Fashion for God

Priest’s vestments have long been things to which the church devoted a great deal of attention and money. They were – and many still are – stunningly beautiful items. When the continued existence of the Catholic church came under threat during the time of the Dutch Republic, and clandestine Catholic churches could not be recognisable as such from the street, the church would compensate on the inside for what could not be shown on the outside. In the seventeenth century embroidered vestments became tokens of resistance in gold, silver and silk. They also reflected the agendas of the women who made them. Behind closed doors, they did everything in their power to uphold their Catholic faith. In the eighteenth century, pious wealthy women would donate their ballgowns in colourful French, English, Chinese and Dutch floral fabrics to the church to be turned into magnificent, unique church vestments. And so it was that a priest might come to be standing at the altar wearing a pink robe with a floral motif.