This spring, we are delighted to present a new range of vestments that translates the visual language of medieval sacred architecture into woven form. Drawing inspiration from the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, this collection brings together beauty, tradition, and devotion.
The Sainte-Chapelle Chasuble & Stole in Green.
For Watts and Co, this connection with Sainte-Chapelle runs deeper than mere aesthetic admiration. Notably, one of our founders, Sir George Gilbert Scott, stood among the first English architects to study the Sainte-Chapelle in detail, returning from his architectural tour of France with what he described as 'a wholly new set of ideas.' It is in Gilbert Scott's diaries that he records his detailed study of the Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle, specifically, was a key inspiration for Gilbert Scott, with the design of the chapel being lifted and repatriated with English sensibilities in St John's College, Cambridge and Exeter College, Oxford. This range continues that inheritance, bringing together our liturgical design heritage with the Gothic architecture that so profoundly shaped his vision.
The stunning stained glass of the Sainte-Chapelle.
These architectural forms that Sir Gilbert Scott studied so intently—details that shaped and crowned his approach to the Gothic Revival—are central to the advice he imparted to his students at the Royal Academy: 'When you go abroad, begin with France, it is the great centre of Medieval art.' We have taken that advice to heart, beginning with the Sainte-Chapelle that he first examined with practical intention.
The Sainte-Chapelle itself emerged from the devotional ambitions of King Louis IX, later canonised as Saint Louis. In 1239, Louis acquired the Crown of Thorns from Baldwin II, Emperor of Constantinople, for a sum exceeding the cost of the chapel's construction. This relic of Christ's Passion demanded a worthy reliquary, and Louis commissioned Pierre de Montreuil to create nothing less than a monumental work of goldsmith's art in architectural form. Consecrated in 1248 after only seven years of construction, the chapel was designed on two levels: the lower chapel for palace servants and the royal guard, and the upper chapel for the king and his court. Its fifteen stained-glass bays, each rising approximately fifteen metres, transformed stone into aperture and interior into suspended light. Two-thirds of this glass survives today, an extraordinary fortune that allows modern visitors to experience something of the medieval sensation of standing within a reliquary of radiance.
Sainte-Chapelle damask in Purple
Our luxurious damask marries two distinctive motifs: the sinuous ogee arch, a characteristic of Rayonnant Gothic, and the fleur-de-lys of the monarchs of France, uniting the guiding principles of Gilbert Scott's design ethos. The ogee—that pointed, curved form found in vaulting and window frames—flows continuously across the surface, creating a rhythm that echoes the vertical aspiration of medieval churches. Woven into this geometry, the alternating fleur-de-lys and cross speak of earthly sovereignty, Marian purity, and the meaning of what it is to be Christian. Here, this repetitive pattern is a reminder of the dual citizenship that sacred dress signifies: service here, calling above.
The orphrey presents the collection's most striking feature, interpreting the stained glass that makes Sainte-Chapelle so recognisable in textile form. Within Gothic ogee frames, crosses and fleurs-de-lys alternate in vertical procession, contained by black line details that recall the lead cames holding the jewel-like fragments in place. The effect traces the journey of light itself—how it enters, fractures, and transforms—captured here in woven threads rather than coloured glass. Gold outlines illuminate each motif against grounds of deep red and green, creating that distinctive medieval luminosity where darkness and radiance achieve perfect balance. This orphrey aspires to a level of completeness present in the Sainte-Chapelle, where every line serves both beauty and meaning.
The Sainte-Chapelle orphrey — stars shining through stained glass.
Perhaps the most intimate detail of our new collection is the element of the design that is least seen. The lining, woven in deep celestial blue and scattered with gold stars, offers a glimpse of the heavens with every movement. When the celebrant raises their arms or turns at the altar, the vestment shifts to reveal this private sky—an architectural secret shared only with the congregation in fleeting moments. This star-scattered blue recalls the painted vaults of Gothic chapels, where the ceiling becomes a cosmic diagram and the worshipper stands at the intersection of earth and heaven. It was this quality of transcendence that drew Sir Gilbert Scott to the Sainte-Chapelle, that made him recommend France as the essential starting point for any student of medieval art. He recognised, as we do, that the Sainte-Chapelle was conceived as a monumental piece of goldsmith's art—a reliquary in architectural form where matter and spirit achieve perfect equilibrium.
The chapel's history after the Middle Ages reminds us that sacred beauty is never guaranteed. The French Revolution brought desacralisation and damage: precious reliquaries melted down, the building repurposed first as a flour warehouse and later as an archive for the law courts. Fires and neglect compounded the destruction, and by the early nineteenth century this masterpiece faced real danger of ruin. Its survival owes much to the Gothic Revival movement championed by figures such as Victor Hugo, who campaigned publicly for the preservation of France's medieval heritage. Between 1840 and 1863, architects including Félix Duban, Jean-Baptiste Lassus, Émile Boeswillwald, and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc undertook painstaking restoration. Viollet-le-Duc, elected an honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1855, shared with Sir Gilbert Scott a vision of restoration that sought 'a condition of completeness'—not merely preserving ruins but returning them to functional beauty. Scott himself received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1859 and served as the institute's president from 1873, while simultaneously serving as Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey from 1849 until his death in 1878. Their trans-channel correspondence of ideas ensured that the Sainte-Chapelle's lessons would shape sacred architecture across Europe.
These vestments acknowledge that sacred dress operates simultaneously on multiple registers: historical, aesthetic, theological, functional. The ogee arches, the fleur-de-lys, the star-scattered lining—these are not mere quotations of medieval forms but participations in them, ways of allowing an 800-year-old visual vocabulary to continue speaking in contemporary worship. But despite the considered creativity at play in our new collection, we view ourselves as merely inheriting an ethos handed down through Watts & Co from Gilbert Scott: we inherit that belief in the living power of Gothic form to inspire devotion and elevate the spirit.
The stoles of the Sainte-Chapelle range.
Our hope is that this collection might participate in the ancient transfiguration that Gothic architecture understood so well—where matter becomes spirit, where fabric becomes architecture in motion, and where the wearer becomes, however briefly, a living conduit for light. The Sainte-Chapelle survived revolution and neglect to remain a threshold space where the material and immaterial negotiate their ancient alliance. Our range aspires to similar functionality, continuing the exchange of ideas and shared values that connected two giants of the Gothic Revival across the Channel, uniting our company's founding heritage with the enduring beauty of medieval sacred art.
The Sainte-Chapelle range will be available in green, red, purple, and white from April 2026.
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