(문화) 패션의 열성적 추종자

출처: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32625662

8 May 2015

Devoted followers of fashion 패션의 열성적 추종자

By Max ParadisoVicenza

Every two years, in the little Italian town of Vicenza, merchants gather for the biggest religious fair in the world. Vestment producers, sculptors and rosary sellers satisfy a growing demand for religious articles, from Pope Francis fridge magnets to devotional candles, a business that generates billions in Italy alone. 매 2년마다 이태리의 작은 도시 비센자에는 전세계에서 상인들이 몰려드는 최대의 종교물품 시장이 들어선다. 제의 제작자들, 조각가들, 로사리오 판매자들은 프란시스 교황 형상의 냉장고 자석부터 전례용 초들까지 종교물품들에 대한 커다란 요구와 이태리에서만 수조원을 낳는 비지니스를 만족시키고 있다. 

It's 08:30 in the morning and muscular workers are unloading trucks full of boxes marked "Fragile", clothes wrapped in tissue paper with "New collection, 2015" written on the hangers are being carried into the exhibition centre, and young women in miniskirts and stilettos are rushing around getting things organised. 오전 8시반이면 근육질의 남성 근로자들이 "파손주의(Fragile)"가 써붙인 박스가 가득 한 트럭에서 짐을 내리고 있고, 옷걸이에 인쇄된 "뉴 콜렉션, 2015(New Collection, 2015)"이라 써있는 티슈페이퍼에 포장된 의류들이 전시장으로 이송되고 있고, 미니스커트를 입고 킬힐을 신은 아가씨들이 준비를 하느라 부산을 떤다.

But when church bells chime the hour and the doors open, we enter what some might take to be a priest's version of Heaven, filled with life-size statues of Mary, every possible type of holy water sprinklers and the very latest collection of cassocks and tunics. 성당의 종이 시간을 알리자 문이 열리자, 우리는 천상의 사제 버전이라 부르는 곳으로 들어간다. 이곳에는 실물 사이즈의 마리아像, 여러 형태의 성수 뿌리는 물건들, 최신의 수단(밝은하늘註: 사제가 겉에 입는 로만카라가 달린 원피스)과 제의(밝은하늘註: 사제가 미사를 집전하기 위해 수단 위에 걸치는 아래 삽화와 같이 도포형태의 형형색색의 겉옷)가 진열되어 있다.

Once every two years Catholic clergy from the four corners of the world come to Vicenza to buy church supplies, learn how to enhance their liturgy or just to renew their wardrobe.

Father Pasquale has travelled 13 hours by train from his parish in Calabria to check the new trends in sacred merchandise. With a little pad and a camera, he roams around the 15,000 sq m of the fair, furiously taking pictures. He doesn't have much time - he has to catch the train home in a few hours to report back to local chaplains.

"I wouldn't miss this fair for anything in the world," he says. "It's a bit of a hassle, that's for sure, as I spend more time on a train than anything else, but it's important for us - humble priests in southern Italy - to see how the Catholic church develops, what's new in terms of technology that would make our lives easier and to check what priests from big cities wear and how they perform the liturgy."

Other parishes in Calabria chipped in to cover his travel expenses, and he tries to get the best deals.

Father Pasquale suddenly stops and wonders in front of a stand that displays light blue vestments embossed in silk velvet and gold laminated prints, his eyes filled with amazement and joy. He reaches to feel the fabric with his fingertips and hums with delight. "You have Armani, Gucci or Prada," he says. "This is our version of haute couture."

The stand belongs to the Bianchetti family, Italy's leading supplier of ecclesiastical clothing - its clothes, the joke goes, are prete-a-porter, a pun on the Italian for "priest" and the French for "ready to wear". The head of the company, Elisabetta Bianchetti, personally designs and produces each and every vestment in the collection.

"Through the years we have manufactured pieces of clothing for three Popes: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis," she says. Meanwhile, her daughter talks Father Pasquale through the 2015 collection, which was apparently inspired by 1960s fashions. "We are always in search of new inspirations that will drive sacred fashion forward," she says.

Ecclesiastical clothing in Italy is a £18m ($27.4m) annual business, but Bianchetti's vestments do not suit every budget with prices for a tunic ranging from £400 to £1,300 ($600 to $2,000). The Bianchettis say they clothe "top clergymen from around the world", who want the best - a combination of tradition and "original Italian fashion".

During his tour, Father Pasquale stops a couple of times at a stand that sells devotional candles. "They look like normal candles from afar and they are made of wax but, to my surprise, they are powered by electricity," he says. The producer, Danilo De Gaspari, came up with this idea for his parish near Milan a couple of years ago and now he's exporting his product around the world, to countries such as India and Brazil.

"Churches across Italy are pretty old and fire represents a serious hazard for worshippers. What we came up with is a wax candle with an LED inside. When you insert the coin in the machine, the LED lights up and a little magnet makes the plastic flame-shaped component on top of it wiggle. Parishes save money and they eliminate the risk of fire."

Father Pasquale is impressed but not entirely convinced. "I like the act of lighting a candle myself to be really honest," he says.

Others, from India and the US, are placing orders. "We can set the candles' timer to 20 seconds so the parish in my home town can make a little money out of it and we can finally afford to renovate the house of worship," says Labham Sogani, a trader visiting from Delhi.

The overall religious goods business in Italy is estimated to be worth something like £3.4bn ($5.2bn) - more than the country earns from exporting wine. And a year-long "extraordinary jubilee" called by Pope Francis, which is due to start in December, provides opportunities for growth.

As I talk to religious merchandise businessman Rocco Ascione, we are frequently interrupted by the ringing of his mobile phone. "They constantly call me from various shops in Rome, they place orders every waking hour because they're afraid to run out of Pope fridge magnets or pens with the image of the Holy Mary when the chaos begins," he says.

The Vatican will be visited by millions of pilgrims during the jubilee year and like any businessman, Ascione wants to capitalise on this opportunity. "Worshippers would spend any amount of money for a Jubilee souvenir," he says. "It's a business like any other, but this is more special: this is blessed by God."

Photographs by Andrea Pasquali