It can be done!  You can be dressed modestly and also be appropriate for the office.  You can be dressed modestly and avoid being frumpy.  Just think about the various styles that have existed over the history of clothing and realize that today there is a wider variety of styles in fashion than ever before– it can be very exciting and confusing.

One delightful book about modest style is IT’S SO YOU by Mary Sheehan Warren, which is about finding your personal style and colors and being frugal and stylish by buying only what works for YOU;  another is THE SCIENCE OF SEXY by Bradley Bayou which is NOT much about sexy and very much about recognizing styles that suit your body by showing off your assets and hiding the flaws–which the previous book glosses over–while ignoring colors which all women realize are important to looking good.

I use both books together because the Science of Sexy has helped me find the particular designs of clothing that meet my personal standard for modesty while flattering my figure and It’s So You helped me to carry that into choosing colors and recognizing that I had a personal style that if followed would give me clothing that I liked to wear.  Neither book alone gave me the big picture but together they have been a joy to use.

Until I discovered modesty, I didn’t much like clothing or care.  Modesty opened up a whole vista of clothing choices and that challenge has been fun.  It has led to a whole lot of exploration on the web of what people are doing in clothing.  Not the big fashion houses, I generally hate everything I find in a so-called fashion magazine.  I’m talking about regular people exploring fashion in creative and still modest ways.  There are sewers who are delving into 1940’s styles and updating the fabrics and cuts to today and making clothing that doesn’t look retro at all but has a shape that is flattering in fit and modest in style.  The Steampunk mentioned in my last post is another group, taking Victorian and Edwardian era clothing and mixing it up to make the frilly, feminine, Steampunk style.

This enthusing is all to encourage my readers to think outside the box.  Don’t let modern designers dictate what you think is good fashion.  Explore, be creative, take a chance on something retro but with a twist of your own.

There is a lot of fun to be had in dressing modestly!