Schori on show

"I know some may think it unfair to remark on the lady's outfit. On the other hand, it is a very prominent and obviously posed photo in the New York Times Magazine [not the one shown at left]. The photo falls into the category of what sociologist Erving Goffman calls 'the presentation of self.' She is making a statement, and it would be churlish of us not to take notice. In the photo, the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, is wearing an open clerical collar and the bright magenta shirt fancied by bishops of that persasion. Her black suit jacket is combined, as it were, with a baggy peir of striped pants. She is looking directly at the camera with an expression that says, 'So, you got a problem with this?' Add a mustache and cane and it would be Charlie Chaplin in a movie that might be called Postmodern Times. Please, I'm just taking notice...."

[Hat tip to Richard John Neuhaus, for that due observation in "While We're At It," First Things (February 2007), pp. 60-61).]

And now for a word from our fashion critic . . .

[Courtesy of the suggestion of our high society & haute couture consultant, Mr. R. Roister-Doister]