The Relationship Between Fashion & Religion

This year’s MET Gala theme ‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’ is being quoted as the most controversial to date. It sparked the question is fashion influenced by religion? and vice versa…Does the belief really influence the way we dress?

Throughout history religion has had a vast impact on social, cultural and political development and arguably regression at times.There were moments in history when the church would dictate on almost every aspect of the individual’s life. And so, it should not come as a surprise that religion would also influence the fashion industry.

“Fashion and religion have long been intertwined, mutually inspiring and informing one another, although this relationship has been complex and sometimes contested, it has produced some of the most inventive and innovative creations in the history of fashion”, said Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the costume institute of MET.

There was a time when in the western world, that religion would oppress women from what they were. When Mary Quant, dared to break the oppression of the Catholic church, inventing the mini skirt, a shock for the church. However, this does not suggest that the religion’s only purpose is to oppress and block fashion from happening. Things had evolved, and fashion didn’t stop being shocking for some religious.

But nowadays, it changed designers are even creating for Muslim women giving them modest fashion. Now they have more options of what to wear, and they can be in the fashion.

Even though, there are still disrespectful uses of religious symbols and motifs in the industry of fashion. The Hamsa hand representing the five pillars of Islam or the Bindis symbolising the third eye chakra in Hinduism are only two elements wrongfully appropriated in fashion. If fashion wants to include these features in its narrative, then the industry needs to understand what they mean and what they represent.

Ultimately, the line between a respectful translation of these religious elements into fashion and an insulting and abusive representation of them is fragile. It can either be fantastic and inclusive or terrible and offensive.

For many years fashion was about breaking the rules, breaking barriers. But now it’s all different. It’s more about accepting the differences and seeing the beauty of them. Fashion used to be oppressed by the church and only from the 60s until the 00s it made its first attempt to break free from under its strictness.

Now, when fashion is independent of anything and anyone, it just adapts to everyone’s needs and beliefs. There are no more rules to break or go against it. Instead, fashion’s goal is to give a little something for everyone. And although the relationship between fashion and religion was always complicated, the fashion industry is trying to embrace that complexity and make it work for both worlds.