Are Religious Symbols The New Vogue?

Religious Symbols have been regularly used within the fashion industry. Whether you’re shopping in your local high-street or scanning through Instragram pictures on your smart phone, religious symbols are increasingly being used as fashion statements. Is this right? As a fashion student, I have developed a keen interest in the usage of religious symbols within fashion and the opinions in which different audiences have on this subject.

The social media play a huge role in the fashion industry assessing fashion inspiration from sites such as Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube as how many teenagers find out what’s on trend by simply looking at an online source. This has kick-started the hype of wearing religious symbols with many teens wearing accessories without acknowledging the original meaning behind them as they are thriving to be hipster and stay in root with fashion.

As a consequence of Celebrities/Hip-Hop artists wearing religious symbols such as Jesus pieces and anti-war scarfs in their music videos, many young people insist on having the same ‘swag’ as their favourite celebs. The Anti-war scarf is worn as a fashion accessory on the street but is originally called a Keffiyeh which an Arabian head dress. This could be seen as a religious symbol as descendants of the Prophet Mohammed wore them. Although they were dark blue as a pose to the checker black-and-white style of the anti-war scarfs which were traditionally worn by inhabitants of the area. I think what causes such grief within the Arabic community is the racism and inequality which comes with using religious symbols in fashion. I found a quote on the thelangarhall.com which explains an Arabic point of view ‘wearing a keffiyeh on the streets of Paris makes you cool, but wearing a hijab will get you arrested.’ Can you see why, inspirational role models within fashion could be pushing a limit when involving religious symbols into their fashion line.

The scarfs were banned from the high street clothing shop ‘Urban Outfitters’ as they were causing grief within the Arabic community. They removed all images of the scarves and the retailer announces: ‘Due to the sensitive nature of this item, we will no longer offer it for sale. We apologize if we offended anyone; this was by no means our intention.’

French Fashion Designer, Jean Paul Gaultier’s current menswear collection has model’s featured wearing turbans. The inspiration behind the collection was his love for India. He wanted to portray an image of a globetrotting fashionable male who has a knowledge and respect for other cultures. Although this collection has kicked off a mixture of opinions within the Sikh community as the model isn’t in fact a Sikh himself.

I decided to find out the opinions which people from different communities and social backgrounds had on the collection to see their different points of view. I firstly interview Chaz Singh who is a practicing Sikh to see his outlook on JGP’s collection. Singh stated ‘Although, It’s really good to see the Turban being highlighted in this way but I think there was a lack of education; using a sacred symbol is fragile ground as you are not always going to please.’ This is same with all fashion garments and trends everyone has their opinion although as a sacred symbol is involved with JGP’s collection. Singh’s statement completely makes sense as there is religion and meaning behind this item of clothing which forms a religious identity? Should this be used willy-nilly by a fashion designer? Surely this is taking away the original meaning on the turban? Singh’s views on the non-Sikh models within the collection is this ‘What would have worked better would have been to actually get Sikh models or Sikhs to model the collection itself.’ This would haven’t cause as much up-raw within the Sikh community also promoting less discrimination within the modelling industry and would create less of a false identity within the promotional side of the collection which would in fact the collection well known from a positive aspect. My point is proven by Singh’s final comment ‘It is a shame that sometimes people will exploit an identity in order to raise their own profile without realising the damage it can cause.’

Another designer who used Turbans within their menswear collection ‘We all walk in different shoes’ Kenneth Cole in 2008 although Cole used Sikh model Mr. Sandeep Singh Caberwal. As Cole used a Sikh model his collection received positive feedback within the Sikh community. The Sikh community linked the collection’s publicity together a gathering in Washington DC which was set in order to eliminate incorrect stereotypes with radial groups such as the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Jean Paul Gaultier should have taken a leaf out Kenneth Cole’s book which would have allowed the Sikh community to back his collection as well as educating the public on the religion to erase and correct any misunderstanding of the religion. Cole’s collection title itself says it all. We are all different and we shouldn’t discriminate against one another. Cole’s inspiration and influences were obviously the differences we all have from one another but also embracing the fact that are all the same - human beings.

 

In conclusion designers for any fashion house whether it is high street or high end, should take into consideration all aspects of using these religious symbols and the effects of using them they will have on other their audiences. They are sacred and are used to display a form of identity so therefore shouldn’t be used by just anyone, the only followers of the specific religion. These relates to all religions. Designers should take more consideration when creating the whole aspect of their garment and the promotional sides of the collection; as this would cause less negativity and more positivity within the community who view the collections. Also consideration of the religion of the models who are displaying the clothing should be taken into place as this would cause less argument.

Sikhism Workshop with Chaz Singh

The Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Chaz Singh visited us at Plymouth College of Art’s department of fashion, to educate us on his religion, Sikhism. This was useful as the Sikhism religion links to our identity project that we have been working on this term. His aim was to enlighten us about his religion and teach/correct any misunderstandings which we had developed about the religion whilst allowing us to learn facts about the religion; also answering any questions that we posed.

Before starting, I would like to make it clear to my audience that these are my own understandings in which I gained from the workshop which we had today, I would hope that what I have to say would result in  no one taking offence from my opinions on what I learnt today. Personally from own revision and talking to outsiders, including Chaz Singh, has made me come to the conclusion that Sikhism in my eyes is a beautiful and fascinating religion, with some beliefs in which I agree on .

''The word 'Sikh' in the Punjabi language means 'disciple', Sikhs are the disciples of God who follow the writings and teachings of the Ten Sikh Gurus. The wisdom of these teachings in Sri Guru Granth Sahib are practical and universal in their appeal to all mankind.'' (quote from - www.sikhs.org)

Our visitor Chaz Singh, educated us as a group on the basics of the as a whole. Throughout the lecture, I began to grow a keen interested in the understandings and use of the religious symbols in which baptised Sikhs are expected to include in their daily life. These interesting symbols are known as the 5 K’s. Allow me to intrigue you into what they are, and why Sikhs include these into their religion.

 

The first K I learnt about was Kesh which is the practice of allowing your hair to grow naturally without being cut or trimmed. This is a symbol of respect for the perfection of God's creation. I thought this was really interesting and I can understand why Sikh's practice this as I think it is a very beautiful way of saying thank you to their god for what he has given them. The males wrap their hair up in turbans which are the most commonly known identifiable object within Sikhism.

The second K is known as Kangha. This a wooden comb which all baptised Sikh's must carry at all times. This is used to keep their hair up in place, this makes sense as one of the firsts K’s using the meaning of a symbol of growing your hair.

Kara is the third K which is a metal bracelet which is commonly made out steel or iron. This bracelet is worn by both male and female Sikhs. It is a symbol of faith and dedication to the religion.

Kachera is a specific style of cotton loose undergarment with a tie-knot worn by baptised Sikhs. Both male and female wear similar undergarment.

Kirpan is a strapped curved dagger or ceremonial sword. The word Kirpan has two roots - the first word is Kirpa, which means 'Mercy, grace, compassion and kindness' and the second root is Aan, which in turn means 'Honor, grace, and dignity'.  

I found learning about these religious symbols really interesting. It is really nice to learn about the religion and why they carry the symbols they do as this something completely different to what I do on a daily basic. It was really pleasurable to learn all of these things about a different culture as well as learning about how they idenitify themselves as a Sikh. This was really helpful for my project, identity.

Chaz also taught as about the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) which is their most sacred place of worship. It was built as a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religions to come together and worship God equally. In the temple you can worship 24 hours day. You are also able to receive food 24 hours a day no matter who you are. Everyone must sit on the same level and receive the same meal as all who enter the temple are treated the same and all status of class must be left outside the temple. I think this is truly beautiful and I really like the fact that everyone is equal no matter who you are. I though this was a truly beautiful idea as I believe everyone should be treated as equals.

Chaz not only taught us about his religion but also relayed his own personal experiences. He informed us of some of the incidents which he had encountered in Plymouth for wearing a turban which was shocking to hear about. To think he is discriminated and receives racial abuse for wearing a religious symbol is shocking but he rises to that by coming into educational places and educating people like me. This was really upsetting as I believe no one should be discriminated. Although, I am aware not everyone is as closed minded as the people who make these horrible remarks. I think it was a really good opportunity for Chaz to open the eyes of the younger generations to his religion and teach them about his way of life as this would help stop the racial abuse and discrimination.

After learning about the religion, Chaz asked a member of the class to try wearing a turban. We all watched him put the turban on Joslin. It was really interesting to see how the fabric is wrapped and folded to create to such beautiful pleats. Chaz told us about the length of us personal turbans which were a fascinating 7 and a half metres long. This is really crazy to think about as he has to wrap this every single day which he told us only takes him 5 minutes in the morning - which is a lot quicker than most of us in if you relate it back. He let us into a little secret though saying that some of his designer turbans are premade.

As part of our identity project we were asked to come into college wearing something we wouldn't normally wear which would take us of our comfort zones. Joslin was asked by Chaz to wear the turban out on our break to see the reactions of others. As I was wearing as Muslim outfit we were asked to stick together to see how these new identity’s made us feel. We both found the people wear staring at us and we received many looks. We both felt this was because people thought we were being racist wearing these religious symbols as two white people. What happens if we were both from these two different religions and happened to be white? Why are people too quick to make judgement on how others should look? It happens whether you another race, overweight, underweight. We are all judged daily. These exercise really helped our understand of the identity which strongly benefitted our project unit.

The talk with Chaz Singh was really inspiring and moving, and I throughly enjoyed the afternoon session. I think that if more people like Chaz did these sessions their would be less misunderstanding and discrimmination as people would be more educated which would allow them to make a edcuated decision on what to say and see the religion for its true beauty. I personally found learning about the religion truely fascinating and inspiring. The talk has now kick started my idenity project along the route of religious symbols used within fashion although this is still a flourish idea.