HAUTE AND HOLY:

6 Filipino Designers on ‘Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’

The theme of this year ’s New York Metropolitan Costume Institute Exhibition is “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Designed to bridge the intersection between faith and fashion, the sacred and the profane, Costume Institute curator-in-charge Andrew Bolton notes that the collected pieces aim “to show how material Christianity has helped form the Catholic imagination,” as reported in Vogue.

Central to the exhibition is a collection of papal garb on loan from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, sanctioned and secured from The Vatican itself — many of which have never been seen outside of the city. On display will be a selection of worship-worthy pieces highlighting the pervasive influences of religion and ecclesiastic garb on fashion — pieces from the haute houses of Balenciaga, Versace, Chanel, Dior and so much more.

The idea of recognizing fashion as a medium of Catholic imagery might be transgressive to some, but ultimately, the influence is undeniable. There is the sacred and the divine, but there exists also the ceremony to go with it.

From the vestments, the art, the traditions, and the lavish ornaments — it’s about contemplating the enduring symbols and “the role dress plays within the Roman Catholic Church and the role the Roman Catholic Church plays within the fashionable imagination.”

If there are two things Filipinos know all too well, it’s fashion, and an intimate knowledge of all things Catholic. In the spirit of this year’s #MetGala, YStyle asks six local designers how Catholicism (and having grown up in a deeply devout country) played a role in their aesthetic formation.