Sorry for not doing the rest of the five-minute fashionista posts last week! I fell off the wagon, dragged down by homework. From now on I should just do everything on the weekend and schedule my posts to automatically appear throughout the week.
Shirtdresses are an awesome option for a modest top: they’re long enough to cover your bottom and part of your legs (great if your jeans are a bit snug and you don’t want to show that off), but allow you to wear pants at the same time.
For the next week I’m going to be doing “five-minute fashionista” posts. We all want to dress modestly and look great, but most of us have obligations like family or school that prevent us from devoting a lot of time to our appearance. So I spent a little bit of time coming up with some classy outfits that can be thrown on very quickly but still look great. Probably the main ingredient for a great-looking quick outfit is laying out what you’re going to wear the night before, rather than waiting until the morning to decide. Here is the five-minute Sunday fashionista:
This is what you need:
A long, loose skirt in a neutral shade
A long cardigan in the same or similar neutral shade
A button-up, collared shirt
A pair of comfortable flats
To balance the neutral colors, make sure something somewhere in the outfit pops with color. Here it’s the shoes. But it could also be jewelry or a headcover.
Burda Fashion seems to be a German fashion website from which you can order clothing patterns, many of them modest. They also have several free patterns that you can download if you register with the website (also for free). I especially like the look of the hippie dress.
A while ago, reader Laura posted a link in the comments to a page of instructions on how to make your own mantilla. I’m blogging about it here because mantillas are a traditional Catholic covering, and it’s much cheaper to make your own than to buy one. It is also more difficult to find mantillas at the store, even a Catholic store, because so few women wear them anymore. In addition, mantillas are popular as wedding veils, and the pattern can be used to make your own wedding mantilla.
I love hats. I own hardly any at all, but I still love ‘em. So I just wanted to share with you links to AmandaBeth’s post on hats as cold weather accessories and ModCloth’s vintage clothing and decor, which includes many lovely hats.
Hijab Style has a post about shopping for modest jeans. I personally take a somewhat looser view when it comes to jeans and modesty: I’m okay with skinny jeans (except for the ones that look sprayed on – you know the one’s I’m talking about). However, I wear skinny jeans primarily so that I can tuck them into my boots, and I think that skinny jeans look best with longer, looser tops anyway. I would like more loose-fitting pants other than flare jeans, so this guide is very useful.
Maxi dresses are great for modest dressers because they’re long and loose, and you just have to throw on a cardigan or unbuttoned shirt to cover your shoulders and you’re good to go. But usually they’re just for the warm months. If you want to wear them when it’s cold out you have to add a few more articles of clothing. Personally I’d recommend a turtleneck shirt underneath, as well as leggings or sweater tights. I’d strongly recommend some boots too.
Surprisingly, given my love of maxi dresses, I don’t actually own any yet. Maybe the next time I go to Ross…Anyway, here are a couple examples of winter maxi dress outfits that I put together:
I'm a young woman who is very interested in modest fashion. Spending a semester in Egypt also made me aware of headcoverings that women wear either as articles of fashion or faith (or both). I'm a writing major and am working on my first novel. You can read my author blog at samantharoyce.blogspot.com.
