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Why I Dress Modestly
Ivy’s Story

As a little girl, I always loved to wear skirts, dresses, flowing shirts… basically anything that was pretty! I wore pants more as I got older, but I still wore skirts often simply because I liked them and they made me feel like a princess. When I was 9 years old, my parents read a book about modesty and decided that, from then on, they wanted my sister and I to only wear skirts. This didn’t bother me at all, and I only wore pants when I’d be doing something like cleaning the chicken coop or putting up fencing. Being so young, I didn’t understand exactly why we wore skirts all the time, but I didn’t mind at all and I became very comfortable wearing them.

In a few years, I started going through a “potato-sack” phase. I look at some of the clothes I wore then and think, “How on earth did I wear that! This would be enormous on me even now!” But as I entered my teens, I began succumbing to peer pressure and the desire to not look different. I begged my parents to let me wear jeans again, and they reluctantly relented. For a few months, my manner of dress was certainly not very modest or feminine, and I never did feel very comfortable dressing that way.

The summer I turned 14 was also the summer I was confirmed, and it was one of much grace! I re-read Colleen Hammond’s book “Dressing With Dignity”, and it really made an impact on me. It really hit me that dressing modestly shows respect to your body, and therefore, respect to God who made it. I also realized that wearing potato-sack-like, unattractive clothing is not respecting your body. It should be clothed in beauty, and so I once again began to wear skirts most of the time, got rid of all my tight (and uncomfortable!) jeans and t-shirts, and made a greater effort to dress and act in a modest and feminine manner. I also began to realize that I had a duty towards men to not be an occasion of sin to them, and I knew that those men I knew, and also strangers I’d pass on the street, looked at me differently and with much more respect when my clothes fit modestly and decently.

Now, about 3 years later, I still wear skirts almost all the time, and try to only wear pants when I’m just to cold in a skirt, or when it would be decidedly impractical. I love wearing skirts – I find them to be more comfortable, they’re far more interesting than jeans, you have this wonderful feeling of dignity when you wear one and you know that people will look at you with respect. It seems that one thing that stops a lot of people from wearing skirts more often is they’re afraid of what peoples’ reactions will be. (I know it has certainly given me pause!) But I’ve started to not really care what others think, and I’ve also found that most people will think it’s pretty admirable – being fearless when it comes to doing what you believe in is something most people admire.

One great part of dressing modestly is that it makes women feel more feminine and worthy of respect – it reminds them of who they are and who God created them to be. Anything of value is hidden and hard to attain. To quote an article on modesty that I wrote that summer I returned to modest, feminine dress: “…our bodies should be hidden like the great treasure that they are. Look in our churches; the greatest of all Treasures is hidden – within the tabernacle. Our bodies are one of the most precious treasures that this great Treasure has given us, and we should respect them.”

~ Ivy