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Modesty: In One Season, Out the Next

This week in Jewcy, our partner site

by
Unknown Author
May 18, 2012

Back when I was in yeshiva high school, three-quarter length shirt sleeves were all the rage at the Gap. My friends and I joyously rifled through the racks at Brooklyn’s Kings Plaza branch of the store, thrilled to buy a piece of clothing that we could wear right off the hanger—no alterations required to meet modesty guidelines. It was a victory for female Orthodox Jewish shoppers in the late 90s.

I have no idea why the powers-that-be at the Gap and other stores decided that season that covered elbows were “in.” But my friends and I were grateful that, for once, we could shop in the same chain stores as the rest of the country and be part of what, in retrospect, was a really ugly moment in fashion history.

Another such moment is now upon us. As this BuzzFeed article observes, it has never been a better time to be a fashion forward Orthodox Jewish female. Decreed by designers, retailers, and trend-setters—reality TV star Olivia Palermo, stylist Rachel Zoe and the regal Kate Middleton among them—modesty (or tznius, as Ashkenazic Jews are wont to say) is officially back in style.

Read the rest at Jewcy.com

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