A non-musical question, but I think folks here might be able to help.
My daughter is in the 8th grade and her class is looking for ideas for a class gift to the Parish. I thought about a nice set of vestments for the Church. Our Parish has some….well I will l be nice and say "standard" gothic vestments, but I thought it might be nice for the class to gift a "fine" set (likely just a chasuble, dalmatics and a few stoles since all other items (i.e. maniples, chalice veil, burse) would all go unused at the parish. It would be a reminder that they would see after they left the grade school, and better than planting a tree or something that will be quickly forgotten.
So I need help finding a source/info for finer vestments I have looked at some of the sites on the NLM site but they seem to be mostly for Usus Antiquior Masses and we are a long way from that at our parish.
The difference between EF and OF vestments is that the OF's are fewer, not different. There is nothing stopping a priest from wearing a Baroque Fiddle-back at an OF Vernacular Mass (you know, except good taste), nor anything preventing the wearing of a plain gothic chasuble at an EF (except, you know, fussbudgety traddies).
If you want a nice OF set, as Adam said, the only difference is not even the lack of vestments, but simply that they are optional. Many priests, including my bishop, wears nearly identical vestments for both the EF and OF, including maniple, burse, veil, etc...just look for nice sets, regardless of form.
I understand that there is really no difference in vestments between EF and OF (except I thought the maniple was required for EF and not for OF). I completely agree with Adam about the fiddleback, I think that alone would get peoples attention at our parish. My concern is that these all seemed to be packaged as 'kit' and the class would be paying for some items that would never be used. I guess you could say I am looking for "Ad Hoc" vestments.
hrm... you haven't done as much vestment fantasizing research as I have... hopefully someone who actually knows what they are talking about will intervene- but, in the meantime- I'll try to post some links that I've drooled over looked into in the past
Try Almy's. They make some nice vestments (almy.com). The Holy Rood Guild isn't too bad, and is made by the Trappists at Spencer, but they are really expensive.
The vestments from the "House of Ephesus" of the Benedictines of Mary Queen of the Apostles are reasonably priced at a range of price points. The work I've seen in person (a set of vimpae) from them was lovely and most of the designs are good. They also sell pieces separately, not as sets, so if you don't need a maniple/burse/chalice veil, you won't pay for them. However, you should buy one anyways, as you won't save that much money and you won't be able to easily get a matching ones later.
Of course, all these good things mean that they are now taking orders for delivery in September 2015!
I always liked things I have seen from the Holy Rood Guild, if you can get past the fairly high prices and the top contender for World's Creepiest Stare on the front page.
I grew up about 45 minutes from the abbey that makes these. The showroom is amazing.
Holy Rood Guild. I loved the vestments at St Paul's Cathedral in Worcester (diocese where Spencer is located.) IIRC, the Shrine in DC has their vestments as well. Very elegant.
I have an old catalog from them ODT (on dead trees), and most of the vestment-wearing "models" in it are actual monks; but I suspect that that one isn't.
My homeschool group has ordered chausables from them for our chaplain, and while some of the cheap ones are simple, they are actually a decent quality. What you see is what you get. The ones with nice embroidery are quite nice.
I always liked things I have seen from the Holy Rood Guild, if you can get past the fairly high prices and the top contender for World's Creepiest Stare on the front page.
Vestment catalog photos always crack me up. Where would an actual priest who looks like an Olympic athlete wear a purple chasuble and stand there reading a choir octavo?
Or stand in orans position, smiling broadly ("I always grin through the Eucharistic Prayer!").
There's a movie from back when I was a kid called Field of Dreams. If the 8th grade class buys the set of vestments, it can be used. If it doesn't, the "un-necessary" vestments can't be used.
In your shoes, I would buy the set of vestments, including maniple. Doing otherwise reinforces what His Holiness called a hermeneutic of rupture, and encourages everyone ("traddies" as well as "progressives") to think of a priest's vestments as ugly by design.
I had a very good experience with GASPARD recently. I bought fabric for vestments (chasuble) , and bought several cassocks and surplices (for altar servers) and their products are very nice quality, beautiful fabric and excellent sewing. Their customer services is extremely helpful too.
Might I suggest a rose set? That would pretty much guarantee that they would never be carelessly used by someone with no liturgical sense, they would be striking, and chances are very good that the parish doesn't have them. Another possibility is a cope and humeral veil if the parish does Benediction.
OT, at the just finished Colloquium, gothics were used for the EFs, at least sometimes, weren't they?
Yes, gothics were used for the EF. Actually, if I recall, gothics were all that was used all week for both forms (except that pesky dalmatic at the first Mass... definitely not gothic)
As long it's neither a fiddleback (heavily embroidered scapular) or one of those tablecloth-with-a-hole-in-the-middle-and-roll-collar-sewn-on chasubles, anything decent, of seemly material, and the right liturgical colour, should suffice. As long as no overly-lacy or worse yet, roll-collar albs, and no giant stoles. Yes, I'm the one trad who isn't a fiddleback fan. My personal aesthetic preference is medieval English, not baroque Roman, but that doesn't really matter.
Choose carefully from Holy Rood. 100% polyester knit ("Worcester Knit") is not a great looking or feeling fabric (and you better have good air conditioning in your Church!)
I'm normally morally opposed to synthetic fabrics, but I actually think that the "Worcester Knit" looks OK. It's not your typical double-knit. But you're right, it's on the heavy side. You can tell that the monks live in Massachusetts and not Maryland.
There are a number of vendors that I had not heard of before displaying vestments at the npm convention this week. You might check the list of exhibitors.
Just don't be taken in by fast-talking vestment sellers. Some idiot salesman tried to sell us a 'made to order' white Vestment set for Christmas: white damask with black and gold orphreys. Anyone else notice a problem?
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