A brilliant exploration of fashion’s complex engagement with the great art and artifacts of Catholic faith and practice
Since antiquity, religious beliefs and practices have inspired many of the masterworks of art. These works of art have, in turn, fueled the imagination of fashion designers in the 20th and 21st centuries, yielding some of the most innovative creations in costume history. Connecting significant religious art and artifacts to their sartorial expressions, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination provides a critical analysis of fashion’s engagement with notions of the divine. Exploring fashion’s complex and often controversial relationship with Catholicism, Heavenly Bodies probes what dress reveals about the state of religion and spirituality within contemporary culture, and how it may manifest—or subvert—Catholic values and ideology. Art objects, such as devotional paintings and altarpieces from The Met’s collection, are presented alongside fashions from designers including Cristóbal Balenciaga, Callot Soeurs, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, John Galliano, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Madame Grès, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, Jeanne Lanvin, Claire McCardell, Alexander McQueen, Thierry Mugler, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Gianni Versace. The volume also presents a selection of ecclesiastical vestments and accessories from the Vatican collection, many of which have not been published before.
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(05/10/18–10/07/18)
- ISBN10 1588396452
- ISBN13 9781588396457
- Publish Date 29 May 2018
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 March 2022
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 336
- Language English