Fashion Designer Joseph Altuzarra's Muse is a Virgin Mary Santos

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By David Colman

Joseph Altuzarra with his santos, an antique statue of the Virgin Mary.

NEW YORK - [Mr. Joseph Altuzarra, 28, plays] the fashion game well enough to engineer a cannily timed fashion revival, like this fall’s grunge-inspired collection. So it’s surprising to hear that, until his sophomore year at Swarthmore, Mr. Altuzarra had only a personal interest in fashion, dead set on a career pursuing his concentration, art history. But then, speaking of art history, it wasn’t really a mannequin that Mr. Altuzarra bought upon arriving in New York. It was a santos, or cage doll: an antique Provençal statue of the Madonna, similar to the carved wooden ones he remembered from his childhood, when he and his parents spent August in Provence. “She does make me feel very safe,” he said. But of course, that has been part of the Virgin Mary’s success as a subject of artistic inspiration. She is the supermodel of all who worship her. [link]