From Sacred to Sexy

Bare legs and nuns' habits, a sexy sleek model draped in black and white with reverently pursed red lips and an almost full nun attire struts down the runway at New York Fashion Week.

For years designers have been using sacred Catholic symbols and plastered them onto tight t-shirted canvases, slipped rosaries around their necks and emblazoned crosses as they please and with little or no backlash.

You can walk into any H&M or Aldo and purchase a "rosary necklace", it's become quite the staple in fashion accessories, as it is a staple for Catholics during their devotional prayer time.

"I don't think it's appropriate at all, for people who the rosary holds great significance, it's not a fashion accessory, it's a devotional prayer, it's part of who we are as Catholics.," said Neil MacCarthy, director of public communications of the Archdiocese of Toronto and a devote Catholic.

In Canada there are over 12 million Catholics, over 800 priests and over 500 sisters in Toronto alone but there hasn't been any major recorded backlash or objections, according to the the Archdiocese of Toronto, from the Catholic community when sacred symbols are turned in sexy sales for the masses, and not the type of mass that happens at church.

The soothing aroma of incense, the reverent sound of “Ave Maria” ... and the trendy designs by Givenchy? It was Catholic optional last year at the Givenchy show, where the designer embraced/exploited the ecclesiastically obsessed and just last week, in addition to nuns habits', the caps of Catholic cardinals made a special appearance in the Victoria Beckham collection.

On record only one pair of Canadian designers have famously ventured into this realm of expresssion but have not done so on Canadian soil. In 2005 Dsquared went all out, pews and all, as models in (possibly) blasphemous t-shirts that read, "Jesus loves even me".

"Religion is so passe, it controls the weak. Its an easy way to seem edgy, I guess. Fashionable? No," said top Canadian designer Evan Biddell.

The Fashion Design Council of Canada (FDCC) do not have any stipulations for designers against using any form of religious inspiration in their collections but encourage creative freedom said Samatha Ventresca of the buyer relations department.

Although many of the designers who use Catholicism as inspiration in their collections are themselves Catholic, their motivations are unknown. However, if a designer’s intentions for using certain religious symbolism could be known, you would have educated consumers, unfortunately however this may also take away from dramatic effect.

The habit is ‘“the ensemble of clothing and accessories that make up religious dress. It can also mean specifically the robe like tunic or dress that is the main garment worn over the body’.” It symbolizes a new personality or state in life according to “A Nun’s Life Ministry”. The purpose of the Rosary according to the “Rosary-Centre” is to “help keep in memory certain principal events or mysteries in the history of our salvation, and to thank and praise God for them” and it is discouraged and considered disrespectful to be worn as a necklace.

“I think it is a bit of a shame when a sacred image gets translated into or gets "dumbed" down, basically taking away what is scared from it and digressing it, tearing it down to be just an object; it's an injustice toward the sacred piece,” said Lisa Canning, a former stylist turned notable interior designer for HGTV.


“There is a lot of power in the voice of communities and the same thing with religious groups when there is anything anti-semantic, the community is very quick to take arms and stand up and I think we have to do the same,” said Canning.

So why no backlash?

Although individuals are shaken when they see these symbols and motifs being misused and misrepresented nothing more than the rare complaint to a leader in the church has been made, and on occasion a letter for a request to remove a product based on sensitivity has been written.

"They ( the Catholic community) are a tolerant community ... there has been a handful, just a small number, of instances that it's ( the use of scared symbols being used in secular fashion designs) been an issue" said MacCarthy.

Father Brian Clough “was revolted by the Lady Gaga video, where she winds up towards the end of the thing dressed as a nun but he says, “ … putting some kind of restriction on them( the fashion industry) is something that just won't work.” The music video is called “Fernando”.

From the postmodern rebellion of the 80's the fashion world has been inundated with Christian religious symbols and has slowly become a staple in pop culture. A natural desensitization occurs and things that may have been a statement soon become a non-issue thus reflective of the lack of response from the Catholic community as a whole.

But “There should always be that respect for the other person...(but) I'm not pushing down the throat what I hold dear for others, I think it’s a fair request and not only for the people of the Catholic faith but it can be for people of any other faith,” said Father Christopher Cauchi.

For some the issue is an obscure one because they are not part of that demographic that these products are geared to and for them a potential issue is a non-issue by default.

And sometimes you just need to turn the other cheek, “We don't want to feed into these things also, we have to weigh our options, when is it best to come forward or step back, they are trying to elicit a reaction from us and we're not going to go there, said MacCarthy.