From The St. Louis Review:
Instead of strutting down the runway in pieces made by great fashion designers such as Dolce and Gabbana and Christian Dior, some young aspiring models here are preparing to showcase the work of the "great designer" at their first fashion show later this month.
Forty-six young women ages 14-18 have been taking part in Pure Fashion, a seven-month program that encourages teen women to live, act and dress according to their dignity as children of God. The international program, sponsored by Catholic lay movement Regnum Christi, was introduced in St. Louis last fall.
"Pure Fashion is working hard to advance the modesty movement by helping teenage girls see that they can be trendy, yet tasteful," said Christina Heddell, chairperson of Pure Fashion in St. Louis and director of the archdiocesan Respect Life Apostolate.
That means finding fashionable clothing that meets modesty guidelines set forth by the organization — including clothing that fits well but is not too tight, a neckline that falls no lower than the width of four fingers below the collarbone, and dresses and skirts that are no shorter than four fingers above the kneecaps. Visible bra staps and underwear are definitely out of the question.
But Heddell said that "Pure Fashion also aims to teach girls that modesty is more than just clothing. It involves interior purity, authenticity, respect for oneself and others."
I'm guessing God is the "great designer"? It's quite a leap from God as Creator to fashion design. Methinks the girls are being sold a bill of hyperbole.
"Pure Fashion"? Just the name, and I don't like it. I had enough of control of my clothing in the uniforms that I was forced to wear in my Roman Catholic school. They were modest, no question about that, but they were ugly, just plain ugly. No strapless and low-cut dresses at proms and graduation. Fine. Those were school functions, but I don't believe that the nuns went so far as finger measurements. You just knew, or the nuns told you, or they gave you a scarf to cover up.
"[T]rendy, yet tasteful" and "interior purity, authenticity, respect for oneself and others"? I'm not quite sure what "interior purity" means, but the rest seem OK. Measuring with the fingers from the collarbone and the knee is moving into ridiculous territory, in my humble opinion. Call me rebellious, but, as a teenager I would have resisted this sort of attempt to impose control on my wardrobe outside of school. My friends and I would have laughed at the fashion show. We were jaded young cynics, even back then.
The program also has had an effect on her clothing decisions, Colson noted.
"Ande got invited to SLUH’s sophomore dance, and we went to Dillard’s and found this beautiful dress, but it had spaghetti straps," one of several fashion "no-nos" Pure Fashion teaches the young women.
"So we found a bolero to wear over the dress. She said, ‘There’s no way I was going to embarrass me or embarrass him.’"
At first I thought Ande was talking about embarrassing her date, but I do believe that she was talking about embarrassing God. Would God be embarrassed by spaghetti straps?
When I tried to visit the "Pure Fashion" website, I was thrown off the internet twice. I didn't try again. Maybe they screen out rebels, even old rebels.
In my experience, most teen girls have strong opinions about their choice of clothes, and it's best to let them settle on their own style, within certain limits. This is the age for exploring, for trying new things, not for herding them all into a bland sameness. I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
The whole idea doesn't sit well with me, no matter the intentions of the organizers.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I am suspicious of everything linked to the Italian Church.
RB, thanks. At least that makes two of us. Our school uniforms made us look like mattresses tied in the middle, even those of us who were thin, and we had to wear horrid brown oxfords that looked like orthopedic shoes. Not that there's anything wrong with orthopedic shoes, but they were not the fashion statement we wanted to make.
ReplyDeleteSurely if they were going to showcase the work of "the great designer", they'd be showing up wearing the same clothes Adam and Eve showed up in?
ReplyDeleteAh, Kate, that goes directly to the heart of the matter, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteWell I find this possibly offensive and certainly dumb. (God is probably giggling about it all)
ReplyDeleteBut probably not quite as bad as the pressures girls today seem to feel to look like anorexic tarts.
We need a via media of teenage fashion.
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ReplyDeleteAm I alone in thinking that many women can look pretty hot ("it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive") in a burqa? Once teenagers are horny ("once"!!!), long sleeves and high necklines aren't going to do a damned bit of good, are they? You don't have to be terribly bright to guess who in St Louis is behind this one ("How to get a cardinal's hat, stage 45"). Maybe they'll name the new teenage modesty dress a "Burke-a"?
ReplyDeleteSusanKay, my cynical friends and I would probably have ridiculed the via media, too. We resisted all attempts to organize us. We weren't always successful, but we tried.
ReplyDeleteYes, the temptation to be model-thin is much more dangerous than a skirt or neckline that violates the four finger rule.
Lapin, our uniforms had high necklines, long sleeves, and long skirts, and on Fridays, we had to wear a veil, but only for mass. We were actually not that far from a burqa. And we had a little narrow blue bow around the peter pan collar that was supposed to make the whole outfit pretty. It was the 1910 look, but we were in the 40s and 50s.
Burke-a. That's good.
Well, I think it's nuts. On the other hand, here in England I find myself wishing I could give the girls a little help. It isn't just that so many of them look slutty (which they do), it's that they look UGLY. Nobody seems to be giving them any help in discovering what is becoming to them, how to show off their best features and spread a little joy in the world. Ill-fitting and grossly unflattering clothes, bad color choices, frightful hairdos and makeup -- just no fun. Also, a lot of them don't seem to know how to walk; they mostly stagger (even early in the day before they get drunk). This may be partly on account of the ill-fitting clothes and bad shoes. Forget the RCs and their prim project. I am ready to send for a volunteer force of Dallas sorority girls to establish a beauty beachhead in Kent!
ReplyDeleteOh, dear. I just realized there is a problem. If we managed to pretty up the girls, they would look 'way too good to date the local boys.
Mary Clara, I noticed, too, that most of the young girls in England don't seem to have a clue as to how to make the best of what they have. What we'd have to do is send in the Dallas sorority girls and then send "The Queer Eye For a Straight Guy" over to help the boys.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant, Mimi! That's sorted, then. I'll be back Stateside in a few weeks and will get right on it. This may not be appropriate as a TEC foreign mission, and I think the Agency for International Development has other priorities, so it may be necessary to set up a small nonprofit to fund and mobilize the volunteers.
ReplyDeleteNote to self: Check and see whether Beauty is one of the Millennium Development Goals. And if not, why not.
ReplyDeleteMary Clara, if not, why not, indeed. We'll get right on the project when you get back home.
ReplyDeleteFinally - a public service mission for the Bush twins. Ship 'em off to Kent.
ReplyDelete(Mary Clara)
ReplyDeleteNo, no, Lapin, the Bush girls are way too drab. And not from Texas. This mission will require the fashion equivalent of the Marine Corps.
I've been thinking, Mary Clara, why do the girls have to be from Texas? What about the Golden Girls who dance at half-time at the LSU football games? Louisiana has pretty girls, too, you know.
ReplyDeleteHilarious! One more oddity from My Fair City.
ReplyDeleteFor casual wear, adapted "male" hip-hop fashion, correctly worn, can look good on a girl, and is modest. The basic baggy pants (not worn to show buttcrack), athletic-style shirt, printed athletic jacket or hoodie sweat pullover, and backwards cap, plus appropriate costume jewelry (something with Swarovski crystals would do well), is very modest and fits all their criteria except for their lack of comment concerning pants.
Of course the St. Louis matrons would have a fit if their white daughters dressed like that. And, I'd have to say, if overdone, the girls would look really stupid.
Why can't the matrons just drag their daughters over to the preppy / "classic" clothes shop in town. It ain't fashion, but it never goes completely out of style, and it's plenty modest.
In some way I agree. Preteens are being slut-ified to a greater degree than in previous decades. I'd want a daughter to wait until senior high before going the microskirt + suggestive sloganed t-shirt route. And you know, most kids go through a phase and have to be tacky in the extreme - let them get it out of their system, and take some embarrassing photos of them meanwhile. The photos will be treasured at a 40 year birthday or some such.
NancyP
NancyP
Nancy, I agree with you about the slutty look for young teens. That's a sad trend today. I suppose that the Pure Fashion program is attempting to be an alternative to the slutty look, but they, of course, go too far and go about it in a totally wacky way. Who can take seriously the finger measurements? And linking fashion to the "great designer"? Puleeze!
ReplyDeleteI must say I like your ideas for the alternative and perfectly modest look. There could be money in it, if you pitched it to a carefully selected segment of teen girls.
Oh, Mimi, I'm just playing. Don't mean to be chauvinistic -- I'm sure the girls at LSU are as pretty as any in Texas. Dallas is just my personal point of reference for over-the-top attention to style and gloss and a take-no-prisoners attitude in the battle for beauty. When I landed there as an SMU freshman (NOT from Texas or anywhere nearby) it was like boot camp. I've still got a bit of the discipline after all these years of growing older and not living in Texas. Of course, it's excessive and I couldn't stand to have to polish myself up like that all my life, but as I said, we need some serious help on this project. Why not a batallion from Louisiana, with General Mimi in command?
ReplyDeleteWell, fooling around with this keeps our minds off the war, the election, the media, and the other work some of us ought to be doing ...
Mary Clara, I'm playing, too. We need a little silliness from time to time to help us keep sane through the other awful stuff.
ReplyDeletereminds me of Peter Akinola's wife and her "War On Nakedness" which was a campaign to get girls and women to dress more modestly. Not sure if the war is still being waged or not.
ReplyDelete