The Italy-based atelier Sacra Domus Aurea has established a reputation for itself in the creation of beautifully embroidered designs in contemporary vestment work; designs heavily rooted in the Italian tradition in particular, as well as the French and, more recently, gothic. Recently they've had a few such offerings come out in quick succession that caught my attention in terms of the beauty of their design and quality of the materials and execution and I wanted to take a moment to feature them here.
The first such design is an offering (which they currently offer in green, red and white -- and, hopefully, one day, we'll also see it in a Roman purple variant) that is rooted in a nineteenth century Italian style. The offering includes, in some instances, embroideries in two tones of gold (i.e. a yellow-gold and a silvery white-gold) and in other instances, a singular, yellow-gold. I point this out for two reasons: The first is that it emphasizes the bespoke nature of these designs insofar as variations like this are possible; the second reason is to point out how this seemingly subtle sort of difference can noticeably change the look and feel of the embroidered design. (A point worth highlighting for those thinking about commissioning such works.)
Most recently this atelier came out with this beautiful emerald green version:
Here too, for the record, are the red and white versions of this design -- it is the red chasuble which showcases the use of a singular, yellow-gold embroidery.
Suffice it to say, it's a beautiful and noble design, one that could as easily be found deep in the drawers of the ancient sacristies of Europe as they could one's own, much newer sacristy.
If, however, the Italian 'pianeta' (for those not familiar, this is the term Italians use to specify a "Roman" shaped chasuble) is not your own particular preference, this atelier also recently came out with a beautiful and striking gothic design, which they call their Rosa Mystica design. This particular design follows an utterly classic, 'Comperian' or "Bodleian" approach to gothic revival. This is found not only in the beautiful embroideries which include Marian monograms, fleur-de-lys and Tudor roses, but also a beautiful, custom polychrome fringes that grace the shield and hem of the cope:
This sort of approach to gothic is really quite refreshing insofar as it draws on some of the strengths of gothic revival vestment work in the tradition of early revivalists like Comper, Bodley and Pugin. In many regards, it combines some of the characteristically beautiful design elements we tend to associate with the Renaissance and Baroque traditions, merged with the symbol-heavy and colourful medieval tradition. This is the sort of gothic revival work that can proudly stand beside any of its seventeenth and eighteenth century cousins.
There are of course plenty of other designs that are of interest as well, but these were two recent outputs that caught my attention and I suspect they might capture yours as well.
We are fortunate to live in a time when more and more bespoke ateliers are branching out, moving past the catalogues and reaching back into the historical design tradition for their inspiration.
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