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Manners, Customs, Clothing
Blasphemy against the Most Holy Virgin Mary
Spring 2007 Fashion Collection by Gaultier
Atila Sinke Guimarães
I am not an expert in fashion, far from it. But I could not contain my indignation when I saw the blasphemous, irreverent and immoral representations of Our Lady, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, in the Spring 2007 fashion collection by French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier in Point de Vue magazine (January 31, 2007).
Jean-Paul Gaultier |
The collection was presented in January, but I only learned about it recently. I think that a comment is still timely and a reparation is absolutely necessary. For this reason, I am posting this article.
A brief search on the Internet informed me that Jean-Paul Gaultier is one of the top designers in the French fashion world. He worked for Pierre Cardin, Jean Patou and others high-level designers until he established his own label, which is known for being controversial.
What is important here is for the reader to look at the pictures, which I present below with some descriptions taken from the magazine or from my observations of the larger reproductions I have at hand. Such details make the offense against Our Holy Mother still more egregious.
This part of the Spring collection is called The Madonnas, leaving no doubt about whom the couturier was referring to. The dresses were presented in front of a painted staircase as if the models were descending from Heaven. The play of lights reinforces this impression. The blue of the background as seen in the pictures speaks of Mary as well. Songs of pop-star Madonna were playing.
If you analyze the outfit of the model at left from the head down, you see that the woman has three layers of halos on the top of her head. The first displays 12 stars, as in the statues of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Graces, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, for example. The second is a thick gold strand, and the third is another circular form which holds five wavy bunches of hair arranged in a punk style to imitate rays. This hair arrangement suggests that the model suffered some electrical shock that caused her hair to stand on its end, or that she is some sort of Medusa with snakes as hair.
Now, please, look at the dress. The model wears a sleeveless vaporous and transparent dress, which is already an irreverence to the modesty of the Most Pure Virgin. On the chest the attire displays two concentric hearts, see detail below, the smaller one with a flame on top. It is impossible to make a clearer reference to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The larger heart - the Sacred Heart of Jesus? - seems to have a crown of thorns surrounding it diagonally, although the picture is not very clear.
Looking down, you see that the vaporous dress opens, leaving only one transparent sheathe of voile between your sight and the nude leg of the model, whose knee and thigh are provocatively revealed.
In my opinion, this first model alone is an indisputable blasphemy against the Most Holy Virgin and the Catholic Faith in general, and an insult to all Catholics who honor Mary as the Mother of God.
For much less than this, a simple cartoon showing Mohammed in a Danish paper, the Muslims rioted all over the world two years ago.
The second picture, at right, shows you another blatant irreverence. The model wears a dress with a material immitating a stain glass window. The Infant Jesus is imprinted on it also, in the place where Our Lady typically carries him in her arm.
A cut-out in the sleeveless décolleté dress displays the chest of the model. The line is cut diagonally, insinuating that one breast is exposed, although it is covered in this picture by her long beaded hair.
Mary is portayed with a black halo, which in art is normally reserved for Judas. A roaring-'20s style of bangs covers her forehead. Three black tears are painted under one eye.
Such improprieties, extravagances, and irreverences easily lead to blasphemy, especially when the pictures are viewed as an ensemble.
In the next photo, below, the model also has a halo, in a statue-of-liberty style, topped by an extravangant spray of hair that resembles rays of light. She has three tears painted below one eye as well.
Looking down, you can see that she wears a dress with a lace appliqué, explicitly designed in the form of a chalice, the magazine informs us. The Eucharistic chalice, without a doubt.
These are, in my opinion, the more outrageous pictures that appeared in the mentioned magazine. But there were others also.
It should come as no surprise that an effeminate, extravagant and revolutionary couturier should be anti-Catholic, abhor the symbols of our Religion, and want to mock them. The surprise is that countless French Catholics ladies and men were among those who applauded these irreverences and blasphemies against the Most Holy Virgin Mary. And that, as far as I know, no Catholic protest came against this Spring collection, covered by the high-circulation Point de Vue magazine.
Even someone ignorant of History knows that France was par excellence the country where the Mother of God was glorified. It is enough to think of the many Cathedrals that were dedicated to her in the glorious past of France.
What happened to that faith of old? Have all the French Catholics renounced that past and become indifferent to these new offenses made in Paris?
If by chance they were unaware of this blasphemy, then let them take note here.
But the Catholic Faith extends beyond France. What happened there offends all Catholics.
I write these comments in reparation to the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and I am sending the following e-email to Archbishop Andre Armand Vingt-Trois, the present-day Archbishop of Paris. I invite you to write him a similar protest.
Send your e-mail to the Prelate here: communication@diocese-paris.net
His Excellency the Archbishop of Paris,
Andre Armand Vingt-Trois,
I call your attention to the improprieties, irreverences and blasphemies against the honor of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, as well as veneration for the Eucharistic chalice that were made in the Spring 2007 fashion collection of Jean-Paul Gaultier in Paris, and were shown in this article http://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/C020cpMadonasGaultier.htm
As the Shepherd of the French flock of Paris, Your Excellency should either prevent such offenses from taking place or, if that is not possible, make due reparation for such outrages and restore the glory of Our Holy Mother in an exemplary way.
I, as a faithful Catholic, hope that the zeal of Your Excellency will cause you to act in a way that will discourage anyone in the future from ever repeating such outrages.
Should Your Excellency disregard the glory of God in this instance, then be aware that You will be called to account for this in your personal judgment.
Respectfully,
Atila Sinke Guimaraes
Posted May 3, 2007
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