On Dressing Like a Lady

Lady Rose and a few of her fellow blogging friends have been posting about something they have entitled "A Week in Feminine Dress". Each day for one week they display photos of the feminine fashions that they are wearing. They do this once for each of the four seasons. It really is quite refreshing to see them looking so lady-like. It got me to thinking once again about fashions now-a-days.

The topic of feminine dress ranks up there, like religion and politics, as one of those topics that you had better not bring up unless you are ready to do battle. More specifically, it seems that if you discuss whether or not women should wear pants, you better be ready for some very interesting discussion. Modesty is one thing. Young women and ladies dressing like ladies (and not men) is another.

About five years ago, I became convicted that females should dress like females and men should dress like men. This meant that all the females in our house got rid of our shorts and pants and filled our wardrobe with pretty skirts and dresses. My children were still relatively young, and they were used to wearing dresses anyhow, so it was not that horrible of a transition. We soon discovered that you can do pretty much anything wearing a skirt that you can do wearing pants. We have gone horseback riding, bike riding, hiking, gardening and cleaning out the barn in our skirts. It might take a little more care (especially on windy days!), but it certainly is no hardship.

I am always amazed by the responses we get when we are out in public; all six of us girls in our skirts or dresses. Mostly it is positive, especially from the older generation. Sometimes we have been mistaken for Amish :) However, I have been accused of being judgmental of women wearing slacks - even though I look upon this as a very personal decision, one which I know is not for everyone to make. Once when one of my daughters did wear pants to a family function, I remember the reaction of one of the lady attendees - she was so excited to see her in jeans, she couldn't contain herself. From her comments, you would have thought that my daughter had just been released from a prison camp!

This idea of women dressing like men happens at all ages. There are times where I will see a young person and I honestly can't figure out whether they are a girl or a boy. Just yesterday, I was sitting behind a person with gray hair at Mass and I honestly could not tell from behind whether it was a man or woman because of the way they were dressed (it turned out to be a woman). I guess our position in our house is, if you are a girl, why not take advantage of the wide range of fashions and wear beautiful, flowing, modest feminine clothing. I really think that it makes a difference in how people (especially men) treat you. I also know that I feel more lady-like when I am dressed like a lady. Yes, it is getting harder and harder to find modest feminine clothing, but it is out there, you just have to look harder. Overall, I have to say that all the extra work has been well worth it. I hope that my daughters' future husbands will appreciate the care that they take to dress like ladies. I know that my husband does!

God Bless!