Journal #5

This week's most interesting reading came from Vestoj's issue On Slowness. While I was particularly interested in mended textiles like Boro, it was interesting that in this issue there are 3 inclusions of  on clothing worn for religious and contemplative purposes by the Amish,  a Catholic order and Ghandi. 

'The design of the cowl is a large cloak, with long sleeves and a hooded neck hole. It's a contemplative garment and meant to be impractical-you can't run in it for instance. It slows you down and you can't do much in the way of work as a result of the long sleeves. Because you can't move quickly, it calls forth a sort of gravitas by imposing a sense of gravity on the wearer.' (p. 27, The Contemplative Life; On Slowing Down Production by Elongating Wear by Father Michael Casey OCSO as told to Laura Gardner)

'The monk that taught me to tailor, who has since died, Brother Leonardo Xavier, had been a milliner in Paris for Christian Dior before opening a hat shop, Leonardo's, in Brisbane. Before coming to the monastry he made hats for famous women like Princess Margaret and Shirley MacLaine, who would fly over to meet him. We used to joke that the only reason he entered the monastry was because women stopped wearing hats!' (p. 27, The Contemplative Life; On Slowing Down Production by Elongating Wear by Father Michael Casey OCSO as told to Laura Gardner)
 

Perhaps in a freudian slip, I am reverting to monastic themes--slownes, contemplation--due to my surname; Monasterios, whose origins might have been related to a Monastery. Or at least it is funny to speculate. Stranger things have happened.