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New York's fashion faithful flock to Catholic priest

New York priest has designs on fashion

By
FRIEDA KLOTZ,
Irish Central.com

Published Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 10:39 AM
Updated Thursday, December 10, 2009, 5:19 PM

 

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The Rev. Andrew O'Connor displays some of his designs. The models, from left, are Louis Fougeron, and his nieces Clare O'Connor, Maeve O'Connor and Nora O'Connor.

When Father Andrew O’Connor helped a friend’s daughter prepare for marriage earlier this year, he never imagined it would lead to a photo shoot with Vogue.

“The Catholic Church requires marriage preparation. She and her fiancé lived in New York but were getting married in Switzerland, and the mother of the bride said her daughter needed help,” he says.

It was a fateful meeting. He runs a clothes company called Goods of Conscience. And the bride-to-be, Devon Schuster, just happened to be a marketing editor of the world’s most-famous style magazine.

“The fashion line came up in conversation. She was intrigued and came to the basement. The next day they had the meeting at Vogue.”

Soon, one of Andrew’s designs – a pair of shorts made of Guatemalan fibre – had appeared in Vogue’s June edition, worn by actress Cameron Diaz. The eminent celebrity photographer Mario Testino took the picture.

The shoot occurred while Diaz was on vacation in Palm Springs, California. The photo is in black-and-white and shows the actress sitting on a wall with the desert in the background, wearing a white shirt along with light chequered shorts.

Diaz is well-known for her concern about the environment and green issues. The caption reads, “Shorts made from wild Guatemalan cotton that is naturally resistant to pests.”

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour also mentioned Goods of Conscience in her editorial.

“My personal favorite is a neat pair of checked shorts that our market editor discovered under most unusual circumstances. When she went to see a priest to gain his blessing for her upcoming marriage, he mentioned that he had a small, charitably minded fashion company: Goods of Conscience. So much for perfect fits!”

This was not the priest’s first brush with fame. He has appeared several times on ABC News’ TV show Faith Matters Now, and in 2007 he organized a multimedia mass in the Upper West side, which documentary film-makers from Britain captured on film.

Andrew is a Diocesan priest in the Church of the Holy Family in the Bronx. He is also a clothes designer and visual artist, with connections in the art and fashion worlds of New York, Paris and London.

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6 Comments

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Posted by jacersisityourself on Dec 13, 2009, 03:56 PM EST
There are people in Ireland who will tell you of leaflet drops in their letter boxes these days of ‘Charity’ appeals for old expensive clothes to be left outside the door (in a provided plastic bag) to be collected for re-distribution in poor countries. It’s a scam... the collectors (mostly East Europeans) send them to their home countries in huge container lorries to be shredded, reprocessed and sold as new clothes in these countries using the ‘designer’ labels ripped and salvaged from the originals. What would Fr. O’Conner do with East European churches’ old expensive colourful vestment clothes for today’s fashionable ‘wannabees’? To be shure to be shure, I’m shure, with the right contacts, he could secure them by the lorry-load for free...
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Posted by Watereskhill on Dec 12, 2009, 08:08 PM EST
A refreshing Article. Considering the diatribes of abusive clergy of late.Good man yourself Fr O'Connor.
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Posted by yesyesyes on Dec 11, 2009, 04:02 PM EST
great story
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Posted by vetralla on Dec 11, 2009, 03:02 PM EST
Fr. Andrew was a student of mine in Rome...sort of knew he would be a ground breaker. Good to hear about your novel ideas and enterprises. BRAVO!
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Posted by fuerte181 on Dec 10, 2009, 12:00 PM EST
Great story Jacer. Frieda, of course another masterpiece ... I love reading your stories .. you should start a blog!
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Posted by jacersisityourself on Dec 09, 2009, 03:50 PM EST
This story raised a few chuckling memories for me. Not too long ago here in Ireland, black was the fashionable colour (as a bloke, I disliked it – way too depressing, the widow’s colour!). A priest I knew was besieged by his nieces for his old frayed black priest garments, especially the frocky type. They wanted them so that they could take them to a seamstress for ‘remodelling’ of the cloth. And then they wore exquisite, newly designed black costumes on the disco dance floors... I can see how Fr. Andrew could have an eye for fashionable colours in old frayed garments that priest wear for Mass and other church ceremonies. Better than the current also-depressing purple fashion rage in Ireland and elsewhere these days... There may be some hope however – with Christmas almost upon us, red tempered with black will re-appear in abundance :-)
 


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