Religion in Vogue by Lynn S. Neal

Author:Lynn S. Neal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NYU Press

Figure 4.2. The “mini-medievals” designed by Walter Holmes; photograph by Michael Evans; courtesy of Zuma Press and the Evans Estate.

Whether sincere or not, his stated intentions and the framing of his work as authentic positioned Holmes as someone attuned to the Catholic culture of Chicago and Catholicism in general. In the 1960s, “the Chicago area with its 2,163,380 Catholics in Cook and Lake counties” constituted “the largest Catholic archdiocese in the United States” and seminary enrollments in the city reached an all-time high.84 More broadly, the 1960s saw Catholic monks, nuns, and priests grappling with their forms of religious dress. As part of Vatican II, many within each of these groups slowly adopted reforms to “update” their distinctive attire. In regard to nuns, “Perfectae Caritatis stated that ‘the religious habit, an outward mark of consecration to God, should be simple and modest, poor and at the same time becoming.’”85 Such changes encouraged manufacturers to expand the available options, and Jamieson’s, the largest supplier of clothing to nuns, created a sixty-page booklet entitled “For the Nun in a Changing World,” and held fashion shows to introduce the sartorial possibilities, from “traditionalist” to “semi-traditionalist.”86 According to fashion journalist Bill Cunningham in the late 1960s, Vatican II fostered these adaptations to the nun’s habit and the incorporation of Catholic dress into fashion. He explained, “the door has been opened … especially since Pope Paul VI abolished hereditary papal court tiles, functionaries, and many of the costumes, to awaken in the public a preference for the ‘efficacious, functional, and logical’ over the ‘nominal, decorative, and external.’” “It would be natural,” he explained, “for fashion designers … to now pick up the papal discards as a new direction.”87 They did.

Despite the emphasis on Holmes’s authenticity and the widespread reforms of Catholic religious dress, his designs produced controversy. Virginia Kay of the Chicago Daily News gave it “The Shockingly Bad Taste Award of the Year, Decade and Century,” stating that she “looked up to nuns” as a young girl. Rev. Msgr. Joseph T. V. Snee declared them “blasphemous” and wished that people would imitate other “habits” of nuns, namely “modesty, purity, and chastity.”88 Pictures of the “mini-medievals” and headlines emphasizing the controversial outfits circulated throughout the country from national magazines and newspapers, such as Newsweek and the Chicago Tribune, to local newspapers, including the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio), the Battle Creek Enquirer (Battle Creek, Michigan), and the Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona).89

Holmes’s “mini-medievals” caused controversy for a few reasons. The mini-length of the outfits and their consumption by the youthful, avant-garde Paraphernalia shopper caused some to reject Holmes’s claims to spiritual sincerity and authenticity. The outfits’ short length and optional hoods emphasized the contrast between religious and secular, pure and sexual,90 which caused some to interpret them as “blasphemous” and antagonistic to Catholicism. For these interpreters, the “mini-medievals” undermined the sacrality and holiness associated with Catholic religious dress and challenged the authority these garments helped confer upon the Catholic Church and its leaders.

Critics and observers had some reasons to doubt Holmes’s stated intentionality.

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