Common Threads

March 10, 2014
The history of clothing in a Catholic context is fascinatingâor at least it is from the hands of Dwyer-McNulty. In this fairly dense overview of Catholic attire during the 1800s through to the mid-1900s, divided into sections about priests, nuns, and schoolchildren, historian Dwyer-McNulty shows how clothing, both clerical and lay, has been so many things to American Catholicsâa form of rebellion, a manner of disguise, a way of asserting one's identity or reminding oneself of it to ward off temptation. She writes playfully of priests who go on "vacation" by dressing like the laity at a bar; battles over gender and sex and what women put on their bodies; nuns' sometimes humorous failure at secular dress to avoid harassment in the 1800s; and the advent of "ready-to-wear" clothing that changes the look of Catholic schoolchildren, especially girls, during the 20th century. More than a few former Catholic schoolgirls will surely nod their heads when reading Dwyer-McNulty's assessment that "ust like the religious habits and clericals, uniforms would be material aids to control the students." Unfortunately, Dwyer-McNulty devotes only a short epilogue to the post 1970s, and readers may wish she gave more time to the contemporary era and less to the 1800s.