‘Fashion and Faith’ was a debate held at the V&A Museum recently. It brought together a panel that included academic experts in religious costume, a legal spokesman from Liberty (the organisation, not the department store!) and a fashion columnist. The panel showed us many new design collections that show modest Islamic clothing with a modern twist from Islamic Design House and Imaan. Fashion designer Elenany was in the audience, modelling her own funky jacket, and she spoke about the way Islamic influences resulted in a clothing range that can be worn by anyone. Although the debate about how people display symbols of faith tended to focus on Muslims, there were also examples of other faiths such as Nadia Eweida, the British Airways worker who was banned from displaying her crucifix publically. Conforming to religious dress may not be immediately apparent; some Jewish women choose not to wear trousers but walking down the street in skirt, you may not know that she was practising her faith in this way.
The fashion columnist spoke about ‘the new modesty’, a trend in fashion that links to a more puritan spirit of dress and lifestyle as a backlash to the luxury designer-bling of recent years. This simplicity in fashion also mirrors the austere vibe ushered in by the current recession. There are of course risks in mixing faith with fashion. One panellist admitted to wearing a rosary purely as a fashion necklace and being caught out by a Hollywood star who congratulated her on having the courage to display her Catholic faith publically! The general consensus of the panel appeared to be that religious dress should be a matter of choice and people should be allowed to express their faith appropriately if they wished but shouldn’t be forced to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment