Comments on: Mormon Aesthetics on the Runway

By: Ladyship

Ladyship — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:42:26 +0000

Most of the time, I dress up for church. I think its about showing respect for God and setting apart Sunday as a special day. Still, having to shimmy into hose isn’t especially fun.

I love sparkly jewelry – the bigger and glitzier, the better. A couple of years ago, my grandmother divided her jewelry between her granddaughters. I mostly wear it to church.

By: kristine N

kristine N — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:33:54 +0000

My husband tells me women dress up *a lot* more to go to church in the south, and from the few times I’ve attended church with his family, it’s pretty true. I would never dream of wearing truly formal attire to church, yet for Christmas Eve services, I would have been truly frumpy in anything less.

By: jessawhy

jessawhy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Kiskilli,
A unitard . . .?

By: SingleSpeed

SingleSpeed — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:51:25 +0000

maybe i have a history of attending particularly frumpy wards.

By: AYW

AYW — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:11:52 +0000

delurking, if I may:
In my singles ward, it’s mostly the younger sisters (and some of the brothers, too, I’ll say) who go all out for Sunday (and all of the activities). It could be that the rest of us have just given up.

By: Kiskilili

Kiskilili — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:43:03 +0000

I think all of you are right that this is very bound up in issues of class.

It stands to reason that even things like dress clothing generally are at root displays of wealth: even if they’re not ostentatiously or obviously expensive, they tend to inhibit movement in various ways. No doubt the point is to display the fact that you don’t need to move–you can afford clothes in which you simply sit still, clothes that are pristine, unwrinkled, and unscuffed. They’re a luxury in that they’re specifically non-utilitarian.

A helpful byproduct of this is that they restrict ease of engaging in physical (thus, non-sabbath-appropriate) activities. (I once had a roommate who regularly wore a unitard under her dress to mitigate this problem.)

But obviously various types of Sunday attire are nothing more than a convention, and hopefully not a reason to engage in the sort of class snobbery that the Church should seek to eradicate.

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:20:48 +0000

ECS, if you turn on the heat or AC and blast it in your face, you can blow dry your hair with the fingers of one hand while you drive with the other hand. Not that I’ve ever done this, of course.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:08:01 +0000

Jess, I thought the exact same thing about the AZ church culture. And I agree — it depends on where you are.

And Zenaidad, I (er, um, I mean “Stephen”) would very much like to see you scripturally justify that statement. Stink and burn in deed

By: Zenaida

Zenaida — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:36:33 +0000

The church of the catwalk is alive and well where I am, and I live outside of Provo. Some weeks it is full on haute couture Sunday. : ) I also think that it has largely to do with income. Those who have more tend to think that everyone should be as visually appealing as they are even without the means to reproduce such feminine, or masculine, jewels (and yes, I think some of the men are just as bad or worse than the women, so men you might want to watch out for the stink and burn as well).

By: ECS

ECS — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:31:54 +0000

I sometimes take a perverse delight in dressing as plainly as possible for church.

LOL – I’ve done this, too. I used to have to dress up for work, so Sundays were my dress down days. Come to think of it, I attend Church almost every Sunday with my hair wet. I do manage to put on some lipstick or something in the car on the way, though.