When Zandra Rhodes stitched scissoring seams onto her dresses in 1967, she unknowingly kicked off the deconstructionist fashion movement that would dominate the 90s. Thirty years later Versace proved that Liz Hurley’s dress could be fastened by nothing but a handful of safety pins, and Jean-Paul Gaultier put a pair of cones on Madonna.
There were countless exposed zips, damaged edges and shamelessly sewn-on-the-outside patches. Industrial synthetics became everyday wear and PVC catsuits roamed nightclubs. Design houses Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto and John Galliano were among those flirting with anti-fashion, presenting self-consciously subversive collections for over a decade.
In 1994 Vanessa Leyonhjelm embodied the 90s deconstructionist movement by creating a convention-bending line of costumes for The Australian Ballet’s Divergence. Tutus were made out of the mesh from air-conditioning ducts and were sent to an automotive painter to stain them black. Her designs resonated, zeitgeist-like, with Gaultier’s cones for Madonna when she turned car upholstery into breastplates and fashioned a breathtaking female shape.
In 2009, 90s style isn’t just coming back via The Olsen Twins’ wardrobe of tattered fishnets and Doc Marten boots; the costumes from Divergence can be witnessed again in Paris Match this year, while the National Gallery of Victoria’s Remaking Fashion exhibit (showing until 19 April) looks at the practical side of the 90s fashion wave: the exposed seams, patches and dressmaking process that made deconstructionist fashion.
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