Every type of faith and ritual in one place — 4 chapters, Clergy and ministerial, Monastic and religious orders, Lay religious dress and the rest, with the plates and an inventory to download.
Religious dress is the oldest continuously specified clothing on earth, and the only kind in this archive where the specification is itself sacred. A chasuble is not merely traditional; its shape, colour and use are set out in rubrics, and departing from them is a theological act rather than a design decision.
That gives this family a property nothing else here has: change is legible as argument. When a religious order shortened its habit in the 1960s, the debate was not about hemlines but about what the garment had been asserting, and the plates record both positions. Elsewhere in this archive a uniform changes because a material improved. Here it changes because somebody won a disagreement.
Four chapters. The contents are public; the plates and the inventory are for subscribers.
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You are viewing a free sample. The full collection contains 1,100 images of 4 uniform subtypes and an inventory spreadsheet with metadata. Free for personal and commercial use. No attribution required. Share individual images, never the whole collection.
Up to five plates from each of the 4 chapters, in full, free to anyone. Every one is credited to the collection that holds it and links back to the record.
Clergy and ministerial
Detal ornatu Wikimedia Commons · 2326387 · 2 June 2007, 08:07:47 (according to Exif data) · Łukasz Szczurowski · CC BY-SA 4.0Tkanina brokatowa Wikimedia Commons · 2336644 · 2 June 2007, 08:02:17 (according to Exif data) · Łukasz Szczurowski · CC BY-SA 3.0Detal ornatu 3 Wikimedia Commons · 2342896 · 2 June 2007, 08:12:50 (according to Exif data) · Łukasz Szczurowski · CC BY-SA 3.0Detal ornatu 4 Wikimedia Commons · 2342903 · 2 June 2007, 08:13:11 (according to Exif data) · Łukasz Szczurowski · CC BY-SA 3.0Sacristygennep Wikimedia Commons · 2548781 · 2007-08-11 · LooiNL · CC BY-SA 3.0
Monastic and religious orders
The Habit of Boisterousness (Sawagashiki kuse), from the series "Seven Bad Habits (Nakute nana kuse)" Art Institute of Chicago · 23997 · c. 1797 · Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806 · Public DomainThe Claws of a Cat and the Dress of a Devotee - similar to Vice is often clothed in Virtue's habit, plate nine from Los Proverbios Art Institute of Chicago · 44876 · 1815/24 · Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes Spanish, 1746-1828 · Public DomainForce of Habit Art Institute of Chicago · 46003 · 1870/91 · Charles Samuel Keene British, 1823-1891 · Public DomainSeated Youth Wearing a Monk's Habit: Study for Saint Benedict Art Institute of Chicago · 6856 · 1590 · Bartolomeo Cesi Italian, 1556-1629 · Public DomainMonastic Healing Art Institute of Chicago · 82332 · n.d. · Attributed to Pietro Malombra Italian, 1556-1618 · Public Domain
Lay religious dress
Costumes religieux RELIGIOUS CLOTHING costumes habit historical christian liturgical clerical ancient Jews orders monks nuns Asian etc PD illustration French encyclopedia Larousse du XXème siècle 1932 Wikimedia Commons · 119460888 · 2014-01-05 · Etienne Mahler · CC0Heavenly Bodies Fashion and the Catholic Imagination at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Wikimedia Commons · 148280193 · 2018-07-30 11:39:50 · Pom' · CC BY-SA 2.0Religieux Costumes. French book plate lithograph Religious historical clothing habits robes Catholic Hindu Anglican Jewish Islam Buddhist Hindi etc Le Larousse Pour Tous Nouveau Dictionnaire Encyclopedique (1907-10) Nouveau Larousse illustré · 154173349 · circa 1910date QS:P,+1910-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 · Unsigned artwork; uncredited illustrator; anonymous artist. No known copyright restrictions. · CC BY 4.0Habitus praecipuorum populorum.... Allemagne. Espagne - btv1b10882389h (78 of 91) Bibliothèque nationale de France · 154576960 · 1577date QS:P571,+1577-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 · Ammann, Jost (1539-1591). Graveur · Public domainLAROUSSE - Paul de LAUBADERE (1859-1931) COSTUMES RELIGIEUX (Religious clothing historical costume robes attire habits catholic monks nuns etc) Nouveau Larousse illustré Vol 07 Paris 1898-1901 nouveaularoussei07laro 0247 Wikimedia Commons · 154774557 · 1898–1901 · Paul de Laubadère (1859 - 1931), painter, engraver, draughtsman and illustrator at Larousse · CC BY-SA 4.0
Fraternal and guild regalia
Reenactment-km1 Flickr · 1426933 · 2005-05-30 14:58:44 · karol m from arizona, USA · CC BY 2.0Franc-maçonnerie à Strasbourg-Haut grade (1) Wikimedia Commons · 17270969 · 2011-11-02 · Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 3.0Franc-maçonnerie à Strasbourg-Chasuble de Rose-Croix (1) Wikimedia Commons · 17317798 · 2011-11-10 · Ji-Elle · CC BY-SA 3.0Masonic-Ring Wikimedia Commons · 40097737 · 2015-05-07 20:05:37 · Arielinson · CC BY-SA 4.0Freemason-costume Wikimedia Commons · 40099206 · 2015-05-07 20:06:53 · Arielinson · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Hedda Maartens — MA in fashion design, then eleven years in the industry designing for people who had no say in what they wore. Now writes about prescribed dress: how a garment was made to work, and what it was made to make a person into.
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