Saturday, June 30, 2012

I Live On A Catholic Block

So like most gals these days (I’m talking about the rookie mag readers and the fashiony gothy teen tumblrers) I find comfort in religious iconography even though I’m nowhere near a practicing Catholic.  If something at a tag sale/vintage shop/99 cent store has a cross or a Virgin Mary on it I just gotta have it.  I got the ratty plastic rosaries like Cat Marnell, Precious Moments Easter stickers, and kitchy homeware stuff that Spanish church ladies probably owned before me.  I still have my communion dress and try it on from time to time because I’m a weirdo like that and imagine that it kind of looks like an Anna Sui mini and if a fashun collection ever repurposes anything resembling nun/shrinery garb I feel the urge to drag all of it onto my desktop.

It makes sense because I’m from the Bronx where even tough guys with fitteds have giant glittering crosses on their necks and are all tatted up with weeping virgins and rosary beads around their biceps.  It's a place where religion and hedonism are as simultaneously trendy as they are in kool manhattan clubs.  It's a wonderland of botanicas and ugly religious lawn statues.  Everyone goes to Catholic school because the public schools suck and whether you're Irish, Italian, or Spanish you have a little grandma who has a little room with a bunch of little saintly trinkets and palm from Palm Sunday five years ago.

Anyway that's why when I saw this skirt on etsy I was gagging.  It looks like something a pope in drag would wear or a tablecloth at a church dance/an old wedding veil/aka everything that I'm about.  It's all ripped up too so it makes me feel like a ghostly bride.       


Mattie's sunglasses, vintage top and skirt from etsy, vintage chain purse from Beacon's Closet

















      These are some pictures I've taken in my hood in the past year for some Catholic vibes.














10 comments:

  1. religious iconography is the greatest, it's so beautiful. Your outfit is super dreamy btw, especially the skirt. Not to be a creeper but whereabouts in the bronx are you? My entire family lives in Woodlawn!

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  2. How awesome! I grew up in the Pelham Bay-ish part. I've never actually been to Woodlawn, I've always wanted to check out the cemetery over there!

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  3. I love your outfit! the skirt and sunglasses are amazing, I want them. all of this is gorgeous. I love religious iconography as well, even though I'm an atheist. your blog is so dreamy.

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  4. That skirt is amazing!! What a find. It is beautiful, want one of my own :D
    xxx

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  5. This post is so relevant to my interests right now. I just went to a catholic cemetery and took a bunch of pictures of all the crosses and flowers and virgin Mary statues. I'm lusting after the jesus candles in the hispanic isle at cub foods and tacky religious figurines at the dollar store. Your outfit is PERFECT and the photos are all beautiful!

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  6. You should submit those pictures to Rookie!

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  7. I think that religious iconography is just so beautiful, and creepy at the same time it's just basically perfect in every single way. As is your skirt! It looks totally witch-y and verrrry ghost-bride.

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  8. That skirt is so very pretty... I love it... its so lacy and cool... Your whole outfit is pretty cool!! Also your neighborhood looks sorta awesome... as in the best place to take rookie-esque pictures!!

    theflowered.blogspot.com

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  9. Thanks for all the encouragement girls! I submitted them to Rookie...let's see what happens!

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  10. these photos are beaut! you look fantastic as per. and i feel ya, i'm a burst-into-flame atheist and i still love saint icons and christ-childs and st christophers. there's a virgin mary icon in a car park near me which i LOVE. sacrelicious. xx

    p.s. enjoying the cat marnell shout out, i am so fascinated with her and her junkie White Chicks thing!

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