The Washington Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled a new exhibit titled “The Closet: A Priestly Fashion of the American Woman.”
The exhibition is an effort to explore the role of a priestly wardrobe in the lives of women of the past.
The exhibition includes garments worn by members of the Catholic church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“In the first half of the 20th century, women wore a priest’s robe in the homes of a number of prominent women,” museum director Josepha Macchiavelli told the AP.
“By the 1930s, it was a staple in American homes.
It’s one of the few vestiges of the patriarchal American household.”
The exhibit includes images of garments worn during the Great Depression by women including the women’s clothing designer and fashion designer Louise Bourgeois, the women who worked in the fashion houses of New York and Paris, and the fashion designers of the time.
The clothing worn by the church members of those times were worn by many members of society at that time, Macchiovelli said.
The garments were made in a fashion that was distinctly feminine, which was influenced by the women themselves, she said.
“It was the garment of the working woman.
It was a garment of dignity,” Macchiambe said.
Some women wore the garments during the Depression in a time of depression and desperation.
Macchianci said the garments were worn to show their devotion and commitment to the church.
MacChiavella told the Associated Press the garment is not meant to be seen as something to be taken to church or even to be worn to church, but rather, “It’s something to have as a garment to show the priest’s love.”
The first exhibition opened in October and the second is set to open in January.
A photo gallery is available at the museum’s website.
