Friday, August 26, 2011

Duggars on Modesty

A Public Expression of Modest Femininity

I love meeting people who are courageous and content in modesty. I've been remotely-introduced to these happy, beautiful young ladies whom a TV channel finds interesting enough to make multiple programs about and whom viewers find fascinating. The American family have also published two books which I found to be complete page-turners.
"The Duggars: 20 and Counting" recounts some of the questions asked by viewers about the way the girls dress, and includes answers from the Duggar parents or their daughters.

e-Mail to the Duggars
Q: Do your daughters always wear long dresses? Why?
A: First, we want to stress that this is our family's practice. We don't put our conditions on other people or tell others what they should wear. Our standards of modesty are based on personal prayer and Bible study. We want to attract others' interest to our faces and our character, rather than to our bodies. For us, that means long pants for the boys and long skirts for the girls and no low-cut tops. Amazingly, some of our older children have developed stronger convictions about dress standards than we have.

Here's a question of which I've heard many variations. I love how 16-year-old Jessa responded to it. (Click image to enlarge.)

Click here to enjoy photos of the Duggar girls and cute girl-outfits. Jessa and Jinger are the family experts on how to dress modernly-modest, and most of their shopping is done at thrift stores. Notice how they use layering.

Thank you, Duggars, for sharing your life with the world!

Their second book, "A Love that Multiples"*, includes modesty links in the Resources section. I had a browse and am delighted to add www.ChristopherandBanks.com to Boutique Narelle's recommended stores list.

This resource link answered a question I'd been longing to ask the Duggar girls: What is that garment you're wearing under your t-shirts?

After studying photos of the way the girls dress, I deciphered that they have access to a layering garment I've never seen in New Zealand or in any online store to date. It has more shoulder coverage than a camisole. It has a crew-neck like a t-shirt, but no sleeves. Its hem is at hip level, so it's not a tee-neck/dickie/modesty panel.

You can purchase them from www.christopherandbanks.com or plus sizes sister-store www.cjbanks.com. The store calls the garment a tank, but it's quite unlike the tanks available here which are nothing more than glorified singlets. My description is a sleeveless crewneck tee. 

Wearing two layers of cotton knit won't be a comfortable solution for hot climates (or those that have summer without air-conditioning). It's a wonderful modesty fixer for mild climates, and it might mean you can wear those pretty blouses made of sheer fabric.

If you'd like to find out more about the fascinating, inspirational Duggar family, their website is www.DuggarFamily.com.

I still have a question for the Duggar ladies: How do you get your hair kinky like that?


Note: We are very sorry for the missing images in this post. They were unexpectedly and irriversibly gobbled by Google+. 😱😭

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing these video-links Narelle. Very thought provoking as it's been a topic I've been thinking about a lot more lately and going through my wardrobe again as certain items have somehow crept in over the last few years. Thank you, Alison=)

Maungakiekie said...

Narelle, in case you haven't come across the answer yourself yet, the Duggar girls perm each others' hair at home (for about $5 a pop) to give it that lovely curl.

If you watch videos of them when they were younger, you'll see that their hair is naturally straight and even wispy.

I love the way it looks permed.

Narelle Worboys said...

Thanks for that, Maungakiekie! =) I realized that their hair isn't naturally curly, and it looked like they have more help than a spritz-and-scrunch.