concept of ‘deconstruction’ has been evoked, with
unswerving consistency, in describing clothing that seems unfinished, worn-out, or
subjected to recycling. The most representative examples of this trend are supposed
to be the works of Comme des Garçons and Maison Martin Margiela fashion
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houses, although the list of designers mentioned in connection with it is still
growing. In the beginnings of their activity, i.e. in the 1980s, the aforementioned
designers were commonly called avant-garde. This was an important period for
Western fashion, due on the one hand, to the first Rei Kawakubo’s (the foundress
of Comme des Garçons) and Yohji Yamamoto’s shows outside Japan, and on the
other, due to a couple of years later debut of the Belgian designers (the informal
Antwerp 6 group), and prominently Martin Margiela. In the view of Western
commentators, the designers broke all fashion conventions that existed at the time.1
Journalists’ attempts to describe changes in fashion of that period are best
exemplified by descriptions of Kawakubo and Yamamoto shows. ‘Hiroshima
chic,’ ‘Aesthetic of poverty,’ ‘Post Hiroshima,’ or ‘The Day After,’ are just a few
names coined in order to describe a unique aesthetic of the clothing. It is a kind of
linguistic laboratory, attempting to name not only and not mostly shape, colour,
and texture, but things that can be ‘read through’ the clothing. An equally good
example of this are the initial, but also the later, Martin Margiela’s shows, which
did not so much contradict the standing fashion aesthetics, but rather used it in its
own way. The designer drew attention to, among other things, the construction of
clothing, i.e. what hitherto had been hidden, seemingly in a natural way. Seams,
darts, linings, and shoulder pads became visible. Clothes were supposed to allow
for deconstruction of inter alia human body and the ways it is shown, as well as the
structure of clothing and rules for presenting collections.
Deconstruction in fashion is difficult to characterise in just one way. It is not a
single movement strictly defining the means used by fashion designers. According
to Jacques Derrida’s2 terminology, it is difficult to talk about ‘use’ of
deconstruction in fashion, or deconstruction at all. This is, however, incompatible
with the basic tenet that deconstruction should not be treated as a method putting
particular emphasis on procedurality or technicality. Deconstruction in fashion can
only work as metaphor, making visible what previously was hidden, i.e. absent
from discourse. Problematising the way of constructing clothing or its presentation
exposes the cultural consequences and frames. So defined, deconstruction is a form
of critique of the established order, nonconformist gesture exposing not only the
structures themselves, but also in a metaphorical sense - the structures of our
thinking and perception.
Several dozen years ago the surrealists had similar premises, continuing the
rebellious approach of the Dadaists and aiming at achieving creative
de(con)struction. According to the ideological assumptions of the group, the
surrealists ‘wanted to break the ossified, habitual stereotypes and patterns of
capturing the world rooted in peoples’ minds.’3 The similarities between
deconstruction in fashion and surrealism are not based only on the general
assumption of questioning the standing norms, but also on specific ideas and
artistic solutions. The analogies can be found in trompe l’oeil, photomontage, or
ready-made techniques. An attempt at interpreting the phenomenon of
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deconstruction in fashion through artistic devices used by surrealism is not an
attempt at simple identification of these two artistic movements. Deconstruction
has so far been interpreted mainly through Jacques Derrida’s texts (the approach is
suggested by the very name of the phenomenon). But fashion is not always able to
bear the weight of the philosopher’s theoretical thought.4 An attempt to review
deconstruction in fashion using surrealists’ tools will allow us to shed new light on
issues so far unnoticed or omitted. Finding common points will allow mostly for
viewing deconstruction differently, because even though the anti-fashion
movement makes the cultural clichés evident, upon closer look it turns out that
simultaneously it constitutes a repetition of ideas already implemented several
dozen years ago.
A project of this kind requires, however, a couple of reservations. As opposed
to deconstruction in fashion, surrealists carried out parallel artistic and theoretical
activities. Therefore, we should separate three various issues with which surrealism
can be associated: artistic creation, the art theory connected with this creation, and
a certain worldview, constituting the basis of both the artistic and theoretical
activity.5 Surrealism, in several dozen years of its activity, also underwent
ideological evolution, consequently changing the scope of its interest.
Consequently, the paper will concentrate on selected assumptions of surrealists, or
rather their specific manifestations, and juxtapose them with projects of such
fashion houses as Maison Martin Margiela, Comme des Garçons, Dior, and Anke
Loh.
The connection between surrealism and fashion has been a topic of more than
one publication. The influence of this trend on designers was also presented at the
‘Fashion and Surrealism’ Exhibition in Fashion Institute of Technology in New
York (in 1987). The comparisons typically mention the connections between
surrealists and fashion designers - inter alia Elsa Schiaparelli and her collaboration
with Salvador Dali or Jean Cocteau. The object of reflection is also frequently the
artistic activity of Man Ray, whose fashion photographs were published in
magazines for women, such as: Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. Thus, in
terms of looking for analogies, the topic of deconstruction in fashion and
surrealism has not been clearly presented. Therefore, it seems interesting to look
for possible connections not so much in fashion in general, but rather in specific
trends, having their (informal) representatives, as well as sufficient theoretical
background.6
2. Illusion of Ready-Made Sense
Optical illusion and manipulation with perspective are among the most
characteristic elements of surrealist art. Andre Breton in Surrealist Manifesto wrote
about the necessity to relinquish the hitherto prevailing way of seeing to begin to
see that which is not visible.7 The surrealists referred to Freud’s theory ascribing
particular significance to dreams, which were supposed to encode contents of real
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life. Breton, not negating the theory, saw as well an opposite relation - also
everyday life was supposed to reflect dream content.8 Referring to Freud’s theory,
surrealists ascribed particular role to ways of seeing (and the necessity to change
them). Attempts to manipulate and play with hitherto prevailing habits were
undertaken in works of Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Cocteau, and
others. Illusion was also willingly used in clothing designs by Elsa Schiaparelli,
who collaborated with surrealists. The same tactics are also seen, on the one hand,
in paintings by Rene Magritte, and on the other hand - in photographs by Cecil
Beaton, who was strongly influenced by surrealists. In the works of both artists,
even though to varying degrees, the manipulation with perception frequently
consists in ambiguity between what is in the picture and what is outside of it.
Thanks to a smart intellectual provocation, the author, or rather the picture, draws
the viewer into a play of the revealed and the hidden. This effect in Magritte's
works is strengthened by the use of written word. On the one hand, by use of titles
not corresponding to the painting on canvas, and on the other hand - juxtaposition
of the object presented in the picture and the title arbitrarily assigned to it.
In the works of surrealists, a particular place is taken by the category of image,
which becomes problematised also in fashion. A good example of that is the
Maison Martin Margiela (1999) show, in which models were replaced by images.
The show consisted of a film, presenting and describing ten projects (each for one
minute). At the same time men in white coats (modelled after great tailors: Hubert
de Givenchy or Christobal Balenciaga) presented the described clothing using
hangers. Elimination of models, i.e. so far indispensable element of the fashion
system, is an action that the designer takes willingly. In his men’s collection
(2008), the top parts of clothing were presented using newspapers held by the
models. Printed on paper in 1:1 scale, they deceived the eye with their reality. The
image of uncompleted part of clothing negates its original use, and in general the
use known to us. Perhaps never completed, they engaged the viewer in a kind of
process of creation or completion.
A similar idea, a couple of years earlier, was used by another designer - John
Galliano. The whole collection was cut from cardboard. The symbolic clothes
resembled tiny clothes of paper dolls. Divided and assigned numbers, they referred
to the colouring books known from childhood. Presented in both cases is clothingimage,
in the first case as a photograph, and in the second one as a pattern. What is
missing here is the real clothing. The temptation to identify the clothing-image
with non-existent real clothing is huge, but this is not possible, because as Roland
Barthes wrote ‘“seeing” a real garment, even under privileged conditions of
presentation, cannot exhaust its reality.’9 The real clothing creates a separate
structure, different from the structure of clothing-image. Its materials are forms,
line, colours, and spatial arrangements. Talking about the real clothing, we have to
take into account that ‘we never see more than part of a garment, a personal and
circumstantial usage, a particular way of wearing it.’10 Exclusion by the designers
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of the structure of the real clothing makes it meaningless to present it at a
traditionally understood fashion show. Because what else is the viewer expecting if
not the thing itself, worn in a particular way, typical of it? Martin Margiela and
John Galliano, by a risky gesture of exclusion of real clothing undermined the
hackneyed norms connected with methods of presenting clothing. With a large
dose of irony they polemicise with the habits of the public and its expectations.
Similarly, as in the works of surrealists, the designers confront the viewer with the
image, simultaneously making him an active partner, who, in order to decode the
meaning, has to prove his engagement and appropriate competences.
3. Decontextualisation
‘Are we not foolish to alienate ourselves from familiar, everyday objects by
confining them strictly to their utilitarian functions?’11 - asked Andre Breton in the
context of Rene Magritte’s work. Simple objects were supposed to hide great
power, conjured up by our first ‘object-lessons.’ An attempt to discover new
meanings was taken thanks to the use of the alienation effect, i.e. moving some
elements out of their proper context or juxtaposing elements from different orders.
By this intellectual provocation based on recipients’ habits, the elements obtain
new, frequently absurd meanings. The trick, already used by the Dadaists, was
connected with anti-rationalistic gesture, subjected only to chance, thus underlined
the use of the already existing objects, products.
Designers similarly use language as a system and repeatedly fail its
expectations - contorting and deforming it. For deconstructivists, designing is a
process of looking for new meanings. The operation frequently used alongside
deconstruction is decontextualisation, i.e. depriving elements of their original
context and placing them in a new order. One of the most frequent concepts is
relocation of the structure of the classical clothing, using all its elements, but
differently than hitherto. Martin Margiela reclaims for his needs old garments and
transforms it into new ones. He is not motivated by environmental or aesthetic
considerations. Nothing here serves its past functions - everything can be used as a
material. In his haute couture collections (French ‘high tailoring’), appearing under
the name of Artisanal (French ‘craftsman’s’) he uses, for example, army socks in
order to sew a sweater, or Christmas tree chains from which a jacket is made. His
actions are close to the art of Rene Magritte, who - as opposed to other surrealists -
in his painting used well known, or even trivial, objects. This made all elements
that both Magritte and Margiela use easy to recognise.
The action of Maison Martin Margiela can be as well described as objet trouvé
in fashion. Its double meaning is based on that it is both the object of art and nonart.
Due to the arbitrary decision of the artist, the object changes its traditional
meaning and function. As, for example, combs ‘taken out of’ the context can be
successfully worn as a form of clothing-art. Martin Margiela deprives them of the
practical functions that are ascribed to them, but only of those primary functions.
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By this postmodernist gesture, things that have never been associated with haute
couture are presented as valuable. Another example of demolition of the old
structure for the benefit of new configurations is the work of fashion designer
Anke Loh, who announces death of principles of traditional aesthetics in fashion,
dominated by human shape. Garments are deconstructed and recomposed from the
same elements. The designer forces us to look for traces of her drastic
transformations. She leaves them deliberately - showing us the scars, which
symbolise marks of culture. These are the sole reminiscences of the classical
aesthetics. The new forms at first are striking and disturbing, but, as the designer
claims, provoke to rethink the form of clothing imposed on our body.12