It is common in our Byzantine Catholic parish for both men & women to dress according to the Feast Days of the Liturgical year (blue for Feast Days honoring the Theotokos [Blessed Virgin Mary], green for Pentecost [green represents flowering & new life], red for Feast Days commemorating martyred Saints, etc.)  It is also common to see women covering their head for the Divine Liturgy.

I really liked several of the pieces, and I got to practice reading Russian (which I took for three years in high school).  Thank you for sharing!  ochen koroshow!

Yes—the pose coupled with her clingy shirt is bit alluring—certainly not modest, in my opinion.

Some of those outfits are just great!  I would love to be able to buy some of them.  I love all of the cute vests.  I’d say about 1/2 of those outfits are very modest AND downright stylish!

The modesty issue is certainly a fascinating topic.  To be honest, though I can’t help but feel that it goes to extremes sometimes.  Sure, there are all kinds of current fashion trends to avoid (extreme miniskirts, visible thong underwear, etc.), but I do think the modesty thing can be overdone.  I’m a woman, and I have curves; that’s how the good Lord made me.  I’m not going to wear a burkah or a tent, so those curves are just going to be visible, period.

I really do understand wanting to make life easier for guys, and not giving them visuals that make them uncomfortable.  Still, it’s part of their nature to notice women’s bodies.  It’s not their fault if a random thought—“Oh, she’s a good-looking woman”—pops into their minds.  It’s what they do WITH the random thought that is the question.  I’d rather have my husband think, “Oh, that’s a good-looking woman.  Whatever.  Moving on now,” than have him obsess and feel bad about thinking it in the first place.  When you just keep beating yourself up about a random thought, it takes root in your mind and becomes harder to get out.  No doubt my opinion on this is colored by my own past struggles with scrupulosity and OCD.  I had to learn a long and painful lesson about how I was NOT responsible for “bad thoughts,” and that it was better to think, “Oh, that was a bad thought.  Oh well.  Moving on now,” than to think, “I had a bad thought!  I’m a sinful person!  I must work really hard so I never have another bad thought again!”

I guess I’m thinking that, back to the modesty question, there will ALWAYS be ways to see women’s bodies (unless you live in a fundamentalist Mormon sect and wear prairie dresses).  I’m not sure we can (or should!) go to painful extremes to keep female curves away from guys’ eyes.  It seems like it’s better to help them learn to accept and let go of the occasional bad thought, in the manner of recovering OCD-ers.  But again, this is colored by my own expieriences.

Cool! I really like a lot of the outfist on that link.  The thing I think is bad in America is that it’s so HARD to find clothing like that!  I will bookmark that page and use it for ideas.  A lot of the nice outfits were just layers…so that’s always a good idea.