modesty

(Photo © 2012 Fashion Belle) Shopping for girls' modest dresses may be easier than shopping for women's modest styles, but the challenge is growing as elements of immodesty are being pushed into the clothing market for increasingly younger ages (reference this scholarly research from Sex Roles journal, Sexy clothes: too much, too young).

(Photo credits, clockwise from left: Official Royal Wedding 2011 linking to the British Monarchy Photostream on Flickr, Aliza's Bridal Boutique, two designs from Modest Couture by Elizabeth, Wikipedia, Wedding dr

(Photo credit: Dolce & Gabbana, Fashion Show Winter 2013, Woman) Over the past year, the study of best practices in visual merchandising has become a special area of interest for me in the formulation of plans for marketing Fashion Belle sewing patterns, both on package covers and possibly in retail fabric stores with a display of custom fabric.

Men who teach on the topic of female modesty generally emphasize proper coverage of the bustline. Their reasoning is that male observers who wish to maintain a high standard of morality are undesirably stimulated by women in public who wear clothing that exposes this area. This is no news, really, since modern fashion exploits cleavage for its sex appeal and sales power. Some surveys have even suggested that men view women with naturally smaller breasts, regardless of what the women are wearing, to be smarter, more moral and more modest than those naturally gifted with a larger shape! Data like that suggests to me that society needs re-education about the realistic shape of a woman.

(Screenshot from www.kyliebisutti.com) Kylie Bisutti, a fashion model and professing Christian, found herself at the center of a media storm beginning December 1, 2011, when she posted the following series of messages to her Twitter account about her decision to start choosing more modest modeling jobs: