Fashioning Holy Figures
Fashioning Holy Figures
This chapter chronicles how the fashion industry again expanded its use of Christian elements by placing Christian holy figures onto designer garments in the 1990s. Prior to this decade, designers shied away from incorporating representational religious figures in their designs—a trend influenced by iconoclastic controversy in the history of Christianity. The chapter first examines early instances of this trend with the designs of Rei Kawakubo, Kansai Yamamoto, and Gianni Versace. It then analyzes the controversy, lack of comment, and celebration that accompanied subsequent designers’ forays into more figural designs. The chapter places a particular emphasis on Dolce & Gabbana’s “Stromboli” collection, which incorporated numerous images of the Virgin Mary and was the first collection thoroughly dedicated to a Christian theme. It met with widespread celebration from fashion critics and helped establish a Marian focus in fashion design.
Keywords: fashion, religion, Christianity, Rei Kawakubo, Kansai Yamamoto, Gianni Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Virgin Mary, iconoclastic controversy
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
