Paul Smith’s Ex-Votos

I wrote about ex-votos used in costumes for the opera and in fashion designs in previous posts, wondering in which ways these tokens of faith could have been reused in fashion.

In those posts I focused on incorporating ex-votos in clothes or accessories and didn't really explore the possibilities of using them as decorations for fashion photo shoots or window shops.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to discover ex-votos hanging in Paul Smith's window shop on New York's Fifth Avenue (this shop only carries menswear lines, but also sells books).

Ex-votos usually come in silver, but the ones in the Paul Smith window shop were characterised by bright and vivid colours, so I'm not sure if they were real ones repainted in gold, green or fuchsia or if they were plastic ex-votos.

In a way the fake artificiality of the ex-votos in the window shop looked rather appropriate as they seemed to hint at a mix of tradition and modernity and Paul Smith has a passion for combining the old and new, the vintage and modern, the bespoke-tailored clothing with his iconic bright rainbow-coloured palette.