Posts Tagged ‘Modesty’

Gift Ideas for the Fashionista

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

I don’t review products or books on my blog very often, but occasionally I come across something I can’t help but share. That’s exactly how I feel about these two books. Since Christmas is right around the corner I thought I’d mention them now so you can purchase a few copies as gifts or put one on your own wish list.

B3Good Girls Don’t Have to Dress Bad by Shari Braendel

I purchased two copies of this book while I was at She Speaks this year—one for me and one for my fashion savvy friend Alicia. This book is the Christian woman’s pocket guide to all things fashion related. Shari starts by helping you identify your body type and color palette and then teaches you to embrace (and build) your own style from there. She covers everything from how to find a flattering pair of jeans and accessorize any outfit correctly to the right makeup colors and hairstyles for your skin tone and face shape.

A few weeks ago I started following her advice and I’ve received more compliments, felt more put together and have even learned to embrace parts of my body I used to hate.

On Thanksgiving all of my female relatives and I were pouring over these pages marveling at how simple some of the fixes were to fashion disasters we’d experienced.

My copy is all marked up and will be coming with me on my next trip to the mall.

The Christian Girl’s Guide to Style by Sherry KyleK2

This book is a fun tool for the junior fashionista on your shopping list. Aimed at girls 8-12, Sherry fills this book with fun tips on both inner and outer beauty.

Each chapter also includes a craft for girls to make—glitter nail polish, a jute belt, a headband, etc…

Filled with fun quizzes, this book will instill confidence in any girl who wants to feel beautiful. Sherry fills this book with great ways for girls to build their inner beauty so their outer beauty can shine.

I gave a copy to my 10-year-old niece and the first words out of her mouth as she flipped through it were, “Wow! I love stuff like this. 

Filled with Bible verses and plenty of conversation starters, this would be a great book for moms and daughters (or big sisters and little sisters) to go through together.

**Both books emphasize the fact that true beauty comes from the inside out, but also teach girls and women how to be modest, fashionable and confident in who God made them. I highly recommend both books as Christmas gifts–or for yourself.

Spring Fashion 101: Wear it Your Way

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Two women holding bags with clothes hanging in background

I don’t know about you, but I like clothes and shoes and purses. And it’s no secret that I color my hair and I love a good mani/pedi.

There’s nothing wrong with primping and being girly. The Bible even tells us that the Proverbs 31 woman made sure to dress her best (v. 22).

Unfortunately it’s becoming more difficult than ever to be a modest fashionista. The necklines on shirts are getting lower, shorts are getting shorter and some of the season’s hottest skirts are no larger than a washcloth.

If that’s not bad enough, the most popular sizes in the junior’s section seem more suited to fit a Barbie doll than a real girl. Don’t even get me started on bathing suits. So what’s a girl to do?

Romans 12: 2 gives us great insight: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

Every time you walk into a store you find yourself facing a choice: you can conform to the world’s standard of what’s appropriate or you can choose to be modest.

Believe it or not there is a way to be a modest trendsetter. Here are a few ideas from some modest yet trendy teen girls I know:

  1. If a top is cut too low buy a tank top to wear underneath to give yourself more coverage.
  2. If a skirt is too short wear a pair of leggings underneath and make it appropriate.
  3. If spaghetti straps show too much skin wear a regular tank top in a coordinating color underneath.
  4. If shorts seem hopeless cut up an old pair of jeans at just the right length.

You do not have to buy into what the world says is appropriate. Instead, you can take what the stores offer and alter it to make it fit your standard for modesty and fashion. You can still wear what’s in—just wear it your way.

Why Bra Colors Don’t Belong on Facebook

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Young studentsI’m sure you’d be shocked if I told you I saw a teenage girl walking through a crowded mall wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a brightly colored bra.

The words immodest and scandalous probably come to mind at that thought. Yet that’s exactly the type of thing that happened on Facebook yesterday.

In an online phenomenon that took TMI (Too Much Information) to another level, girls and women all over Facebook were proudly proclaiming their bra colors for everyone in their social networks to read. This was supposedly a ploy to “raise breast cancer awareness” but the problem was there wasn’t a link to breast cancer information and there wasn’t any money raised for its prevention. All people saw was a bunch of bra colors popping up all over their homepages. The words “breast cancer” weren’t even mentioned.   

Now, because the majority of my online friends happen to be teenage girls I saw the entire rainbow represented 20 times over. But I also saw something else that I found interesting: the responses from several men and teenage boys who also happen to be my Facebook friends.

Some guys thought it was funny to put a color in their status updates even though they obviously don’t wear bras. Others publicly announced that they would be taking time off from Facebook until the craze was over. All of them, without using these exact words, admitted that the trend wasn’t causing them to think about breast cancer but was instead causing them to think about a bunch of girls and women in their bras.

I’m assuming that the majority of girls I know who participated didn’t even stop to think about the effect this seemingly fun trend would have on the guys in their lives. But guys are visual creatures who have a hard time controlling their thoughts as it is.

Telling a guy your bra color is an open invitation to have him start lusting after you and thinking of you in your bra or even completely naked. Even if a guy is going to fight the thought instead of giving into it, you are single-handedly responsible for creating this inner war within him.

Would you pose in your bra and underwear for a magazine spread? Then you shouldn’t volunteer to put that same image into the minds of every guy in your social network. Trust me, if you posted you bra color on Facebook that’s exactly what you did.

As Christians, 1 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So let’s act like it and conduct ourselves in modest and honorable ways.

If you made a mistake and posted your bra color for the entire world to see, ask God to forgive you for leading guys to lust and consider posting a public apology in your status update. Then, let it go. Move on from it resolved to make a better choice next time.

And if you want to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer while you are at it, then stop by The Susan G. Komen website and make a donation that will actually do something to help. Because the truth is, the women sitting in chemotherapy right now really could care less about your bra color.

Mod Style Lounge: The Hot New Place to Be!

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Portrait Of A Group Of Teenage GirlsMeet Sarah, Kaley and Eden. Together they comprise the writing team at Mod Style Lounge, a hot new website about fashion and modesty written by teen girls for teen girls.

Just like you they’ve grown frustrated with women who climb up on soapboxes and make it seem like style is a sin. Appalled by the idea that fashion has to be forfeited for modesty, these girls banned together to create a place where fashion can be filtered through the lens of modesty but you can still come out looking trendy and like you went shopping somewhere other than your grandma’s closet.

“We want other girls to know they can dress attractively and stylish while still being modest,” Kaley, and eighteen year old senior, says.

“When most people think of dressing modestly they think of long loose dresses and wearing head coverings,” adds Sarah, also an eighteen year old senior, “that kind of modesty isn’t for everyone and definitely isn’t for us! At Mod Style Lounge we take the latest trends and create modest fashion so you can be trendy and respect yourself and others too.”

Eden, a sixteen year old junior, agrees. “Modesty has such a horrible reputation as being boring and void of color and uniqueness. We want to help girls realize you can look fantastic without looking racy.”

In their own search for guidance on how to be modest the girls noticed that there were far more resources promoting a risqué approach to fashion. Almost everything they found on modesty came from a mother figure that just didn’t seem to get where they were coming from.

“Most of the blogs were for adult women written by adult women,” Sarah said. “Being a highschooler myself, I know we teenage girls need guidance in finding cute, modern and modest fashion.”

“Our blog is more relatable,” Eden adds, “because it’s teen girls writing for teen girls. We’re all on the same level without the semi-authoritative adult mentality.”

The girls also understand the pressure to fit in that comes from friends and classmates.

“It’s hard to stand strong in your belief to not wear booty-shorts when in the summertime almost everyone is wearing them,” Kaley adds.

In addition to highlighting fun new fashions, the girls also offer practical tips on making sure you are dressing modestly.

Eden regularly writes about how to maintain a unique and funky style while making sure jeans and shirts aren’t too tight or too low. Sarah incorporates Scripture like 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 to help provide a mental check of whether or not readers are treating their bodies like the temple of the Holy Spirit. And Kaley offers dressing room tips like trying all of your clothes on to make sure they fit properly before buying.

The girls also use videos and pictures to demonstrate that the girls and women we see in magazines aren’t real, they’re airbrushed.

“I think a lot of girls see women in magazines with perfect skin and perfect bodies wearing skimpy clothes and getting lots of attention. They want to look like that but it’s not reality,” Sarah says. “The real woman behind that looks just like you and me. The woman in the magazine is fixed and edited. Confidence is a real issue. It’s so hard for a girl to believe she is truly beautiful and doesn’t have to get attention by dressing that way.”

Eden chimes in. “Modesty shows the respect a girl has for herself, for her guy friends and for those she may meet in her day. It also represents the respect she has for her Heavenly Father and the body He gave her.”

When it comes to modesty and fashion these girls get it. If you are a teenage girl, their blog is a must read. A new post from one of the girls appears every week. If that’s not often enough, all three of them also write for the Proverbs 31 Ministries Rad Revolution blog, and Sarah also writes for Real Teen Faith. In addition to that, all three of them maintain their own personal blogs (click on their names in the first sentence of this post to find them).