Fashion Faith

Fashion keeps the faith

From St Christopher to Elvis, designers have paid homage to all sorts of icons . 

In a time of uncertainty, designers have turned to faith. You probably won’t find them on a church pew but the Spring/Summer 2017 collections have seized on theology for key visual motifs. 

You can see it in passing at avant-streetwear merchants Hood by Air, where designer Shayne Oliver has put the slogan “NEVER TRUST A CHURCH GIRL” on spacey, light blue showerproof hoodies, T-shirts and even iPhone cases. It is evident also in the Virgin Marys and medals of Saint Christopher — the patron saint of travellers — emblazoned on the garments at Christopher Kane. “I grew up down the road from the Roman Catholic shrine of Carfin Grotto, which is the Scottish version of Lourdes,” explains Kane. “This season our woman travels, going back to go forwards, collecting and modifying what she wears. There’s an element of the supernatural and the ancient — the sophisticated and the spiritual.”

This isn’t the first time theological, and, in particular, Catholic iconography, has inspired fashion. Unsurprisingly, Madonna should be credited with breaking ground here: she made rosary beads a style statement way back in 1984, shifting from the sacred to the profane like a downtown Danceteria version of Ken Russell’s The Devils. Six years later she found her tour boycotted in Italy by Papal edict, after further sexualising Catholic imagery (cavorting with a saint no less) in her “Like a Prayer” video.In 1988, when the acid house phenomenon hit the Friday night spot at The Wag — the influential, but now defunct nightclub in London’s Chinatown — the club’s promoters called the night “Love”. Sweatshirts sold at the door, featuring the club’s logo below an image of the Virgin Mary, quickly became shorthand for underground chic in the same way as anything by Jean Paul Gaultier or BodyMap. It was apposite — clubbers had found a new religion in a haze of strawberry-fragranced dry ice and MDMA, and for much of the late 1980s and early 1990s, renaissance and baroque imagery covered hoodies, jackets and sweatpants.

Later, in 1999, Sicilian-British designer Antonio Berardi created a flashing, illuminated crucifix coat: only Hussein Chalayan’s 1996 Burka show packed more of a punch when it comes to taking the trappings of faith to the catwalk.While subverting Christian symbolism is nothing new, the imagery itself hasn’t lost its power. When Versace put ravishingly gothic crosses all over sexy black dresses in 2012, it was undeniably provocative. When Alexander McQueen showed his seminal “Dante” collection in 1996, mixing Don McCullin’s war photography with Catholic iconography and black masks bearing crucifixes (straight out of Joel Peter Witkin’s controversial photo art works), he outraged the minister who had given permission for the show to be staged at Christ Church in Spitalfields. In McQueen’s case, the imagery was used to make a statement on religion and war. But today religious symbols are used as much for decorative illustrations as they are instruments of shock.

“The cross is a religious emblem that has become key for a ‘rock’ or harder-edged look,” says Laura Larbalestier, womenswear buying director at Browns in London. “At Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci mixes religious symbols with streetwear, using them on sweatshirts, dresses and in jewellery.”

Like Christopher Kane, many designers are drawn to the symbols of their childhood. “My roots are deeply connected to religion,” says Milan-based Sicilian designer Fausto Puglisi, whose SS17 collection features studded leather crosses, crucifixes and sacred hearts. “In Sicily, and the south, religion and sex speak the same language.” For the ultimate in Sicilian high-church imagery though, and sometimes near parody, look to the designers Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce. Images of the Madonna and saints appear repeatedly within the graphics of their SS17 collection, while their ornate jackets are decorated like the bejewelled altars of baroque churches. The collection, which is linked to a belief in sky gods, feels as upbeat as a disco in Rimini in high season.Not all the iconography this season is altar-led. At the Coach 1941 show, Stuart Vevers sent his girls out in garments bearing the image of the 20th-century god of rock’n’roll Elvis Presley, with pendants to match: they shared the same kitsch values as anything swiped from the Vatican gift shop. See also the pentagrams at Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, where designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi channelled their childhoods on the Isle of Man into something that spoke of magic as much as faith.

Such symbols still make some uncomfortable. Tellingly, neither Harrods nor Selfridges were willing to comment on the trend. But William Whitcombe, chaplain and interfaith adviser at the University of the Arts, including London College of Fashion, remains unperturbed.“When I look at current designers who use Christian religious imagery, I find it difficult to get hot under the collar,” he explains. “I think there is something strangely incarnational about these holy images in the organised chaos of a runway show. “Hemlines will fall and rise, trends will come and go but these images represent something greater that transcends all of that — timeless images which point to timeless themes. They are part of history but they are also part of our human story and that is why there is this recurring interest.”Perhaps the point of all these symbols is that we share a belief in their transformative powers. Some of us are only disciples of fashion these days. And while we know very well a Virgin Mary sweatshirt won’t save us, we keep the faith that wearing one will change us.