Monday, December 04, 2006

Skanks No More

Ever since I wrote about "Skanks" last week, I've been getting requests from women looking for resources for modest clothing. It's not a role to which I'm accustomed. Right, Sal?

The one Catholic women who comes to mind is Colleen Hammond, author of the book "Dressing with Dignity," as well as the weblog of the same name. Browse through her archives, but don't expect much lately; I understand she's on the mend after being hospitalized for a heart ailment. Remember her in your prayers.

The Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons) are a significant niche market for modest wear, both for women and for men. Yes, men. Due to the wearing of sacred undergarments, even shorts have to come down to the knees. Many of their links can be found at Move4Modesty. Expect a number of references to "temple wear." Not bad if you like dressing entirely in white. Meanwhile, one Utahn has decided to venture outside the LDS market, and has founded Shade Clothing.

Finally, a site known simply as Modest Clothes (formerly Dara Marie Modest Clothing) appeals to a number of niche markets based on either culture or creed. In other words, are you going for "Plain Simple Christian," "Trendy Modest Christian," or "Catholic"? What do they mean by the latter? Mostly providers of mantillas and nuns' clothing. But one site stands out -- JMJ Modest Dress. It's more "Plain Simple" than "Trendy Modest" (and I'm sounding like an expert on haute couture already, yeah, right!) but still some attractive possibilities.

Anybody else? Oh, here we go. Ambrose recommends jjill.com, a New Hampshire-based retailer which shares a parent company with Talbot's. They've got a mail-order catalog, for all you gals who don't get enough of those.

6 comments:

Jen Ambrose said...

I'm a big fan of the j.jill catalog. No one will confuse one with Britney Spears in any outfit out of that catalog.

David L Alexander said...

And the j.jill catalog can be found... (???)

Jen Ambrose said...

jjill.com
Sorry....they have a website.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I'm Dara from modestclothes.com. Thought I'd just say what I mean by 'Catholic' since you were wondering (perhaps rhetorically). Because some shoppers like to patronize stores that are run under the auspices of their own religion, I've divided the clothing into creed categories for that purpose--otherwise I would have just ignored the religious aspect and just categorized the clothing type.

Although I did have to divide the Protestant denominations by type (Plain Simple) and (Trendy Modest) because there are too many denominations and grey lines of demarcation.

So in the case of the 'Catholic' section, those stores are run by Catholics.

Dara

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I am the founder of JMJ Modest Dress and just recently came across your blog. I just want to say thank you for your kind comments. I recently opened up another modest clothing business that might be of interest as well. It can be found at http://www.trulymodest.com/.

Thank you again and God bless,
Mrs. Randazzo

CJ said...

Longer skirts and looser pants are a good thing, but since when is having a definable waist considered to be immodest? Decent doesn't mean you have to look like a moose wearing a gunnysack, or an Anabaptist wannabe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CJ