Clothes cross line between faith and fashions
By FIONA MacGREGOR MENTION Christian to most fashion devotees and they would automatically think of the design guru whose surname is Lacroix.
But a new range of clothes being launched in Edinburgh this week is hoping to encourage Scottish Christians to swap their designer logos for religious ones.
Cross-covered boxer shorts, holy socks decorated with religious icons and "the worlds first genuine Bible Belt" are among the items to be showcased at an exhibition dubbed the Ideal Church Show.
The collection will also include baseball caps emblazoned with excerpts from the scriptures, "burning bush" ties and t-shirts with specially adapted logos.
The organisers of the seventh Scottish Christian Resources Exhibition have assembled the collection from a range of international outlets, with many coming from the United States. A number have never been on sale in the UK before.
Among the American items in the collection are the ultimate Jesus sandals, which are flip-flops with the words "Jesus loves you" moulded in reverse on to the soles so that the wearer can leave an imprint when they walk on the beach.
The genuine Bible Belt also comes from the US - a leather belt with bible-shaped buckle that is sold with the slogan "Shout Hallelujah and hold your pants up at the very same time".
UK based Inyerfaith, an online Christian t-shirt company, have produced a range of t-shirts featuring well-known logos which have been adapted to suit a Christian message. One converts the Nike swoosh into the Christian fish symbol and alters the slogan "Nike - just do it" to read "Nice - just be it". Another uses the logo of heavy metal band AC-DC and changes it to "JC DC, Jesus Christ Demon Crusher".
Mike Stevens, managing director of Inyerfaith, said Christian clothing is big business: "We sell about 100,000 Christian t-shirts a year. In fact, we are looking to expand our online business."
Margaret Wyllie, owner of Holy Socks, a company which produces socks with bible scenes, also said Christian fashion is a growing market.
"Our bestseller is the Daniel and the Lions socks. I think part of our attraction is the name, Holy Socks makes people laugh. There are also many references in the bible to walking, so the socks are a combination of something fun, but also the walk through life," she said.
During the 1980s rosaries and crucifixes were popularised as fashion items by pop icon Madonna and the cross made a return to the catwalks this season on models for the Gucci fashion house.
However, Alison Jameson, an Edinburgh-based fashion PR consultant, said: "The cross is the big fashion accessory of the season. Gucci have a black cross and there is a huge waiting list for that."
But she added that some people associate Christianity with fashion faux pas such as "Jesus sandals" worn with socks, so Christian clothing was due an image revamp.
"Logo t-shirts are really, really popular and they may sell well from that point of view, but this is a bit of fun and I am not sure if followers of high fashion are going to swap their Gucci for it yet."
The Christian clothes will be on sale at the exhibition and then through the internet via www.shipoffools.com which links customers to each designer.
Exhibition organiser Steven Goddard said he thought the clothes would prove popular with visitors to the show and that there would be a demand for modern Christian clothing.
The Christian leisurewear range can be viewed at the Christian Resources Exhibition which is taking place at the Royal Highland Show Centre at Ingliston from Thursday to Saturday this week.
Admission to the event is free.
Good....god....time to whip out my WAIT ON JEHOVER armband and legband! In fact, maybe the people of JWD should start a brand new fashion line, called DUB STYLEZZZZ, or something, that would let us express the true hypocrisy of Dubbism in all it's "glory". We could have really cool shirts, with logos like "AIR BATHS ARE GOOD FOR YOU", "COLOURED PEOPLE ARE WELL DISPOSED TO BE SERVANTS", "WOMAN ARE LIKE COWS IN HEAT", and the best of all, "WAIT ON JEHOVER, HE'LL BRING IT OUT".
