European fashion houses often borrow religious symbols from the Roman Catholic Church, creating direct references to biblical stories, temple framing, or clerical clothing. Such bold decisions are well received by the public in the West. But in Russia such experiments are treated with caution. tried to figure out why this is happening. On the night of January 6-7, Russians celebrate one of the main holidays of the Orthodox Church - the Nativity of Christ. On this day, thousands of believers across the country go to church services. Women wear headscarves and long skirts, while men dress "decently" and take off their hats. This is where the concept of "religious fashion" for the inhabitants of our country ends.

In Russia, it is extremely difficult to imagine a person who would go out into the street with the image of the face of Christ on a T-shirt or the Mother of God on a jacket, with quotes from the Bible on a cap or a Crucifix in the form of earrings, in silhouettes of clothes that resemble the vestments of a priest or the cassock of a monk. However, in the Catholic West, the image of sacred symbols and objects of worship on clothing is not uncommon.

Among the pioneers in the field of combining religious symbols and secular atmosphere are the works of Coco Chanel of the early 20th century - her black dresses and white collars, like those of nuns, Byzantine motifs, church jewelry and vestments in accessories and bijouterie. Her rival Elsa Schiaparelli did not release almost a single collection without the use of purple - the color of the robes of the Catholic patriarchs. And Cristobal Balenciaga created silhouettes similar to those of the Franciscan monks. Sometimes the designers managed to strike a balance between the permissible and the fashionable, and they received approval, in other cases they had to destroy things because of the anger of believers.

Russian designers did not enter into complex relations with religion as before the entry into force of the amendments to Art. 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on "insulting the feelings of believers" and before them. According to Ivan Davydov, associate professor of the Department of Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Moscow State University, in Russia initially there was no dialogue between religion and fashion. The religious scholar associates this phenomenon with the fact that fashion as a cultural phenomenon came to us relatively late - in the first third of the 19th century. While in Europe it appeared several centuries earlier.

“At the beginning of the 19th century (and much later), fashion in Russia was unambiguously labeled as a secular phenomenon, purely secular, and imported from abroad,” explains Ivan Davydov. “But now timid attempts to“ confess ”some of the trends in contemporary Russian women's fashion have become noticeable, here the St. Petersburg brand“ Orthodox Fashion Maria ”can be named.

If small regional brands or brands made by the hands of one person and exhibited, for example, at the "Fair of Masters" still use secular religious symbols in the decoration of outfits, then at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia Fashion Week or at high fashion shows such a phenomenon is extremely rare. Unless almost every jewelry brand has a cross.

Those who do make timid attempts to adapt creeds for secular clothing receive a fair dose of criticism. In particularly high-profile cases, it comes to contacting law enforcement agencies. For example, in 2015, Orthodox activists turned to the Prosecutor General's Office and asked to deal with the manufacturers of underwear with the image of Jesus Christ and the cross. “These are unacceptable things. Here, the use of Christian symbols, which is directly offensive to every Christian, ”- commented on the situation the deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), priest Roman Bogdasarov, to Izvestia.

Ksenia Sobchak was also condemned in the Russian Orthodox Church when she tried on earrings with the face of Christ and a headdress with the image of a two-headed eagle. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin then said that one should pray in front of the icons, and not use them as decorations.

There have been attempts to make friends with fashion and religion in Russia. Fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev, during a speech at the opening of the competition "Orthodox Culture in Contemporary Fashion" in 2011, spoke in favor of making Orthodox clothing more elegant and harmonious. “It doesn't have to be pink, blue or something else - just an elegant suit, an elegant strict dress ... Usually, when you come to church and see headscarves, you get a terrible disharmony,” the designer quoted the words of “Rossiyskaya.

However, the efforts of fashion designers to link fashion and religion have not received widespread approval. According to the representatives of the Church, sacred images in Orthodoxy should be placed in "worthy places", made of durable materials, honored, and any impious and offensive action in relation to the image offends the prototype, that is, Christ, the Mother of God, angels and saints, they believe.Hieromonk Makariy Markish, in a conversation with, explains that the church cannot prohibit the depiction of religious symbols and attributes on clothing, however, blasphemous images are not welcome, and if this is something neutral or benevolent, the church treats with understanding.

“We live in a free country, and every person has the right to wear the clothes and have the appearance that he wants, if it does not contradict the laws. Based on this logic, the question of religious symbols has been removed, ”says the priest.

Designers do not need to agree on designs that include religious symbols. According to Makariy Markish, if a designer has such a desire, then he can come in private and talk with the priest, having learned his opinion, and it is his choice to take it into account or not.

“Suddenly he decided to put an iconographic image on his trousers,” the hieromonk gives an example. - In our country it is not very accepted and appropriate, but the designer will say that he wants it anyway. And we can only answer to this: "Well, your business."

In Russia, however, icons on trousers are not reproduced. In Europe, fashion designers love to refer to the history of the Roman Catholic Church and talk about it in their collections. As Kirill Gorbunov, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, explains, for a long time, religious clothing was the standard of style for believers in the West.

“This applies to both luxurious service attire and minimalist monastic clothing. It was the best that could have been imagined, so designers are still turning to these topics, ”says Kirill Gorbunov.

There is no official position of the Roman Catholic Church on the use of religious symbols on clothing. But as Kirill Gorbunov admits, the ministers rejoice when they see "a combination of religious symbolism and secular clothing that is successful from the point of view of taste."

Designers from Italy and France especially often turn to religious symbolism. Some borrow ideas, suggesting direct appeal to Christian motives. So, Dolce & Gabbana was inspired by the golden mosaic of one of the main Sicilian cathedrals in the Fall-Winter 2013-2014 collection, Gucci brought models with severed heads to the catwalk in the Fall-Winter 2018-2019 season in tribute to the memory of Saint Cephalophor, who was killed In a similar fashion, Catholic cross stitching is a regular feature at Versace shows.

The rest of the fashion houses propose to turn to the "religious style" by wearing loose-fitting robes that hide the silhouette. This technique was used by a designer from a deeply religious family Ricardo Tisci during his work at Givenchy, Valentino often produces dresses similar to women's religious vestments with capes, and in 2011 Giorgio Armani went around everyone and came up with the design of the vestments of the Sicilian bishop Domenico Mogavero. By the way, in 2021, a "fashion show" of episcopal vestments took place in Belgium. On the podium in the cathedral of the city of Tournai, the clothes of Catholic priests of different times were presented. Volunteers acted as models.

“The Roman Catholic Church has a much richer and more varied experience of creative interaction with high fashion houses, primarily France and Italy, than other Christian churches. Probably, it can be stated that the Orthodox Churches are more cautious about secular trends. And they can be understood, ”says religious scholar Ivan Davydov.

Italians and French are those people who are really very familiar with church culture, and from early childhood they were brought up on these images, agrees the priest Kirill Gorbunov. “I think that in our country, where for most of the 20th century, all these images were simply hidden from people with the exception of a small part of the population, people simply do not think in these categories. We can say that in Russia there is a more strict attitude towards this from the point of view of the church, ”he says.

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