They raised a lot of eyebrows, and blood pressures, when they were spotted at the Mass for the restored cathedral this weekend. Among the milder criticisms was this, from a writer at the Catholic Herald:
The vestments have been made by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, an haut-couture fashionista-marquis who counts Madonna, Beyoncé and Rihanna among his clients. They have a sub-Matisse feel about them, slightly off-white and covered in what looks like multi-coloured ticker-tape. The only thing that gives them coherence is a large golden cross, which replicates the one standing behind the abandoned high altar at the east end of the choir.
The New York Times talked to their designer, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac:
The chasubles, Mr. de Castelbajac explained, are made by Paloma in Scottish broadcloth in a vanilla-white hue, “like the cathedral’s stone.” The fronts and backs bear a large, minimalist cross printed in antique gold, inspired by the Glorious Cross, a monumental altar piece the French sculptor Marc Couturier made for the cathedral in 1993. To apply the gold to the fabric, Lesage employed a heat transfer process known as sublimation, the same method used for affixing images on T-shirts.
“We put three layers to give the gold depth and catch the light,” Mr. de Castelbajac said as he ran his hand under the fabric to show off its muted shimmer.
The crosses are surrounded by a burst of shard-like patches in red, blue, yellow and green flocking, the felt-like material commonly used for sweatshirt lettering. Mr. de Castelbajac said the shards, which he cut and glued to the fabric himself, represented the cathedral’s stained glass windows and were arranged to recall “Radiant Baby,” an image by the pop artist Keith Haring of a crawling infant framed by rays of light. Mr. Haring, who died in 1990 from an AIDS-related illness, was a friend of Mr. de Castelbajac’s.
“In the church, lux means light,” Mr. de Castelbajac said. “That’s why I proposed to Monsignor Ullrich to design a radiating cross for the liturgical vestments: to express this energy, vibration — rays of light…”
… Mr. de Castelbajac also has a long, and strong, association with the Roman Catholic Church. Officially known as the Marquis de Castelbajac, he traces his family’s lineage to the Crusades. His cousin Claire de Castelbajac, an art conservationist who helped restore the frescoes of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and who died from meningitis in 1975 at 21, is on the path to sainthood and has passed through the initial stages of canonization. (Her elevation to Servant of God in 1995 was based on reports, including from cloistered nuns at a monastery in France, that prayers for Ms. de Castelbajac’s intercession were answered. In 2008, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the opening of the cause for her beatification.)
Read on for more, including details about the designer’s work for World Youth Day in 1992.
