The Minihabit

Exposure having just about reached its limits, designers these days are hard put to find new ways to shock and titillate. Not Chicago's Walter Holmes, who has seized on the classic notion that nothing is more arousing than violation of what is most sacred. Thus he has turned out a pair of dresses that are outraging some people (especially the devout) while delighting others. The designs, now being sold through the Paraphernalia boutique chain: a miniskirted version of a nun's habit and an equally abbreviated copy of a belted monk's robe, both with hoods that can be removed to reveal scooped necklines.

"After all the nudity and everything else, I felt strongly about the complete opposite--propriety and prudence," slyly insists the 34-year-old designer, who likes to point out that he has belonged to the Church of England since his London boyhood. Though Chicago Daily News Columnist Virginia Kay awarded him "the Shockingly Bad Taste Award of the Year, Decade and Century," teenagers across the country latched onto the dresses by the rackful. Commented Monsignor Joseph T.V. Snee, who oversees all 8,000 Catholic nuns in the Archdiocese of New York: "If the women of our times have now decided to imitate the religious garb of our sisters, I sure wish they would also try to imitate their habits--especially those of modesty, purity and chastity."

Holmes is now designing a mini cardinal's dress, complete with silk sash and flat-brimmed pontifical hat.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.