modesty

(Screenshot courtesy of 2013grammyalbum.com.) Having never watched the Grammy Awards other than a few clips caught online or in the news, I was unaware of the decency problem faced by CBS in broadcasting the event until I read about it online. We all know that red carpet events are not known for modesty, but the recording industry's premier awards event has apparently been among the worst for attendees who have pushed the boundaries of acceptable attire.

A new Miss America was crowned this weekend in January 2013. Plenty has changed from the pageant's humble beginnings on the Atlantic City boardwalk in 1921, where the first winner was awarded the title of "Golden Mermaid." The Miss America pageant is on my mind for a different reason this week than from the annual event, which I followed only for a few minutes on Twitter. A few days ago, I received a lovely portrait in the mail from a former top-ten Miss America finalist. She is my beloved dance teacher from decades ago, and today her same sweet personality shines through the same lovely face that catapulted her to the top of pageant circles from a small town in the Midwestern United States.

Pictured above are Mrs. Romney's looks for the three presidential debates. She likes necklaces, for sure, as confirmed by these and multiple other photos from the campaign trail. Having a friend of modesty in the White House is an exciting thing to anticipate, with polls showing Mitt Romney's good chance at winning the election. We might even see a national resurgence in modest clothing trends for women as a result of Mrs. Romney's influence.

It was a treat recently to receive a message from Jessie Martinez, a dad who had read some of the information about modest clothing on the Fashion Belle website and wrote to thank us. His perspective on the cultural pressures young women face and his plans for engaging his own and other families in instilling positive values in girls from early ages so impressed me that I wanted to share his message here. When I asked for permission to publish his email, he wrote, "Absolutely. Feel free to re-post my message in your site's forum. I am delighted that you think it may benefit your readers. .

Abby recently requested that I add her Silk and Purple blog to the Fashion Belle blogroll, and after seeing the quality fashion, etiquette and recipe material she posts with the help of several other contributors, I was happy to do so. Abby also publishes an individual blog called La Vie est Belle (French for "Life is Beautiful") with even more photos of cute, modest outfits.

Wow! . . . in a wonderful way, was my first thought when I saw this quote from former Victoria's Secret lingerie model Kylie Bisutti in a September 2012 interview on stayfamous.net.

(Photo credits: bartandnadia low-cut leg line on Nadia Comaneci's 1976 Olympic leotard; nbcolympics top to bottom, Olympic gold medalists Jordan Weiber in qualifying competition on July 29, 2012—in a pose that demonstrates a leg line that could be cut several inches lower without interfering with movement—and Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Jordan Weiber and Aly Raisman on July 23, 2012, in modest practice uniforms just prior to the Olympics in London)

(Screenshot of Ralph Lauren uniforms for Team USA at the London 2012 Olympic Games, also available for sale to the public) Today, July 27, marks the opening ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the debate over modesty and femininity of Olympic uniforms for female athletes has been running in the months leading up to this point, as it has over the years since women began participating in the games in 1900 (only 12 women out of 1,330 athletes that first year).

(Photo credit: The pleated skirt, a style that flatters only the flattest of waistlines, from Lands' End) The fashion distress of my high school years was the knife-pleat skirt such as the Lands' End style pictured. Despite being thin as a teenager, my stomach was never flat or even indented, as seemed to be the case with the glamorous girls among my student peers who chose partially stitched-down pleat styles to fulfill the skirt requirement of our educational dress code.