exist in almost all religions, but here we will look es-
pecially at Catholicism’s relation to Liberation The-
ology. I will examine this relation to give some idea
of how an emancipatory or “heretic” fashion prac-
tice could work, especially concerning low-level or-
ganization amongst believers.
It is however important to set an initial perspective
on this parallel between fashion and religion. While it
could be tempting to draw strict correlations between
fashion and Catholicism as two belief-systems consti-
tuting the same logics and meanings this is not what
I am after here. They surely inhabit similar character-
istics on many levels, yet what I draw on here is the
similarity in ritualistic form and organization, not
meaning, if we allow these two concepts to be separa-
ble. What I examine is the use of ritual, practice and
belief in the social struggle pronounced by the Lib-
eration Theology, not its exegetical grounding.
When examining religion there is usually a distinc-
tion between theology and religious studies. While
San Precario is the patron saint of precarious workers engaged
in hard labour without predictability or security. He is the is
the protector of the struggle against precarity and the saint of
the EuroMayDay march. The saint is a Nom de Plume, or a
multiple-user name, and free for anyone to use as pseudonym for
the cause.
theology attempts to understand the discussions of
religion from within a particular religious tradition,
religious studies try to study religious behaviour and
belief from outside a particular religious viewpoint.
To be a bit disrespectful; theology is done by believ-
ers, religious studies by non-believers. The reason I
put emphasis on this distinction is to highlight that
Liberation Theology is something happening inside
Catholicism, by its believers, and is not an interpre-
tation spread by rivalling schools of belief. Likewise
Liberation Theology tries to stay within Catholicism,
it does not want to break the Church apart to be-
come an independent church. Quite similarly I find
it important that a discussion on fashion as empow-
erment is made by ”believers” of fashion, by and for
design and fashion practice, rather than by ”laicists”
or ”atheists” of fashion. From a perspective of design
fashion has to be treated as a “true faith” ad it has to
have its own “theology of fashion” rather then be de-
bunked by other theories. This perspective under-
lines the need to connect a heretical practice within