$195- “It’s tough to get the right retail profile to fit this product,”
Father Andrew admits, but business has gradually improved to the
point where sales bring in close to $12,000 per month. Accessories
include tote bags, scarves and men’s ties. Much of the line is pro-
duced in rich natural earth tones, including a vibrant green that
comes from a rare cotton strain; but some items are made with fab-
ric hand-dyed in the Bronx in tones of indigo and black. Father
Andrew also designs clerical vestments, such as albs and chasubles,
that are made to order and sold throughout the Catholic community
“around the country and as far afield as New Zealand,” he says.
And in a special gesture to the Guatemalan people, he creates
school uniforms for poor children—shirts for boys, dresses for girls,
and satchels, which are filled with school supplies. These items of
clothing, “given to the poor out of their cloth,” he says, are “some-
thing they would not necessarily be exposed to.” A yet-to-be-re-
leased segment filmed by
c n n
shows the weavers and the presenta-
tion of the uniforms to the Guatemalan children. “In different
districts of Guatemala,” says Father Andrew, “malnutrition among
children is 80 percent.”
Father Andrew sees his role as fashion designer as a natural ex-
tension of both his childhood experience in a family of nine chil-
dren, and his inborn artistic talent. Growing up, he says, “I had
a good strong sense of an aesthetic and knowledge of structure.”
He learned “a little bit” from his mother, who sewed, and made
a couple of garments as a teenager. “I liked doing it,” he says,
“but I wouldn’t say I’m at all proficient. Mostly I’ve learned from
my sample maker [who grew up in the Dominican Republic] the
real construction of things.” Still, Father Andrew took weaving
lessons from a Danish weaver in order to learn something of the
technical aspects of the craft. In his youth, Father Andrew studied
art, philosophy, languages and literature at the University of Dal-
las, Texas, and in Rome and Ireland. He pursued a career as a paint-
er for 10 years before being ordained in 1996. Serving in a parish
on New York’s Upper West Side, he exercised his commitment
to collaboration between contemporary artists and the life of the
church with the founding of Sacredartheals, a 2000 venture that
created temporary art installations—large-scale video in liturgy,
for example—to complement the liturgical year. “Our projects,”
he says, “have been tried and tested in Catholic parishes from Paris
to Pascagoula, Mississippi, and are meant to be copied.”
The idea of applying his artistic talents to fashion came about
as a result of a Maryknoll retreat he spent with a fellow priest in>
Opposite: A hand-sewn
Haviland tee in verde
jersey, an indigo black
Nolita skirt and a lamb-
skin strapped satchel.
Satchels such as these
are filled with school
supplies and sent back
to Guatemala.
This page: Pattern mak-
er Maria Rivas works
on a Buck Mulligan
dressing gown, which
was created as part of
the Bloomsday collec-
tion celebrating James
Joyce’s
Ulysses.
Father
Andrew carefully hand-
prints a passage from
the “Telemachus” chap-
ter on the inside of
the gown.
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