I love being able to make modest choices and still look attractive, and now there are so many modest clothing companies who are trying to fill the gaps in what we might be able to find in our local stores. Google something about modest clothing and you’ll find a bunch of goodies. If nothing else, it encourages me when I see how many other like-minded women are out there! Who says you can’t look super pretty without looking provocative?

Jessica
Owner, SakuraRose Boutique
www.sakurarose.com

I’m afraid I have only a scholar’s answer: There’s simply too much made-up garbage about the Middle Ages floating around on the Web to trust. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing accurate about sumptuary laws on the internet. I just haven’t found much yet, other than basic descriptions and definitions. And even the descriptions tend to focus more on social science than on ethics, so you’re likely to read that class warfare rather than concerns for modesty led to sumptuary laws (although class warfare is part of the package too).

I was introduced to sumptuary laws by Professor Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, who is one of the most highly respected scholars of medieval Italy in the world, during a lecture she gave to the graduate history department at ASU about 10 years ago. Her seminal work is “Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy”, although she has published other books and who knows how many hundreds of articles as well (many of which are in French, but you can find translations). I highly recommend anything she has written (or co-written with David Herlihy or Georges Duby).

As a student in college I did not always agree with Profesor Klapisch-Zuber’s viewpoints. She is not a Christian, and she is not inclined to think of the Middle Ages as Christian. But she really challenged me to think. And she graciously encouraged me when I offered alternate explanations than her own. Although she is generally a women’s studies (a.k.a. “feminist”) scholar, I wouldn’t let it daunt you. She gives you so much meat to chew on that you shoudn’t have trouble throwing away the bones.

(Oh, wow, how I wish I could write about all of this some day…)

I found it interesting that the societies with the most rules generally had the most rule-bending. (Did you know that platform shoes actually were a medieval fashion — invented in order to allow women to increase the number of inches of fabric in their skirts??) And the more the rules, the further away from actual modesty things got. Modesty was enforced by code, not by faith, and so people acted like the lawbreakers we are by nature.

The terrible ridiculousness of it all intrigued me. I knew theses were Christian societies, earnestly trying to live out the gospel. So why did modesty codes ultimately encourage the lasciviousness they were supposed to prevent? When I became a believer I found help in what Nancy repeats here: “Modesty is an attitude. It isn’t flamboyant or ridiculous. It is reverent, God-honoring. A modest woman has integrity and self-respect. She cares more for pleasing God than exposing herself to the grandstands. She has security in knowing who she is and Whom she serves.” Modesty isn’t about codes, but about finding freedom to dress, talk and walk in obedience to Christ.

My girls are very young, but they pay attention. Our 7-year old asked at breakfast this morning why the girl in front of us at church had her sleeve hanging off her shoulder — “was that modest, Mom?” I am so thankful I didn’t have to get into the details of the girl’s clothing, but simply direct her through questions about having a modest attitude. Soon she’ll be old enough to enjoy the challenges of fashion history too. What a rich way to encourage incarnational worldview thinking about modesty!