French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac – former artistic director of Benetton until 2022 – designed the vestments and liturgical ornaments that bishops, priests, deacons and canons will wear for the celebration of masses and offices during the reopening of Notre-Dame Dame de Paris scheduled for December 7 and 8.
“We wanted simplicity, humility, a universal language. This was done in concert with Monsignor Ribadeau Dumas and Father Guillaume Normand and those who accompanied me on this beautiful project. Which moves me and fills my heart of joy is that it's not just for the reopening, it's sustainable. I've just created all the festive clothing for Notre-Dame in the future. notes the artist.
After these ceremonies which will extend until Pentecost 2025, this cloakroom will be used during major celebrations – Christmas, Easter, All Saints' Day… – and ordinations of priests.
“This paramentique carries the history of Notre-Dame and all its solemn, epic, reckless and courageous dimension. It is a message to say to the younger generations, do not be afraid, let's try to have a lot of hope through this rebirth of Notre-Dame” he adds again during an interview with Franceinfo Culture, November 27, 2024.
Known, among other things, for his drawings of angels with sweet faces, the stylist joined, in 2024, the Notre-Dame workshop in charge of the redevelopment of the cathedral ravaged by a fire on April 15, 2019. Created by houses of French crafts and offered by patronage, the vestments of the archbishop, priests and deacons are hemmed with braid in primary colors. These copes, bolsters, stoles, chasubles and dalmatics were created thanks to the know-how of the 19M art houses: Lesage, Goossens, Paloma, Atelier Montex and Maison Michel,
“I was lucky enough to be able to work with the equivalent of journeymen, but in the arts and crafts with this remarkable 19M! Florence Dennetière, who directs it, opened the doors of the workshops to me.” This restoration required the convergence of different talents: “TAll these trades entered the service of Notre-Dame, alongside the stonecutters and those who make stained glass windows to be part of the march of time. It was moving to see all these multi-faith people working together. A long chain of the intelligence of the hand, of generosity, of spirit and of artists who contributed to bringing it to life” underlines the creator.
In fact, 250 companies and hundreds of craftsmen took part in this titanic restoration project. For Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, rector-archpriest of Notre-Dame, the liturgical cloakroom created meets the specifications in every respect: “the noble simplicity matches the beauty and sobriety of the cathedral” . For the stylist, it was important “to speak to the younger generations, to speak of Notre-Dame in history, of its secular dimension of crystallization and spirituality in the future”.
Liturgical vestments and ornaments, created on the occasion of the celebrations of the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, “veulent honor the noble simplicity of the liturgy, the solemnity of the place and the moment as well as the momentum of contemporary creation”.
-During Mass, bishops and priests wear a stole, a wide band of fabric worn around the neck going down the body and on top, a chasuble, a large mantle covering the body. The deacons wear a stole from the left shoulder to the right hip as well as a dalmatic, a long tunic with sleeves. For other celebrations, we use the cope which has the shape of a large cape.
White in color, these vestments are used for festive liturgical celebrations (Christmas, Easter, All Saints' Day, the feasts of the Virgin Mary for example). Marc Couturier's golden cross, the brilliance of the colored light from the stained glass windows and the radiance are the three elements structuring the set of chasubles prepared for this reopening.
Between fashion, design and art, the avant-garde multidisciplinary work of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is marked in particular by heraldry, the science of the coat of arms, and pop art around primary colors (blue, yellow, red). Of the colors that he has always loved, since his pension when he went to mass every day: “It was my comfort blanket, my transitional object. These colors have accompanied me all my life. But they are also the colors of the liturgical season: the red of the blood of Christ, the green of hope, the blue symbolizes the water as well as yellow and gold for the power and glory of Christ It is a universal language. I am only a revealer, a link between the Church and millions of people who will be there. ” he specifies.
For this third chapter with the church, the stylist reinvented the officiants' capes, chasubles, stoles and dalmatics with colors: “In 1987, it was with Anish Kapoor and Garouste for the sacred art committee for the celebration of mass in prisons. It was my first meeting and my first emotion. An incredible experience. In any case, it is always linked to this dimension of sacred art” explains Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. In 1997, he designed the rainbow liturgical wardrobe worn by Pope John Paul II, bishops and priests at World Youth Day.
A different order from the previous two since it resembles, for him, an accomplishment: “It is the call of a great lady, who suffered a lot. When I was a young provincial at the age of 17, Notre-Dame was a spiritual refuge. I found inspiration for my style since there was a shirt from Saint-Louis, which is still in the Treasury, which became a bit of my totem. It is also the place where later, I thought that I had closed a loop when Pope John. -Paul II gave his chasuble to the Treasury of Our Lady and upon his death, she became a relic when he became a Saint.”
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac let himself be guided by the theme of light and radiance. The symbols he uses express the vitality and dynamism of the Gospel. On the chasuble created for the archbishop, the golden cross concentrates colorful bursts. The positioning of the shards suggests the focus of a movement which tends to spread. “My first creative gesture was this golden cross with its sparkles, its radiance of colors. I wanted it to be contemporary and a symbol of hope to speak of the joy of living together to communities around the world. Notre-Dame is a universal place” he emphasizes.
The creator wanted something solemn and very simple but “with contemporary techniques. I told the embroiderers that I wanted to implement on this epic, almost chivalrous structure, techniques that I have known for a very long time since they are those that come from the world of sportswear. Immemorial techniques – such as hammered sequin embroidery – meet with flocking and quilting to bring modernity. he specifies.
Among these pieces, he admits that he prefers of all “the Chrism. This symbol, which represents Christ, was used from the 3rd century BC and despite these 17 centuries of age, it seemed to me of incomparable modernity. It looks like a small star, with like a sword in the center at the convergence of an rebirth to symbols which were no longer used so much” underlines the creator before concluding “Now we have to wait for the day of convergence. It’s my biggest emotion.”
