In 2013 I was commisioned a piece about fashion and religion for a Russian publication. The piece moved from a bill that was being discussed at the time by the Russian government and that aimed at protecting the religious feelings of citizens (it was probably prompted by the protest performance of feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February 2012...). The feature was focused on artists and designers who employed religious symbols in their works in different ways.
While doing my background research for the piece I contacted several fashion houses requesting interviews or brief quotes. Most of them never answered, others said they were too busy. The House of Versace, current sponsor of the Costume Instituite at the Met Museum exhibition "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and The Catholic Imagination", declined to answer my questions (the text of the email said: "Thank you very much but we'd rather not take part in this project" View this photo). Who knows, maybe at the time they were just scared to offend their Russian readers or they weren't ready to jump on the religious bandwagon yet. There were a few people keen to answer, though, among them Micol Fontana from the Fontana Sisters (remember the "pretino dress"?) and Oliviero Toscani, the Italian photographer who produced in his career controversial adverts for Benetton.
I have decided to republish today the original text in English for that piece. There aren't a lot of images in this post, but readers know what I'm referring to as the background research for this piece was published a long time ago on this site (and was anticipated and followed by many other pieces exploring the cultural and legal issues behind the fashion and religion connection). This is dedicated to all those PR officers and designers who made my research difficult at the time and who have now jumped on the Catholic bandwagon (since now it seems so cool to do so).
Profanity in the Eye of the Beholder - by Anna Battista (2013)
Russia wants to protect the religious feelings of the self-righteous, but can a society in which the secular and the mundane are often invested with a sacred aura and in which religious symbols are often employed as provocation, accept that?
The tension between sacred and profane, the debate about mere provocation and genuine crimes against religion are not new topics in the creative industries. Throughout the decades the illegitimate use of religious symbols often brought accusations of lack of respect, desecration, bad taste and blapshemy. For example, the first denim label launched in Italy in the early '70s had a rather questionable name - Jesus Jeans. The most controversial thing about it, though, was its advertising campaign by Oliviero Toscani and Emanuele Pirella with slogans such as "Thou shalt not have any other jeans but me" and "All who love me will follow me", the latter printed on the denim-clad buttocks of model Donna Jordan. Considered outrageous, the campaigns sparked many debates, yet Toscani went on to cause more mayhem in the years that followed: he infuriated the Vatican with a 1992 Benetton advert aimed at challenging religious celibacy and showing a nun kissing a priest, and caused further controversy last year when he employed for Benetton's "Unhate" campaign a photoshopped image of Pope Benedict XVI kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. "I was often criticised, but I was never legally charged for my photographs and adverts," Oliviero Toscani recounts. "My main aim is not offending someone's religious feelings, but criticising religion, in the same way as other people may criticise political power." Toscani doesn't seem to find anything wrong in deliberately provoking controversy. "I don't understand why provoking has got to have a negative connotation, I personally think that it can be a very positive strategy for eliciting interest, talk, cultural debates and even bring on new opportunities," he states.
The photographer's words implicitly disagree with the State Duma passing the first reading of a bill aimed at protecting the religious feelings of Russian citizens. Under the draft document, those who offend religious feelings at church services and ceremonies or at holy sites face up jail, fines or compulsory community service. "Art is a form of communication and so is religion, and the right of expressing and criticising are extremely important in a democratic society," Toscani comments.
“Wherever religion presents itself it is frightening; wherever people censor art, it is a scandal. Serious work has to sustain thoughts and emotions that go with aesthetic contemplation with no regard for markets, trends or fashions," adds American photographer Cheyco Leidmann, famous for establishing in the '80s a new style characterised by an eye-grabbing visual power verging between the kitsch and the garish. The Paris-based photographer recently created a controversial altarpiece entitled "Zeta Nacht". Equally appreciated and attacked, the artwork is conceived as a triptych aimed at criticising mass consumption, materialism and the lure of powerful illusions through images of nude models and modern idols. Considered profane by some, Leidmann's altarpiece is a symbol of a consumer society desenchanted with conventional religions that has transformed spirituality into consumption.
Fashion remains one of the creative arts that has borrowed the most from religion. Religious inspiration is currently an object of consumption for many fashionistas, most of them certainly not interested in finding holiness through their wardrobes or criticising the power of the Church.
Decontextualised religious imagery is all over the current collections, from Dolce & Gabbana's richly embroidered dresses, featuring images of mosaics lifted from Sicily's Cathedral of Monreale (Fall 2013). If you can afford it, you may even opt for D&G's Spring/Summer 13 high fashion collection that includes a golden wedding outfit complete with crown and veil that perfectly reproduces the attire of certain statues of the Virgin Mary. Fashionistas who want to comment on the excesses of Catholicism, can instead go for Sarah Burton's Fall 2013 collection for Alexander McQueen, with its punk representation of nuns, cardinals and the Pope. Bizarrelly enough, while the bill protecting religious feelings was being passed in Russia, somewhere else in Sydney during the local fashion week, the placid face of Jesus reappeared (excuse the pun...) on Karla Spetic's dresses, tops and skirts, bringing the memory of fashion historians back to disputes and debates about fashion consuming and desecrating religion.
There are obviously enough religion-themed garments also for what regards menswear: Riccardo Tisci delved once again into the depths of his Catholic education for his S/S 2013 menswear collection for Givenchy that includes duchess satin and organza tops with images of the Virgin Mary altered to resemble an evanescent and sensual ghost, or prints sampled from William Adolphe Bouguereau's paintings "The seated Madonna", "The Madonna of the Roses", "The Madonna of the Lilies" and "The Pietà". Those who prefer the more classic Fellini-esque obsession with Catholicism will find enough inspirations in D&G's Fall 13 menswear collection featuring tops with prints of images of assorted saints, of Our Lady of Fatima and the three shepherd children; shirts with priests on bicycles, scarves that look like clergy stoles and, for the evening, lace jackets that seem to reproduce the intricacies of fine sacramental linens.
The list of exchanges between fashion and religion is actually pretty long and goes back to the late '30s when Elsa Schiaparelli borrowed the symbols of the Vatican flag and embroidered Saint Peter’s keys on an evening suit; twenty years later, the Sorelle Fontana created the "pretino" dress (literally "little priest dress"), while Chanel and Balenciaga took inspiration from the opulence of Byzantium. "The little priest dress was created in 1956," remembers Micol Fontana, "the dress was the result of a sort of combination between creativity, friendship with Ava Gardner and respect for the religious institutions. My sisters and I - all faithful practicing Catholics - asked the authorities the permission to do the dress and the Vatican approved it. Their positive answer filled us with pride and gratitude." Voluptuous Anita Ekberg donned a similar version of the "pretino" in Fellini's film La Dolce Vita, disturbing the bourgeois consciences of the self-righteous. Krizia recreated two models of the same dress in the '90s, but by then Italy had grown accustomed to the religion and fashion connection.
As the years passed, the religious theme became a folkloristic product of consumption and the secular and the mundane were invested with a sacred aura: Thierry Mugler's fashion show for his Autumn/Winter 1984-85 collection featured nuns, cherubs, a Madonna and Child; in the '90s Gianni Versace turned polychrome icons of the Virgin and Child into beaded punk decorations for halter tops; Hasidic Jews, the crucified Christ, the bleeding Sacred Heart and the Communion chalice, all reappeared in Jean-Paul Gaultier's collections.
The Patron Designer of the Kitsch and Shock, Versace was among the first ones to tangibly prove that, if sex sells, so does religion. The designer successfully reworked in some of his sensual creations from the early '90s monumental crosses and elements inspired by the opulent and gilded Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, turning them into punk motifs, borrowing icons of the Virgin and Child and transforming them into polychrome beaded decorations for halter tops. Icons and crosses also characterised Versace's screen-printed twill scarves and the Greek cross motif came back a few years later in Versace’s glamorous gold evening gowns. Before Versace, Chanel and Balenciaga were inspired by the opulence of Byzantium, a theme Karl Lagerfeld explored again in Chanel’s Pre-Fall 2011, borrowing ideas for his designs from the mosaics in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.
Yet not all designers mean to be offensive, controversial or exploitative and not all of them may use their skills to criticise religious powers and offend the sensibilities of the self-righteous. In 1992 the late swimwear designer Lea Gottlieb created a collection entitled "Jerusalem of Gold". The latter featured garments decorated with Jewish symbols including the Star of David, the Menorah, and the priestly breastplate (Hoshen) inlaid with twelve gems in twelve squares representing the twelve tribes of Israel. After Gottlieb's death, some garments from the collection were found in her bedroom drawers folded in silk paper with a Siddur (prayer book) besides them. Ayala Raz, curator of the exhibition "Lady of the Daisies", currently remembering Lea Gottlieb at Design Museum Holon, states: "As far as I know there was never any objection for using these Symbols; on the contrary, she was mostly respected for using Jewish sources of inspiration, while representing Israel abroad".
In the '80s pop star Madonna, appropriated religious imagery into her music and her lifestyle, appearing in her videos wearing rosary beads and crosses as necklaces, and sparking a huge debate when in the video for "Like a Prayer" she seemed to develop stigmata and had a vision of a black saint kissing her. Yet in our times things seem to have radically changed: we have grown so accustomed to seeing religion entering fashion that nobody - not even the Church - criticises models wearing luxurious bags covered in Miraculous Medals or gold and silver heart-shaped ex-votos pinned at the waist or used as jewellery or questions style icon Anna Dello Russo cavorting outside the latest fashion shows in a D&G black cloak with golden floral embroderies that simply replicates the traditional dress donned by statues of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Many designers find the pomp-and-circumstance of the Church, the craftsmanship behind the rich vestments, and the beauty of some icons and statues incredibly inspiring. Being copyright free religious imagery also offers designers the chance to base entire looks on religious paintings and icons with no fear of ending up in court for copyright infringement. So religion became an object of profane consumption for fashionistas certainly not interested in finding holiness through their wardrobes.
While religious spokespersons harshly commented about designers exploiting religion and about the appropriation of religious symbols by celebrities and fashion designers, others highlighted the faults of a Church too often interested in secular matters. Yet, politicians in the West never mentioned the possibility of introducing punishment for all those ones wearing garments that somehow offended religious feelings. After all, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is profanity and while to somebody it may be offensive, desecrating, blasphemous and in bad taste seeing a millionaire bride getting married in a designer gown that resembles a dress donned by a holy statue in a Catholic church, the millionaire wearing it may think it's perfectly fine.
In 2002 a long-forgotten play entitled Elle and written by Jean Genet was staged in New York. Its cast included Alan Cumming as The Pope and outrageous costumes by Vivienne Westwood. Genet originally wrote it as an attack against the Catholic Church, but the play also touched upon many modern obsessions including celebrity and the power of the image. At a certain point in the play, The Pope wonders if when a man kneels at his foot, he venerates the foot or if it's the act of kneeling that is significant. In a way, the key to understand if a law punishing reigious offences is right or wrong hides in the Pope's dilemma in this scandalous Genet's play: is it the foot you're venerating or the act of kneeling that is significant? In a nutshell, is it religion or is it the pomp and circumstance, the apparatus around it and its links with the state and with politics that you're venerating when you issue a law that protects religious feelings? The answer is yours, but, in the meantime, it may be useful to remember that quite often profanity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
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