Wishing all readers a blessed Easter Season. Deo volente, plenty more posts to come at V&R as the site continues to meditate on the challenge made by Warhol to wonder about the relationship between religion and commerce. I am busy reading the work of Adam Smith’s patron, Lord Kames, and I think he…
These last three weeks I have been a Smith Scholar working at Liberty Fund in Indianapolis. I have been writing short essays on Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment. These essays will be posted on Liberty Fund’s websites over the next couple of months. I will link to them here as and when they appear.…
Awhiles back, I posted a piece at Law & Liberty on M&S’s confusion over the Burkini (http://www.libertylawsite.org/2016/09/07/burke-and-burkinis/). Here we learn that M&S has failed completely in China and has suspended operations (http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/2138570/why-western-fashion-brands-fail-china-and-tips-succeeding). Astonishingly, they didn’t even think about sizing clothes differently for Chinese women? The article is interesting about Chinese interest in British…
The Royal Mail has recently issues a raft of stamps featuring characters from Game of Thrones. Super!
Here is a good interview with a fashion icon (https://www.1843magazine.com/style/versace-the-resurrection). On the plus side, Donatella Versace speaks about her increasing closeness to the Church. On the negative, is an interesting insight the journalist gives us into the fashion industry. The journalist observes that Donatella’s assistants are calm and relaxed. Luke Leitch notes that…
Just posting this, as I like it. This ad is a very sanitized version of the medieval originals: check out any of the Bosch originals for hours of fun.
Filippo Sorcinelli is a charismatic tailor to the pope. A Renaissance man, he is not only gifted in the art of tailoring but music, design, and perfume, too (https://www.departures.com/fashion/filippo-sorcinelli-tailor-to-the-pope). At one point in this interview, he makes an astute point. Benedict’s high regard for papal fashion is well-known and contrasts with Francis’s modesty. Sorcinelli…
Diderot is famous for the creation of the Encyclopédie. A massive, multi-volume work dating to 1751-1772, it highlighted especially the mechanical arts and is often credited with launching the spirit of the French Revolution. Diderot also wrote a short piece critical of luxury in 1769, “Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown” (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/diderot/1769/regrets.htm). His arguments are…
*I am delighted that Chris Wojtulewicz is making a new post. Chris is an English Catholic theologian interested in post-modernism. He is the author of monographs on medieval mysticism, especially Meister Eckhart, and is currently at work on a book about French theorist Jacques Lacan and the bodily resurrection. His previous post is here: http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/fabric-of-the-saints/ For…
Italian sculptor Jago has made a shirtless bust of Pope Benedict. The bust began with the pope clothed but upon his retirement from the active papacy, Jago chipped away the clothing. I am not aware of controversy, though maybe such exists. For me, it evokes the humility we saw at the end of Saint…