TRANSCENDENTAL BEAUTY | KAIROS GLOBAL | NOVEMBER 2026

Author: Neil George

Audio

Intro: Beauty is a reflection of the Creator, the greatest lover of beauty, and Beauty personified, writes Neil George.

‘There is nothing the mediocre person hates as much as beauty’ – Ernest Hello.

Beauty, when it seizes us, draws us into a kind of divine ecstasy. It disrupts the security and control the mediocre person wants to ensconce himself in. The mediocre person does not want to live ecstatically, outside himself, so he resents the call of beauty as excessive and overwrought. We are facing a profound crisis of beauty, and this is not merely a matter of taste; it reveals something about who we have become as a civilisation. 

Looking back at our ancestors, we see how much value they placed on creation and art. They invested time in making things with intricacy and splendour. It was often difficult and demanding, but it was beautiful, and it carried a certain depth. Beauty is not a luxury or an ornament added to our lives once our pressing concerns are satisfied. It is essential to our intimacy with the Creator. When we create beauty, we journey closer to the Creator, the greatest lover of beauty, and Beauty personified. The connection between beauty and the sacred is not accidental. In almost every culture, people created some of the most beautiful objects for religious purposes. In Catholic tradition, we see this clearly: from our majestic churches and sacred art to our sacred music, all of these things are intended to transcend us to the divine. 

God creates with astonishing and abundant variety. He does not simply make flowers; He gives us the rose. He does not merely create fields and meadows; He gives us vast and majestic mountain ranges, each with its own character, extending into an almost incomprehensible spectrum of colour and form. Creation itself bears witness to a God who delights in richness, diversity, and inexhaustible beauty. 

And we, as those made imago Dei, share in this creative capacity. Our ability to make, shape, imagine, and bring something new into being reflects something profoundly characteristic of our Creator. But what does it really mean to create? Whether the creator is God Himself or a human being made in His image, creation brings something to life, giving it form, meaning, expression, and presence. God’s creative work, therefore, is not something confined to the distant past. Creation continues to unfold before us. We encounter His creativity not only in the natural world, but also through the artists and creators through whom He works across generations and cultures. God continues to reveal something of Himself through human creativity. 

Perhaps, then, if our tradition speaks so much about beauty in architecture, painting, and even in nature, why do we not similarly speak about ‘beauty in ourselves’? Not as a source of self-obsession or vanity, but our appearance, the way we dress, accessorise, and style ourselves can express the splendour of beauty that flows from our creative capacity and, ultimately, from our intimacy with the Creator. When the source of that creativity is the love of the Creator, what we create, or rather, what we wear, can also become an invitation to His love.

Fashion is art, and Catholicism is deeply connected to it. In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art launched an exhibition titled Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. The exhibition explored the relationship between fashion and the Catholic imagination profoundly. From the intricate layers of brocade used in the liturgy to the simple black and brown habits worn by religious men and women, clothing within the Catholic tradition speaks through symbolism and points beyond itself towards the divine. 

Many prominent designers have been deeply influenced by Catholic tradition. Coco Chanel, founder of the French fashion house, was raised by nuns at Aubazine Abbey from the age of twelve. The convent’s simple black-and-white habits and geometric architecture influenced elements of her signature style, while Maltese crosses and aspects of her visual language have also been associated with her Catholic upbringing. Her combination of simplicity and luxury reflects a contrast that can also be found within the Catholic imagination. 

Perhaps this is where fashion finds its deeper purpose. What we wear is not merely about covering the body. It can become another way to participate in the creative work of God. Whether through grandeur or simplicity, through colour, texture, jewellery, craftsmanship, or restraint, what we create and choose to wear can reveal something of the person we are becoming. In this way, fashion can become more than self-expression; it can become a small participation in the divine imagination, pointing beyond ourselves to the One from whom all beauty comes.

Neil George Kottoor is an entrepreneur and a music educator. He is married to Amulya, and they live in Kochi, India. He is also part of the JY India Formation Team.