Out of Fashion

Maybe we’re too American for the Catholic Church. Maybe that’s been our problem all along.  

I was reading an article about fashion, of all things, and thought about how the new, particularly American, movements in that industry might inform us in our own struggle.

Apparently, some of the elder “statesmen” (author Vanessa Friedman’s word and gender choice) of the fashion world are seeing their influence and power decline, and people more and more do not care. Substitute “Catholic hierarchy” for statesmen, and what is happening in fashion is relevant for us, too. There is an ever-increasing “vacuum,” (also sadly relevant) but, excitingly, from that void, something new and dynamic is emerging.

Innovative designers from varied and diverse backgrounds and perspectives “with a different sense of history and voices that demand to be heard” are mapping out the future of the industry: Their “conversation about race and power and gender is reshaping how we express ourselves and who understands that best.”  I would love that kind of conversation, which is happening everywhere in so many forums, to coalesce and be a map for changing our Church as it is for changing this industry.

Even more, the new creators’ (of all age groups, by the way) fealty is not to the old leaders or even the reliable consumers of high fashion of the past – the rich and powerful and influential – but “to a new society, one exponentially more diverse by birthright, that…dresses to be heard (italics mine) and seen.” It’s now less about product than “an idea of what product stands for; about a creative form that connects to music and film and written words and action and layers it all together into community.” Think Catholic Church instead of fashion industry and join with me in a ‘Hooray’!

And now we’re back to the American part, and how our own particularly American energies could help us in this mission for full inclusion – in fashion, business, government, and, most pertinent to us, the Church. What makes this new force American “is the fact it is free of the restrictions of heritage…It reflects the freedom of reinvention that the American promise was built on. It’s disruptive and messy and happy to color outside the lines.” 

Harness that energy, that spirit, that promise, and we cannot help but be encouraged. We, as Americans, have the inner tools we need to meet the challenge of renewing or rebuilding or redesigning the Church just by being American. Combine that with the unique gifts from those in the rest of the world, and we can say what Friedman says of the new vision in fashion: “It’s not yet fully realized, but it is on its way.”