Holy mother!

(Frederik Buyckx, World Press Photo 2013)

In my previous post I told about my visit at the World Press Photo 2013 in Maastricht. In the same building, there was a small exhibition about the worshipment of virgin Mary in Limburg (the southest provence of the Netherlands).I don't believe in anything or anyone myself, but I've always admired the love for Christ or virgin Mary, just because people are able to put their worshipment in such beautiful things like paintings, medaillons and many other things. 

A little part of the exhibition was a series of portraits of people with a tattoo, dedicated to virgin Mary or Christ, or just inspired by Christianity. And that part of the exhibition was my favourite part, not just because I really love tattoos, but because these people inspired me as well. How comes people are willing to dedicate their body to their religion? Is it their way of expressing their religion or do they need a grip for believing? Most of them explained that virgin Mary reminded them of a family member and just a few had the tattoo for their believing. Religion was an inspiration for all of them.

(Jean Paul Gaultier, spring 2007)

For numerous years, many artists, fashion designers and directors have been inspired by religion, mainly Christianity. Remember Jean Paul Gaultier's 2007 spring collection? Obviously, Christianity was a big inspiration for Jean Paul Gaultier for that collection. Remember Lady Gaga's music video 'Alejandro'? She used Christianity as an inspiration as well and people accepted it.

But fair enough, most of the creations inspired by Christianity, are inspired by people. What if we used another aspect of religion as an inspiration? What if we used religious buildings as an inspiration?

threeASFOUR, a fashion trio with Israeli, Lebanese and Tajik designers, hit upon this idea and presented their collection, inspired by  churces, synagogues and mosques, for spring/summer 2014. They got inspired by the geometry and mosaic formations of  'houses of God' and used a 3D printer to create their collection. "We chose Jewish, Muslim, and Christian tiles as we realized they’re so similar and they work so well in unison," according to threeASFOUR.

(Images of the spring/summer collection 2014, threeASFOUR)

I'm extremely impressed by their creations, not only because of the beautiful appearance, but because of the inspiration being used as well. As I told before, I've seen many fashion designers getting inspired by religion icons, but I've never seen a whole collection being inspired by religious buildings. The designers did such a good job and when you know the story, you recognize some patterns of church windows and mosque tiles.

I tried to search for a religious inspiration, other than religious people or icons, and what I found dazzled me. I never even thought fashion designers could be inspired by buildings and the theory behind the collection is even more amazing. The use of a 3D printer is a fortuitous coincidence, but seriously a cool fact. If I'm allowed to say this; I'm pretty proud of myself to combine both 'appearance' and 'living' in one post! Yes!

(Source: threeASFOUR.com, jpost.com,)