As mentioned previously, reaction to Andrew Bolton’s “Heavenly Bodies” at the Met has ranged from annoyed Catholics and secularists to others, like V&R, who are thrilled.
Some who have posed a stark contrast between fashion and the Church — and this can include both Catholics and secularists — oftentimes simply misunderstand the nature of the Church. It is equally common for people to misunderstand the nature of fashion.
A standard trope is Church = hierarchical, elitist, traditional v. fashion = liberating, democratic, new.
One point of significant continuity between fashion and the Church is the interest in history and archives. The Costume Institute at the Met is a good example of this interest and here is a nice article documenting that even players like The Gap, never mind houses like Hermes, have archivists: https://fashionista.com/2018/05/fashion-house-brands-archives-archivists.
