Nun’s the phrase, it appears, on the earth of celebrity fashion tendencies today.
And Lily Allen, 40, was the most recent to take pleasure in a spot of ‘convent dressing’, sporting a nun’s behavior and smoking a cigarette within the music video for her track P***y Palace, the seventh monitor on her new album, West End Girl.
Dressed within the acquainted black-and-white garb and including sheer tights, Allen reeled off the alleged indiscretions of her ex-husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour.
Her ironic tackle the Catholic get-up is indicative of celebrity’s newest obsession – a phenomenon that was dubbed ‘nun-mania’ by Spanish paper The Country.
From Madonna’s Like a Prayer video that includes stigmata and a kiss with a saint to Lady Gaga as Mary Magdalene going clubbing with Jesus in her son Judas, Catholic iconography has lengthy been deeply embedded in widespread tradition.
Last 12 months, actress Sydney Sweeney, 28, the chief of any fashion trend, starred as a secretly pregnant nun within the movie Immaculate – and since, the trend has exploded.
Wimples, tunics and veils have grow to be more and more widespread on the catwalk, as seen in Max Mara’s autumn/winter fashion present, whereas supermodel Bella Hadid wore headgear reminiscent of a nun’s behavior on the Coperni Fall-Winter present in 2022.
Why the sudden frenzy in the direction of non secular-impressed dressing? According to fashion professional Lisa Talbot, it’s becoming with a rigidity designers and celebrities love: ‘the combo of innocence and provocation’.
Lily Allen, 40, was the most recent to take pleasure in a spot of ‘convent dressing’, sporting a nun’s behavior and smoking a cigarette within the music video for her track P***y Palace
Lisa instructed the Daily Mail that ‘a historically sacred silhouette worn in a secular, high-fashion and even edgy method creates immediate drama’.
She added: ‘It makes individuals cease scrolling. You’ve solely bought to have a look at Rihanna’s nun-impressed cowl shoot, or the runway moments from manufacturers like Coperni and even older references like Jean Paul Gaultier, to see how hanging that distinction may be.
‘And then there’s nostalgia. Pop tradition has at all times been obsessive about the ‘mysterious nun’ archetype, half non secular, half rebellious. Fashion is solely tapping into that once more.
‘So sure, it’s aesthetic, but it’s additionally emotional. Convent dressing speaks to a want for readability, self-discipline and id in a world that feels visually overwhelming. It’s simplicity as a press release.’
Real nuns, nonetheless, are much less prone to be satisfied.
Sister Karen Marguerite d’Artois, a member of Rosary Priory Convent in Bushey, instructed the Telegraph that the trend ‘demeans’ the behavior ‘and those that put on it’.
She stated: ‘It’s very off-placing. The non secular behavior is a wealthy image of a life consecrated to God within the Church and to the service of God’s individuals.
‘Too usually it’s stripped of this symbolism and lowered to a fancy dress which demeans it and those that put on it.
Singer Rihanna, 37, got here underneath fireplace in 2024 after she wore a wimple for her covershoot with Interview Magazine (pictured behind the scenes)
Last 12 months, Sydney Sweeney , indicative of any fashion trend, starred as a secretly pregnant nun within the movie Immaculate – and since, the trend has exploded
Gen Z It woman Sabrina Carpenter not too long ago filmed her video for hit single Feather in a Catholic church, which triggered a furore
However, Reverend Emily Kolltveit at St Jude on the Hill in north London stated she had ‘loved’ seeing the trend.
She stated: ‘I’d choose individuals to interact with the concepts and imagery of God’s Kingdom fairly than ignore them. As kids study by way of play, I feel the identical is true for adults. If we by no means see it, how can we ever discover it?’
Singer Rihanna, 37, got here underneath fireplace in 2024 after she wore a wimple for her covershoot with Interview Magazine.
The Fenty make-up founder was seen sporting a black and white behavior, the normal garment worn by members of non secular orders – but many noticed the pictures as ‘provocative’.
Rihanna sported a small cross tattoo drawn on her face and an exposing unbuttoned Dior shirt.
One particular person wrote on the time: ‘So drained with all this unholy imagery!!!!’ whereas one other referred to as the idea ‘non secular mockery.’
A 3rd commented: ‘I like Rihanna but I by no means perceive why the obsession with sexualising non secular representations.’ ‘Isn’t this blasphemy??’ one other requested.
Rihanna beforehand dressed up in a racy papal outfit on the Met Gala in 2018.
Even the Kardashian sisters, Kim and Kourtney, and their mom Kris Jenner, have revealed their tackle convent dressing. Kim and Kris pictured in July 2023
Rapper, songwriter, actress and TV persona Cardi B performs at Demon Dome opening celebration on Halloween
Singer Halsey dressed up in a ‘attractive nun’ costume for Halloween in 2020
Halsey, in the meantime, dressed up as a ‘attractive nun’ for Halloween in 2020, whereas in 2019, rapper Cardi B mixed Poison Ivy with a nun.
Spanish singer Rosalia additionally dressed up like a nun on her cowl of her new album, Lux, launched earlier this month.
Gen Z It woman Sabrina Carpenter not too long ago filmed her video for hit single Feather in a Catholic church, which triggered a furore.
Even the Kardashian sisters, Kim and Kourtney, and their mom Kris Jenner, have revealed their tackle convent dressing – and it even sparked a feud between them.
Kim and Kris had been seen sporting convent-esque garb throughout a Dolce & Gabbana occasion in 2023.
Kris wore a press release cross, whereas Kim was seen in a sheer, black veil adorned with lace-trim.
Kourtney famously wore a matronly veil for her marriage ceremony to Travis Barker in 2022, and a white Dolce mini gown. Four months later, Kim collaborated with the luxurious model for Milan Fashion Week.
In an episode of the Kardashians, Kourtney tearfully admitted: ‘There’s an abundance of alternatives.
Madonna on the The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Benefit celebrating the opening of Heavenly Bodies
Bella Hadid walks the runway through the Coperni Womenswear Fall/Winter 2022-2023 present as half of Paris Fashion Week
‘It’s not about enterprise and there’s a lot, it takes priority over hurting your sister. It’s legit copying my marriage ceremony.’
Discussing the trend, Lisa instructed the Mail: ‘We’re seeing an actual rise in what I’d name convent dressing, these clear, structured silhouettes, excessive necklines, veils, and the virtually monastic simplicity that feels very ‘nun-impressed.’
‘And whereas on the floor it’d appear to be simply one other aesthetic, there’s undoubtedly extra happening beneath.
‘Fashion is so noisy proper now. Everything is daring, quick or hyper-trend-driven. So these pared-again, nearly austere appears really feel like a palate cleanser.
‘They’re calm, managed and quietly highly effective. It’s a response to the chaos, a return to modesty, minimalism and form.’
Popular accounts on social media embody Sister Mary Blaze (‘nun, but make it fashion’) – 722,000 followers and 32 million likes. She says she is ‘the messiest nun you’ll ever see’.
The Daughters of St Paul, two nuns from Boston additionally identified as the ‘media nuns’ have over 150,000 followers.
There’s the extra critical nun content material too: Ascension Press are ‘Unabashedly dedicated to sharing the Catholic Faith with ardour, reality, & magnificence’.
In January, a brand new ballot discovered that youngsters and these of their early twenties are half as prone to establish as atheists than their mother and father.
Cover of Rosalia’s new album, ‘Lux’, projected within the Plaza de Callao, on October 20, 2025, in Madrid
Those aged 18-24 – who’re all Gen Z – are essentially the most non secular age group within the UK, with simply 13 % figuring out as atheists.
Another 62 % describe themselves as ‘very’ or ‘pretty’ non secular, the analysis by OneBallot discovered.
The rise of Christianity and faith in Gen Z has been seen on TikTok, the place ‘Catholic core’ has swept throughout the location.
Maya, 22, who grew up as a ‘feminist with purple hair’ in Czechia, which she describes as an ‘atheist nation’, has constructed up a following on-line going by the ‘veiled convert’.
She wears a lace mantilla as a result of she believes ‘masking her hair offers all her glory to god’, having constructed up greater than 40,000 followers sharing Bible passages and footage of non secular candles, work of Saints and rosary beads in her house.
Maya says that she transformed after struggling together with her psychological well being through the pandemic and assembly a ‘scientist’ who was additionally a convert.
Elsewhere, Aussie TikTok star John is Catholic, 20, has racked up greater than 100,000 TikTok followers for sharing movies about faith.
Delphine Chui instructed the Evening Standard she’s seen extra and extra Gen Zers going to her church St Bede’s in Clapham.
‘I feel what attracts Gen Z to Catholicism is how radically completely different it’s to our fashionable secular tradition.
Where the secular tradition pushes us towards infidelity, Catholicism encourages monogamous, loving relationships. Where tradition attracts us towards over-indulgent consumerism, Catholicism evokes us to be temperate and discover satisfaction in what really issues — our relationship with Christ,’ she stated.
Supermodel Bella Hadid wore headgear reminiscent of a nun’s behavior on the Coperni Fall-Winter present in 2022
She has additionally seen extra individuals embrace conventional Latin mass, or TLM.
‘I feel there is a large variety of trad aesthetic. I feel Gen Z are ingesting much less today, sleeping round a lot much less — they are much extra conservative than millennials. So much of my youthful buddies of their 20s are married with kids,’ she added.
In May, dancing nuns, Sisters Marizele Rego, 44, and Marisa de Neves, 41, went viral after they carried out their beatboxing routine throughout an interview on TV Pai Eterno.
The holy servants had been selling a weekend retreat and took middle stage on the Catholic tv community’s studio as Rego sang her track, ‘Vocação de Amar e Servir’ [Vocation to Love and Serve] and started to beatbox.
De Neves fulfilled her backup dancer duties by ‘two-stepping’ earlier than Deacon Giovane Basto joined within the enjoyable.
The clip of the impromptu efficiency racked up greater than 4 million views on Instagram.
‘We went to advertise the vocational retreat and because the presenter already knew the expertise, she requested us to offer a ‘trace,’ Rego instructed Brazilian information outlet G1.
‘We know it’s one thing of the second, our actual and every day life continues!’