A modest fashion proposal

Teens call for stylish clothes with coverage

No panties. Bare midriff. Lots of cleavage. It's the kind of stuff that helps so-called role models such as Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears grab headlines and attention on the red carpet.

Morgan Morrissette, an eighth-grader at St. Michael the Archangel School in Cary, isn't impressed. She sees right through it.

"If you have to show parts of your body to get guys to like you, it's not worth it," Morrissette says. "You should be able to get guys on how you talk and your personality."

Morgan, who will turn 14 next week, is in a new group in the Triangle made up of girls who want to spread the message of modesty in fashion. They want others their age to know they can still be cute and fashionable without wearing short skirts or skimpy tanks.

It may seem old-fashioned and stodgy. But this isn't grandmom's version of modesty; the clothes aren't dowdy.

In the seven-month, faith-based program called Pure Fashion, these teenage girls learn what to wear and how to wear it -- anything from cowboy hats to Bohemian-style skirts to head scarfs. They find out how to shop the nation's leading retailers finding clothes the group says are modest and appropriate. They learn how to navigate a catwalk and do hair and makeup in the latest styles for a grand finale fashion show.

"I thought it was a good message to spread around," Morgan says. "I ended up getting two friends to do it too."

Pure Fashion is just part of a larger modesty fashion movement trying to encourage fashion designers to create more modest clothing, not only for teens and preteens, but also for older women who don't like clothes that are too revealing either for religious reasons or simple personal style.

"I don't know what designers were thinking," says Chelsea Rippy, founder of Shade Clothing, which makes stylish, modest clothing in Utah. "Most women and even girls don't look cute exposing their midriff. I don't think the majority of women feel comfortable in the fashions that are offered to them now. Designers aren't taking women's body sizes into consideration."

She started the company in 2004 after feeling alienated by the fashion industry. Increasingly more of what they created showed too much -- not just bare midriff, but cleavage and legs, she says. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she found the fashionable stuff too revealing. And the modest clothing on the market often was too frumpy and unfashionable.

She knew there had to be a balance.

Ten months after starting Shade, competitors started taking her market share. Now there are at least 30 other companies selling clothes marketed as modest. One Web site, www.beautifullymodest.com, specializes in prom gowns and wedding dresses that are feminine and pretty but conservatively cut. There's not a single strapless wedding gown on the site and not one bride is showing her shoulders. Most gowns have capped sleeves and show about four fingers-width of chest below the collarbone. Many have the latest bridal touches -- a brown satin sash, side ruching or mermaid-style skirt.

Still, Rippy said dresses have been one of the biggest fashion stumbles among the new modesty clothing. So she took on the issue with a line of dresses called Basic Black (www.dressbasicblack.com). You won't find strapless or slinky dresses in the collection. Instead, it's a mix of classic cuts and modern silhouettes that are stylish but don't attract attention to certain body parts.

"I feel like we've been able to take the styles in the latest fashion magazines and tweak them," she says.