I Might Go to Hell for This

But it's time to admit that priests have drip.

Hi all. The synergy in the fashion realm is strong right now. I opened my email the other day to see my fearless Magasin editor

laura reilly

had written about the menswear Renaissance renaissance (no relation to one of my favorite brands), citing my last post about hats and headgear to evidence a swelling tide toward hats that skew biretta—a peaked, sometimes tufty cap traditionally worn by Christian clergy. Laura followed that lead into other ripe-for-the-wearing elements of priestly style, like the ascendence of “bishop purple” over the past year’s cardinal red.

If you like these posts, please let me know by liking and commenting here or on HR’s Instagram, subbing to the HR Substack (this) for free or get bonus posts for seven bucks a month, or for ZERO DOLLARS, share (tag me if on IG so I can see and thank you)! 

If you cannot afford the $7/month, I totally understand—respond to any of my email sends and I will get you a $2 subscription or comp you, whatever you need. HR is for everyone!

THANK YOU for being here, and I am always available @humanrepeller on Instagram for sartorial scandals/situations/summons. Here is a little preview of what’s below the paywall:

As you probably know, one of my favorite things to write about is the confluence of religion and the runways, usually in the lane of Yentacore, my pet ideology that ID’s the value of Jewish/Hebraic aesthetics over the past 2000-odd years—I’ve written about this for i-D, in a lot more detail at the Long Now, and elsewhere over the past few years. In these articles, I sub-textually argue that the Christian hegemony in piety-inflected high fashion has been overplayed in crucifixes galore, Sofia Coppola stan Tumblrs, and mainstream events like, as Laura also cited, the 2018 Heavenly Bodies-themed Met gala. It’s true that these, and I quote myself, “irony-dappled, pseudo-traditionalist” angles of incorporating Catholic iconography into the fashion world don’t have the same oomph as they would’ve 10 years ago, but Laura’s post, plus something else I saw yesterday, pushed me over the edge in my conviction that there’s something yet worth mining from the religion that’s largely defined “religion” as a bloc for centuries.