In 2018 the “MET” (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) had an outstanding exhibition called “Heavenly Bodies”. Although I missed that exhibition, I was lucky enough, stumbling over one of the exhibition’s catalogs recently.
In one sentence the MET describes the exhibition as “showcasing the influence of religious art on innovative fashion”; and this is meant to focus on the catholic church.
It is fascinating how the catholic church owned certain symbols and stiles over the time and with that inspired our modern fashion world over the last decades, borrowing the one or other element from it. This exhibition goes further. It shows robes and garments, which are copying mayor elements of traditional catholic styles and do not even try to hide that influence. Most of those are modern interpretations of existing robes, playing with the aesthetics of the originals and bringing them back to life into today’s world. However, they are meant to impress the runway audience rather than the city dwellers.
I got my inspiration from a monk’s robe, but wanted to combine it with symbols of the tremendous wealth of the church, as well as the women’s traditional maternity role.
If you want to learn more about the exhibition, you can check this link: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/heavenly-bodies