Fashion: From fig leaves to garments of skin — a journey into the birth of bodily and sartorial awareness

Source: The first temptation and the clothing born of awareness

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. She took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

The Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

He replied, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid."

He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?"

The man said, "The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me from the tree, and I ate..."

"...By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Genesis 3:6–21

Explanation: From the beauty of the tree to bodily awareness: a journey from fig leaves to garments of skin

Eve sees the forbidden tree and marvels at its beauty. That beauty tempts her to eat from the tree, and then awareness of temptation is born, which sparks an awareness of the naked body. Thus clothing is born: the attire they choose for themselves, made of fig leaves, and the clothing God chooses, clothing them Himself in garments of skin.

Perspective: The betrayal in the garment: how fashion made humanity a subject once again

Many of the Hebrew words associated with clothing also hint at the sin embedded within it. The word beged (garment) hints at begidah (betrayal); me'il (cloak) recalls me'ilah (misappropriation or breach of trust); levush (attire) echoes boshah (shame); kesut (covering) brings to mind concealment and deception. The fig leaves that Adam and Eve choose are meant merely to hide their nakedness, whereas garments of skin are already genuine clothes. God invented fashion because the body had become an object, a mere vessel of desire, and now clothing would restore the human being to a subject, someone whose face can truly be seen.

Going Deeper: From the coat of many colors to the priestly vestments: clothing as biblical drama

The Bible is loaded with the significance of clothing and its role in history. Esau’s garments on Jacob (Genesis 27:15), Joseph’s coat of many colors dipped in blood (Genesis 37:29), Tamar disguising herself as a veil-covered prostitute (Genesis 38:14), King Saul disguising himself as a commoner to consult the medium of En-dor (1 Samuel 28:7), Jeroboam, king of Israel, sending his wife disguised as a simple woman to seek healing for their son Abijah (1 Kings 14:2), and more—all of them engage with clothing as an act of deception. On the other hand, we find tremendous importance attached to garments, from the priestly vestments to Haman dressing Mordecai in the royal robes of Ahasuerus, all the way to the obligation to wash and prepare one's clothes for the giving of the Torah (Exodus 19:10–14). And let us not forget the Torah’s command to return a poor person's pledged cloak (Exodus 22:26). In fact, across many biblical stories, clothing serves as a vital—and sometimes decisive—prop.

Culture: Aaron the priest's vestments: the gap between a sacred exterior and a flawed interior

In the early 17th century, the English poet and priest George Herbert wrote a poem about the vestments of Aaron the high priest. Here are the first two stanzas:

Holiness on the head, (the tzitz, the high priest's forehead plate)

Light and perfections on the breast, (the Urim and Thummim)

Harmonious bells below, raising the dead (the robe and the bells)

To lead them unto life and rest:

Thus are true Aarons drest.

Profaneness in my head, (profaneness inside my head)

Defects and darkness in my breast, (defects and darkness in my heart)

A noise of passions ringing me for dead (a noise of passions leading me to death)

Unto a place where is no rest (to a place with no rest)

Poor priest, thus am I drest. (wretched priest, thus am I dressed)

The poem deals with the garments of the high priest (as described in Exodus, chapter 28) and the gap between the sacred outer garments and the flawed human being wearing them.