A Modest Past?

by Amanda Stiver

Have people in history always dressed modestly? The past is sometimes presented as an example of fully covered, “proper” fashion, and the present is portrayed as one of overly exposing formerly covered parts of the body. Is this really true?

The present has many immodest trends with clothes that exhibit too much of everything, especially for women. But the challenge to dress respectfully toward God and fellow man is as old as human history. Ancient cultures and even fairly recent societies were not always good examples of modest dressing. Consider the following:

• Egypt: The Israelites spent a significant amount of time enslaved to this society and faced the influence of the fashions of their captors. The popular silhouette of this kingdom was, well, pretty bare. Clothes, for both men and women, were very sheer and tightly fitted, exposing most of the body. Men usually wore kilts or loincloths and women wore a variation of the same, leaving the upper body exposed.

• Napoleonic Haute Couture: Fast-forward a few thousand years and being a well-dressed lady in France from the mid-1700s to the early 1800s required court dresses with voluminous skirts, tight-fitted bodices and plunging necklines. A piece of cloth called a fichu was placed across the bust to avoid exposure.

Things got worse into the early 1800s when women's clothes changed dramatically to a closely fitted, high-waisted garment called an empire dress because of its popularity among women in Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire. Made of sheer fabrics and with plunging necklines, court ladies would often wet down their dresses with water to make them even more revealing.

Wearing too little clothing can be immodest, but wearing too much adornment (such as excess jewelry, robes, stockings or other paraphernalia) can also defeat the humility that is a part of modesty. Well-made clothes, tasteful jewelry and a nice appearance are positive attributes, but taking it to the extreme isn't so pleasant. Consider:

• The French and English and much of Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries had a variety of fashion fads from large, frilly starched collars worn by men and women to stockings that were stuffed with straw to make men's leg muscles appear larger.

• Fur trim, fabrics and certain colors were regulated according to your wealth in much of Europe in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, and you could be punished for wearing clothes above your financial station in life.

No matter what the age, choosing to dress modestly has often been a challenge. But facing down the ungodly trends of society and making decisions based on God's law requires a strength of character and dignity that looks better on an individual than anything the world of fashion dictates. VT