The Postmodern Deconstruction

Postmodern theory's engagement with Chanel focuses on the construction of her myth and its cultural functions. From this perspective, "Coco Chanel" exists less as historical person than as floating signifier, available for multiple and contradictory meanings. This approach, while sometimes frustratingly abstract, reveals important truths about how fashion history operates.

Jean Baudrillard's concepts of simulacra and simulation apply powerfully to Chanel. The endless reproduction of Chanel suits, quilted bags, and interlocked Cs creates a system where copies refer to copies rather than originals. The "classic Chanel suit" exists more as idea than object, constantly referenced but never finally locatable. This analysis reveals how fashion operates through systems of signs rather than stable meanings.

Deconstructive readings of Chanel's texts—her pronouncements, interviews, and autobiographical statements—reveal the instability of her self-presentation. The constant contradictions, the revised histories, the aphorisms that dissolve under scrutiny—all suggest identity as performance rather than essence. This instability, rather than being a flaw to resolve, becomes the very ground of her cultural power.

The commodification of Chanel's image in contemporary culture—from biographical films to coffee-table books to museum exhibitions—demonstrates what Fredric Jameson called the cultural logic of late capitalism. Chanel becomes brand, lifestyle, cultural capital, investment opportunity—everything except historical person. This transformation reveals how capitalism absorbs and neutralizes even figures who might critique it.

Postmodern fashion's quotation and pastiche of Chanel demonstrates both homage and exhaustion. When designers reference Chanel, what exactly are they referencing—her actual designs, Lagerfeld's interpretations, the idea of Chanel? This endless recursion suggests creative exhaustion but also fashion's fundamentally citational nature. Chanel becomes part of fashion's vocabulary, available for infinite recombination.