The clergy shirt-dress

Within the simplicity of this liturgical piece, one might think that it resonates with the simplicity of a fading fashion, but it is also the heart of its rebirth. This is the materialization of Mies van der Rohe's motto "Less is more", at the beginning of the 20th century when minimalism was at its highest point. 
Monastic minimalism, pure fabrics and structured cuts were a new trend, and the champions of modern aesthetics from the Bauhaus to contemporary art often adopted a monochrome garment with pure lines. When elegance is bare, style becomes permanent. 

Many luxury houses have been rejecting all artifice, making a conscious choice for a modernity that is synonymous with refusal, and always avant-garde, even for 100 years. Already Jeanne Lanvin or Valentina Schlee, then the Antwerp creation (Martin Margiela included), renowned for its monastic style, but also and above all Comme des garçons of the pioneer Rei Kawakubo, or Raf Simons, Calvin Klein among others, are part of an inheritance of purity, inspired by the plastic artists, architects adept of this graphic fabric and design.

Monastic fashion owes a major debt to the avant-garde culture of the 1920s and 1930s, which simplified, cleaned up and sought new inspiration in the efficiency of geometry. The sixties found in the monastic form the basis for a futuristic fantasy close to contemporary art.

Religious simplicity inspires stylistic purification, and this little liturgical shirt-dress becomes an inexhaustible source of forms and interpretations for lovers of style. As always, deTOUJOURS displays this garment in its original shape.

This surplice, from the Latin superpelliceum, is genuine and comes directly from the Roman shop of the pope's tailor, who follows to the strict letter a permanent pattern common to all altar boys since the 11th century. Its wide sleeves and shorter shape differentiate it from the alb. It is sometimes ornamented with delicate embroidery on the sleeves.

At deTOUJOURS, we go back to the source to offer you the epitome of this style, both in the ancestral fit and in the quality of the material chosen to last.

Elegant Italian women have been sharing the secret of this liturgical address for a long time now: from mother to daughter, they have been buying the best shirts and blouses with a perfect fit in this old shop, to play with the codes. When the lines are straight and the colours are not, it is the skin, the hair and the eyes that are highlighted.

Originally worn over a tunic, this little shirt-dress is a "surplice", a kind of shortened alb, traditionally falling to the knees. Prior to the liturgical reforms of the 1960s, the surplice was the common choir garment for almost all clergy, except for prelates and bishops. Historically, the surplice was made of linen for priests and clergy, and cotton for cantors, sacristans and altar boys. The exceptional quality of the cotton is definitely enhanced by this simplistic cut. 

Worn in short size, then as a shirt, with the waist belted or not, or in longer size worn as a romantic dress, its shape, the richness of its folds echo a distant time when the care taken in the creation of this garment arrives to us perfectly restored in the 21st century like a precious gem.