The Clergy Couture
Practical guides to vestments, liturgical colours, clergy shirts, stoles, habits and their care, written for priests, pastors, deacons and sacristans.
Who the Carthusians are, how they live as hermits in community, and what they wear: the white habit, the banded cowl of the professed monk and the black mantle of the novice.
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White is the colour and gold stands in for it. What the four Masses of Christmas ask for, the two red days inside the...
A field guide to the habit: the tunic, scapular, cowl and cincture, the colours worn by each order and why, who may wear one,...
Advent begins 29 November 2026, Easter is 28 March 2027 and the lectionary moves to Year B. Every major feast and season with its...
A cassock takes five figures: centre-back neck to hem, chest, waist, neck and sleeve. An alb needs three, a surplice fewer still. Here are...
How the chalice is vested, when the veil comes off, what GIRM 118 actually says, the colour rule, sizes and construction, and how to...
Chasuble shape decides how much cloth you need, how the garment drapes, how freely you can move at the altar and what it costs....
White for baptism almost everywhere, red or white for confirmation, and the colour of the day when either falls inside Mass: what the minister...
Two church bodies, largely the same garments, and three real differences: who publishes guidance, whether the chasuble is assumed or optional, and who is...
Roman practice permits violet, white or black at a funeral, and black was never abolished. What each tradition publishes, what a family can reasonably...
Clergy Appreciation Day is Sunday 11 October 2026. Short and long messages for a pastor or priest, Scripture for the card, certificate and presentation...
The three ways vestment embroidery is made, why the price gap exists, and seven checks that tell you from a product photo whether a...
Rolling, folding and tissue in the folds; which cloths recover from a suitcase and which never do; a minimum kit for supply and chaplaincy...
The deacon's outer vestment at Mass: what it is, when GIRM 338 lets it be omitted, how it differs from a chasuble and a...
Damask is figured with one warp and one weft, so it is reversible. Brocade carries extra weft threads that sit proud of the face....
Why priests wear green in Ordinary Time, the exact green weeks of 2027, which feasts interrupt them, and why the green chasuble and stole...
Four causes, four different fixes. A diagnostic table matching where the collar rubs to why, plus neck measuring, collar height, filing a rough edge,...
Chi-Rho, IHS, Alpha and Omega, dove and flames, wheat and grapes, Jerusalem cross: where each stole symbol comes from, and which colour and season...
The tippet is a black scarf of office worn at the Offices and never changes colour. The stole is a sign of order in...
Clergy Appreciation Day is Sunday 11 October 2026. What to give a priest, pastor or minister that fits their tradition and their measurements, what...
A deacon vests in alb, stole over the left shoulder and dalmatic, never a chasuble. Outside liturgy the collar question splits by tradition, and...
Rose vestments are worn on Gaudete and Laetare Sundays, and on both they are permitted rather than required. The colour is a violet lightened...
Double the cord, make the loop, pass the tassels through and let it slip tight; then two side loops for the stole. The one...
Right for warm weather, outdoors, the hospital and under the alb; wrong under a jacket and at anything formal. The cloths that breathe, the...
Iron settings by fibre, why a pleated surplice wants steam rather than a soleplate, how to handle knife and cartridge pleats and lace, and...
