Ever since the mid-1970s, European and Japanese designers have been developing fashion that breaks with classical notions of In beautiful design and subverts the laws of the fashion industry. the exhibition l.m possible. Fashion unleashed, the Museum fúr Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK8,G) presents around 20 exhibits by internationally renowned designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Martin Margiela and Iris van Herpen whose rebellious designs deconstruct fashion and open up wide- ranging possibilities for self-expression through dress. While on view, the exhibition will also be regularly augmented by changing works by young fashion designers.

I.m possible is Bisrat Negassi's first exhibition as the new head of the Fashion and Textiles Collection at the MK8G. Besides diversifying the collection, she also sees the topic of sustainability as a main focus: “Fashion is not just a piece of fabric or atrend; itis a daily chronicle of our lives. It offers us protection and strength, it lends us an identity and it means so much more as well to every one of us. The directness of fashion, the way it touches souls, empowers people and changes societies, that's what interests me”.

In fashion, the term “deconstructivism” is used not to describe a particular style, but rather to convey a rebellious attitude to design that began with the punk era. British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022) was the firstto deconstruct fashion with her outfits for the legendary punk rock band the “Sex Pistols” in 1976. Incorporating sewn-on zippers, safety pins, torn second-hand clothes and fabrics disdained as bourgeois — such as the tartan - Westwood would leave her mark on the look of an entire generation, one that sees itself as radically anti- conformist.

Just a few years later, Japanese designers Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) and Yohji Yamamoto (b. 1943) shocked the Paris fashion world with all-black collections featuring wrapped fabrics and military quotations, thereby defining a slim and androgynous ideal. Kawakubo, founder of the fashion label Comme des garcons, gave her 1982 Paris show the programmatic title Destroy.

Inthe emerging Antwerp fashion scene of the mid-1980s, the designers Martin Margiela (b. 1957), Walter Van Beirendonck (b. 1957) and Ann Demeulemeester (b. 1959) gleaned fresh inspiration from these role models. While Margiela's early collages of wildly patched-together fabric scraps were indebted to punk, and Van Beirendonck's colourful pop-folkloric styles flirted with bad taste, Demeulemeester breathed new life into the Japanese tradition of black sheaths that reveal little of the body underneath.

The fantasy costumes by Dutch designer Iris van Herpen (b. 1984), Marina Hoermanseder (b. 1986) as well as Flora Miranda's (b. a 1990) reconfiguration of the body through clothing ushered in new generation that would once again conjoin deconstruction with elegance.

What influence is the spirit of deconstructivism having on new generations of designers? Every six months, young fashion designers will be invited to present their own contemporary interpretations as part of the changing exhibition.