May 8, 2018

"I could have stood and studied one of those chasubles forever. The passion of our Lord — magnificent!” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan at the Met Gala...

... where the theme was "fashion and the Catholic imagination" and the setting was the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with its new exhibit of Vatican treasures. I'm reading the report in the NYT. So this year, the big gala had mixed celibates 'n' celebrities. The usual fashion-oriented celebrities were on hand — George and Amal Clooney, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, Madonna, Rihanna, etc. etc. — and they were tasked to dress up according to the theme "the Catholic imagination." A "chasuable" is the fanciest layer of the classic priestly get-up, and you can just imagine what counts as Metropolitan-Museum-worthy from the Vatican collection.

The Times got the Cardinal to comment on the Catholic-imagination clothing on the celebrities. He happened to say, "That I want to look at more closely," which I think he probably meant as I have been concentrating on the museum treasures and don't have anything to say yet about what these live people have on, but it came out — at least in this article — sounding like he was planning to gape at the live fleshly bodies on display. As if what's really going on in his Catholic imagination is that other passion — sexual passion. Magnificent!

Here's a series of 61 photos of the celebrities at the gala, in case you want to see how they interpreted "the Catholic imagination." Rihanna has a bejeweled bishop's mitre on her head. Lots of the ladies had headpieces that look like the stylized halo in a medieval icon. Katy Perry wore huge angel wings that insured that no one could stand next to her. Kim Kardashian had crosses on her body-as-a-chalice dress. Kanye approved of his wife:



What's more Catholic-imagination than 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥?

47 comments:

gilbar said...

i guess i was confused about the Catholic church?
I had thought they were Christians, not pagan* orgy people

pagan* People Against Goodness And Normality

the 4chan Guy who reads Althouse said...

I don't have time to look at the pictures right now, but did any hot chick, like, dress up in a Catholic schoolgirl skirt and shit?

Because that fucking rocks. Even a chick who isn't that hot looks like she could be hot when dressed up like that. I think that's, like, the power of God and shit.

sparrow said...

Unfortunately the prelates of the Church have been, at best, weak defenders of the faith for some time now.

Bob Boyd said...

#5 at the link, "Solange Knowles wearing Iris van Herpen."

What the....?
It's like one of those costumes where it looks like you're riding a horse only she's riding a giant, black patent vulva.

Wilbur said...

I haven't encountered the word "chasuble" since I was an altar boy (not sure what they call them now - altar boys, not chasubles).

Since I left home after high school, my shadow hasn't darkened the door of a church except for weddings and funerals.

Ralph L said...

Joan of Arc she ain't.

Ralph L said...

Wilbur, acolyte? Or Acolyter Kardashian.

tcrosse said...

Rev. Chasuble was the clergyman in The Importance of Being Earnest.

buwaya said...

None tried a version of the typical cofradia procession outfit. Would certainly make a splash and freak out some idiots.

Not much there thats Catholic as such, though one of the ladies had on a mantilla, which certainly is typically Southern European and Catholic. So one point.

On the whole a general case of a lack of imagination and research. There is plenty they could have used had they known where to look.

traditionalguy said...

Ritual sacrifice to gods that can only be performed by properly attired Priests is as Pagan as the hills. Catholics claim that since the risen Christ conquered the pagan cults, they now like to show off the pagan loot. But what Catholics avoid acknowledging is that adding Christ to the pagan brand is not enough to to justify their also reinstituting dependence on sacrifial rituals called sacraments. The theology of Paul, St. Augustine, and Calvin is the needed antidote. It alone acts as Kryptonite to the many pagan god cults of the Roman Empire nonsense.

buwaya said...

Most of whats going on there looks a lot more like a black mass-themed party. Satanists of the theatrical Anton LaVey type like using Catholic symbolism and twisting it.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Did anyone show up to turn the tables over? That would have been good.

Sebastian said...

Kanye is right again.

Good thing the Church is going easy on sin and stuff.

Oso Negro said...

No perfumed altar boys?

Ralph L said...

I'd like to know how much money this makes for the Met, net. Bet it's like the WHCD, most goes to expenses.

'TreHammer said...

I loved the dress made out of chain mail. I wonder how much it weighed?

Gahrie said...

Kim is starting to look like the dame from Who Framed Roger Rabbit without the red hair.

Earnest Prole said...

Kim can turn muddy water into wine.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Hillary and Huma... wearing handcuffs.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Did anyone show up to turn the tables over? That would have been good.”

Threadwinner for certain. This is the kind of shit that makes cracker Evangelicals assert that Catholics aren’t Christians.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Next year, a Muslim-themed gala. Now that would make some heads, um, explode.

Ralph L said...

Kendall Jenner, no. 45, has short trains on her slacks following her around. Locomotion must be dangerous.

Is there an actual party involved or just a fashion show?

buwaya said...

No Catholic schoolgirls.

That "schoolgirl" look attached to Catholic parochial schools is a very American thing, and is very recent, mainly because Catholic parochials had uniforms in the first place, unlike US public schools. The US has been an outlier in not requiring school uniforms.

School uniforms are typical in schools all over the world, most of Europe anyway, and Catholic girls schools are not usually identifiable that way.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

the golden calf ball.

MountainMan said...

I find this to be just bizarre. And I am not Catholic. Why would anyone in their right mind participate in such a thing? But then, I look at the guest list...

rhhardin said...

Hardly a breast on display, unlike red carpets.

Catholic = no breasts visible.

Anonymous said...

buwaya: None tried a version of the typical cofradia procession outfit. Would certainly make a splash and freak out some idiots.

My thoughts exactly. That would've rocked.

Bill said...

Fellini did it better.

gilbar said...

" a very American thing, and is very recent,"
and the Japanese have even more recently taken that ball and ran with it; to great effect

Earnest Prole said...

Fellini did it better.

I was just thinking the same thing.


buwaya said...

"Fellini did it better"

Of course. Fellini was Catholic, and knew his subject.
He knew what to mock.

Earnest Prole said...

Fellini was Catholic, and knew his subject. He knew what to mock.

I always found it a critique of the profane and not the sacred, but I take your point.

john said...

Scarlett Johansson wins by a mile. She always does and always will, but her competetion is bleak.

Cindy Crawford wins the Dorothy Kilgallen look. By a neck.

Freeman Hunt said...

Someone should have dressed normally and brought an entourage of poor people who could never afford to go to such an event on their own.

Sydney said...

@FreemanHunt- that would have been perfect!

Sydney said...

I've always thought of New York City as the Whore of Babylon. First time I've seen it actually represented in real life, though.

Freeman Hunt said...

The overall effect is unsettling. Looks like a party of the damned. Like a prophet needs to run in off the street and cry, "Turn now! Repent and believe! For the kingdom of God is at hand!"

buwaya said...

Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" is an interesting way to look at such functions.

This was in our Catholic school readers of course.

stevew said...

Jessica Rabbit!!!

-sw

buwaya said...

I don't know if they do it in NY, but there have been Masses given with specific invitations to prostitutes.
That sort of thing seems very apt, and I am surprised it's not done more often.
These people aren't happy, the poor and drug addicted on the street, or the rich and drug-addicted preyed on by Weinsteins and Schneidermans.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

This is the first time I have ever seen the word chasuble outside of Stephan R. Donaldson's excellent Mordant's Need duology:

The Mirror of Her Dreams

and

A Man Rides Through

This is Donaldson's, I won't say happiest, but perhaps most approachable work. If all you know him from is the angst-fest of Thomas Covenant, or worse the Gap books, this is well worth your time. A Donaldson messed-up protagonist who actually grows, resolves the problems facing her, and finds happiness in the end.

walter said...

Kim's "waist trainer" in full effect

walter said...

Blogger the 4chan Guy who reads Althouse said...
did any hot chick, like, dress up in a Catholic schoolgirl skirt and shit?
--
Schoolgirl, one cup

Unknown said...

How is this not cultural appropriation?

Achilles said...

What a garbage event.

JaimeRoberto said...

Maybe Kim's not insipid. She's just drawn that way.

Tina Trent said...

Dolan is giving Chaucer a run for his money assifying Catholic ministers.