Catholic menswear brand expands as founders aim to shape modern masculinity
Shepherd’s, a Catholic menswear brand founded in 2023, recently expanded by opening its first store in Dallas. The brand offers made-to-measure garments, including suits, outerwear, and shirts, emphasizing timeless style over passing trends. Shepherd’s aims to reflect Catholic values of identity, discipline, and faith through refined clothing without being overtly religious in design. Founders include Chris Cottrell, Nathan Price, Austin Wright, and football player Harrison Butker. The luxury brand uses premier European fabrics and provides advanced fitting methods, including video consultations for remote customers.
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Shepherd’s, a Catholic-inspired menswear brand, recently opened its first store in Dallas on February 28, following success at its Kansas City headquarters.1
The brand offers made-to-measure garments like jackets, suits, shirts, pants, and tuxedos, using premium fabrics from Europe, primarily Italy and the UK.1
Launched in 2023 by Chris Cottrell, Nathan Price, Austin Wright, and NFL star Harrison Butker, Shepherd’s focuses exclusively on men's tailoring.1
Customers receive precise fittings with over 100 adjustments, either in-store or via video-based services with shipped try-ons.1
The brand promotes a refined vision of masculinity rooted in purpose, discipline, and faith, countering cultural trends of excess and trends.1
Founders aim to embody Catholic values subtly—without overt symbols—drawing from inspirations like a nun's prayerful glow and St. Paul's call for young men to practice self-control.1
Shepherd’s addresses perceived attacks on family, men, and traditional roles, offering an alternative to influences like Andrew Tate or YouTube for young men.1
Dressing well is framed as a habit fostering virtue, boosting confidence, gravitas, and a commitment to faith, family, friends, and meaningful work.1
The founders pursue a "double bottom line": building a profitable, sustainable business while influencing culture positively.1
They hope to inspire life changes in customers, such as career success, stronger marriages, or deeper faith, through clothing and community.1
Investigate how Catholic identity informs contemporary male fashion
Catholic identity fundamentally shapes male fashion through the virtue of modesty, which safeguards human dignity, protects the intimate center of the person, and aligns external appearance with interior spiritual reality. Drawing from magisterial teachings and patristic tradition, this analysis reveals how principles of temperance, decency, and discretion inform contemporary choices in clothing, grooming, and self-presentation, countering cultural trends toward ostentation or effeminacy while promoting a masculinity rooted in self-gift and reverence for creation.
Modesty is "an integral part of temperance" that "protects the mystery of persons and their love," guiding choices in clothing to reflect human solidarity and spiritual dignity. For men, this means selecting attire that avoids drawing undue attention to the body, refusing to "unveil what should remain hidden," and fostering patience in relationships. The Catechism emphasizes that modesty awakens "respect for the human person" from childhood, varying by culture but universally intuitive as a recognition of one's subjectivity before God.
"Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity."
In practice, this critiques tight-fitting garments, revealing cuts, or provocative styles prevalent in contemporary fashion (e.g., low-rise pants or sheer fabrics), favoring instead well-fitted, opaque clothing like button-down shirts, trousers, and modest outerwear that convey restraint and professionalism. Modesty is "decency" and "discretion," inspiring reserve where "unhealthy curiosity" risks arising.
Catholic identity thus elevates fashion beyond aesthetics to moral formation, ensuring male attire supports chastity and communal harmony rather than individualism.
Patristic sources like Clement of Alexandria provide a vivid framework, condemning men who "embellish" themselves as effeminate, blurring God-given distinctions between sexes. He argues that God adorns men with beards and body hair as "symbols of manhood," signs of "strength and rule," while smoothness is proper to women. Plucking hairs, shaving cheeks, or adopting "womanish" clothes and dyes defies divine order, akin to "adulterers" or "lewd wretches."
"God wished women to be smooth, and rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously... but has adorned man, like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him... with shaggy breasts—a sign this of strength and rule."
Contemporary applications include resisting trends like manscaping (excessive body hair removal), metrosexual grooming (e.g., heavy makeup or painted nails), or androgynous styles (e.g., skirts or crop tops on men). Instead, Catholic men might embrace natural beards, short haircuts, and robust fabrics, echoing Clement's call to honor the body as "conformed to the image of [Christ]." This aligns with post-Vatican II emphases on distinct Catholic identity amid pluralism, where voluntary choices in appearance reinforce ecclesial belonging.
Catholic anthropology views masculinity and femininity as "complementary gifts" inscribed in the body, bearing a "nuptial" capacity for self-giving love. Fashion must honor this: men's attire should express strength, responsibility, and availability for others, not self-objectification. John Paul II's theology underscores the body's beauty revealing divine intent, where wonder at masculinity leads to "veneration" rather than exploitation.
In universities and communities maintaining Catholic identity, personnel promote doctrine through example, including modest presentation. For young "evangelical Catholics" in a voluntaristic culture, such choices counter eroded boundaries, fostering pride in distinct manhood. Thus, contemporary male fashion informed by faith might prioritize durable suits, polos, or workwear symbolizing stewardship, over fleeting trends like skinny jeans or graphic tees promoting hedonism.
Amid cultural shifts, Catholic identity demands vigilance: post-subculture Catholics face voluntarism, where fashion risks diluting ecclesial markers. Yet, authority (e.g., Magisterium) aids identity formation, as seen in youth rejecting dissent for deeper tradition. Practical steps include:
These affirm the "spiritual dignity proper to man," integrating faith into daily witness.
In summary, Catholic identity transforms male fashion from vanity to virtue, emphasizing modesty's protection of dignity, rejection of effeminacy, and celebration of masculine self-gift. By these principles, men today can visibly embody Church teaching, navigating modernity with fidelity.