Medium: Navy and burgundy wool gabardine and wool hair canvas

Date: 1998

Country: Japan

Credit: Museum purchase

This suit epitomizes deconstruction, one of the great fashion revolutions of the late 20th century. "Deconstructed" garments are often unfinished-looking, with loose, frayed hems and edges; they sometimes appear to be coming apart, or as if they were recycled or made from composite parts; and they are frequently dark in color, suggesting poverty, devastation, or degradation, while their silhouettes tend to obscure the body and lack clear frontality. As the pioneer of formalized deconstruction in high fashion, Rei Kawakubo (whose clothing label is Comme des Garçons) was reviled in the early 1980s, when she first presented her collections in Paris, but her deconstructed designs are now omnipresent on the global fashion runways

Object Number: 2003.60.2