When I was setting up Modest Clothing Distributors I had my daughter proof-reading and editing some text for the web site. When she finished I noticed that she had deleted the phrase modest jumper every place that I had mentioned it in the text. I exclaimed that we needed to keep that terminology. She came unhinged over that concept. She wanted to rename the jumper, something like a modest over dress, or a modesty vest, or any thing but modest jumper. I promptly explained to her about keywords and of course we kept modest jumper in the text.
The jumper is, of course, a staple for the modest clothing industry. It reminds us of an era bypassed by the hustle and bustle of women clawing alongside their male counterparts to reach the top of the ladder, and somehow we feel like modest clothing doesn't fit into that picture. The jumper, or modest over dress (as we began to call it) though, evokes images of little girls wearing a modest dress at school and play and a frilly, little, dress to church on Sunday.
But why is it called a jumper and not a modest over dress? My wife and girls surmise that maybe it's because the modest girl has to jump into the dress because there is usually no zipper or buttons. Or maybe it's because girls jumped around in the modest over dress all the time. One of my girls thought that it was because they only played jump rope when girls wore a modest dress everyday. Then the youngest guessed that it's called a jumper because they always played hop scotch in the “days of modest clothing”.
Needless to say we have had a lot of fun trying to guess why the modest over dress is called a jumper. Since dad is a quasi pointy head, I had to find out the history and etymology of the term jumper. The first thing I found was that in British English a jumper is a sweater. That was curious, because a modest over dress looks nothing like a sweater. So why is the modest over dress called a jumper? Well it seems that jumper is a derivative of the French word jupe. This seemed to be getting a little closer, because jupe means skirt. It still puzzled me though because a skirt is only half of a modest dress. Finally, I fell upon the theory that jumper ultimately derives from the Arabic jabba. Imagine my despair when I found a modest clothing web site selling jabbahs, to men. A jabba (or jabbah) is not a modest dress for women at all, but a long robe worn by Arab men.
I guess we will never really know why the modest over dress is called a jumper, but since the majority of women looking for modest clothing are going to type jumper into the search engines, at Modest Clothing Distributors, modest over dress is out and jumper is in
Showing posts with label Modest dress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modest dress. Show all posts
Friday, May 21, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Is a Jumper a Modest Dress or a Mans Robe?
When I was setting up Modest Clothing Distributors I had my daughter proof-reading and editing some text for the web site. When she finished I noticed that she had deleted the phrase modest jumper every place that I had mentioned it in the text. I exclaimed that we needed to keep that terminology. She came unhinged over that concept. She wanted to rename the jumper, something like a modest over dress, or a modesty vest, or any thing but modest jumper. I promptly explained to her about keywords and of course we kept modest jumper in the text.
The jumper is, of course, a staple for the modest clothing industry. It reminds us of an era bypassed by the hustle and bustle of women clawing alongside their male counterparts to reach the top of the ladder, and somehow we feel like modest clothing doesn't fit into that picture. The jumper, or modest over dress (as we began to call it) though, evokes images of little girls wearing a modest dress at school and play and a frilly, little, dress to church on Sunday.
But why is it called a jumper and not a modest over dress? My wife and girls surmise that maybe it's because the modest girl has to jump into the dress because there is usually no zipper or buttons. Or maybe it's because girls jumped around in the modest over dress all the time. One of my girls thought that it was because they only played jump rope when girls wore a modest dress everyday. Then the youngest guessed that it's called a jumper because they always played hop scotch in the “days of modest clothing”.
Needless to say we have had a lot of fun trying to guess why the modest over dress is called a jumper. Since dad is a quasi pointy head, I had to find out the history and etymology of the term jumper. The first thing I found was that in British English a jumper is a sweater. That was curious, because a modest over dress looks nothing like a sweater. So why is the modest over dress called a jumper? Well it seems that jumper is a derivative of the French word jupe. This seemed to be getting a little closer, because jupe means skirt. It still puzzled me though because a skirt is only half of a modest dress. Finally, I fell upon the theory that jumper ultimately derives from the Arabic jabba. Imagine my despair when I found a modest clothing web site selling jabbahs, to men. A jabba (or jabbah) is not a modest dress for women at all, but a long robe worn by Arab men.
I guess we will never really know why the modest over dress is called a jumper, but since the majority of women looking for modest clothing are going to type jumper into the search engines, at Modest Clothing Distributors, modest over dress is out and jumper is in.
The jumper is, of course, a staple for the modest clothing industry. It reminds us of an era bypassed by the hustle and bustle of women clawing alongside their male counterparts to reach the top of the ladder, and somehow we feel like modest clothing doesn't fit into that picture. The jumper, or modest over dress (as we began to call it) though, evokes images of little girls wearing a modest dress at school and play and a frilly, little, dress to church on Sunday.
But why is it called a jumper and not a modest over dress? My wife and girls surmise that maybe it's because the modest girl has to jump into the dress because there is usually no zipper or buttons. Or maybe it's because girls jumped around in the modest over dress all the time. One of my girls thought that it was because they only played jump rope when girls wore a modest dress everyday. Then the youngest guessed that it's called a jumper because they always played hop scotch in the “days of modest clothing”.
Needless to say we have had a lot of fun trying to guess why the modest over dress is called a jumper. Since dad is a quasi pointy head, I had to find out the history and etymology of the term jumper. The first thing I found was that in British English a jumper is a sweater. That was curious, because a modest over dress looks nothing like a sweater. So why is the modest over dress called a jumper? Well it seems that jumper is a derivative of the French word jupe. This seemed to be getting a little closer, because jupe means skirt. It still puzzled me though because a skirt is only half of a modest dress. Finally, I fell upon the theory that jumper ultimately derives from the Arabic jabba. Imagine my despair when I found a modest clothing web site selling jabbahs, to men. A jabba (or jabbah) is not a modest dress for women at all, but a long robe worn by Arab men.
I guess we will never really know why the modest over dress is called a jumper, but since the majority of women looking for modest clothing are going to type jumper into the search engines, at Modest Clothing Distributors, modest over dress is out and jumper is in.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
A Women's Revolution for Modest Dress
In the modern era modesty began its decline in the mid-nineteenth century. The rise of the burlesque show in the 1840's began as the entertainment genre for the lower classes, for the purpose of making fun of (“burlesquing”) the habits of the upper class, such as wearing modest, long dresses. What began as class warfare on the upper class' modest dresses; over the next couple of decades became an expression of bawdiness for all classes. Today's modest women, and teen girls, wearing long dresses and skirts and modest tops - wearing modest clothing - are warriors for the freeing beauty of modesty and for liberating those oppressed by pressures to reveal their bodies.
The immense success of “The Black Crook” in 1866 proved that American audiences were ready to pay to be stimulated by the absence of modest clothing for women. The plot of this colossal hit was completely mindless, but the producers made sure that audiences were distracted by women parading on stage in flesh colored tights, taunting modest standards of dress.
The march from the modest dress of the Victorian era overtook society through the “gay nineties” and into the “roaring twenties”. The race away from modest clothing slowed somewhat from 1930 up to the 1960's. But the 1960's elevated new thought processes. In the 19th century, and through the 1920's people were titillated by participating in what they knew to be bad behavior. In the 1960's our youth actually believed that systems of morality governing modest dress were formulated by the elite to oppress the lower classes. They genuinely believed that individuals had the right and ability to determine for himself whether to wear modest clothing or no clothing at all.
It is piteous how quickly the upper class was willing to give up standards of modest dress when the lower classes declared war on modesty. Today the only standard of the elite is the individual's right and ability to develop his own criterion concerning modest dress. I believe it's time to declare war on this “nonstandard” that denies the freeing beauty of women, and especially teen girls wearing modest dresses clothing.
Writing about early America, Alexis De Tocqueville stated, “Among the Anglo-Americans there are some who profess Christian dogmas because they believe them and others who do so because they are afraid to look as though they did not believe in them. So Christianity reigns without obstacles, by universal consent,...” He continues, “...everything in the moral field is certain and fixed,...” (Democracy in America, Mayer, 1988, pg. 292). This is why prior to the twentieth century women, teens and girls virtually universally wore long, modest dresses.
To reclaim modesty as a fixed standard today's modest woman must throw off the thinking of the 1960's which has oppressed women for nearly fifty years. Live Christian dogmas because you believe that they free women to dress in modest clothing. If you have any doubts about the freeing power of God's law consider this fact: theologians count a little over 600 laws in scripture, but congress passes thousands of bills every year.
The immense success of “The Black Crook” in 1866 proved that American audiences were ready to pay to be stimulated by the absence of modest clothing for women. The plot of this colossal hit was completely mindless, but the producers made sure that audiences were distracted by women parading on stage in flesh colored tights, taunting modest standards of dress.
The march from the modest dress of the Victorian era overtook society through the “gay nineties” and into the “roaring twenties”. The race away from modest clothing slowed somewhat from 1930 up to the 1960's. But the 1960's elevated new thought processes. In the 19th century, and through the 1920's people were titillated by participating in what they knew to be bad behavior. In the 1960's our youth actually believed that systems of morality governing modest dress were formulated by the elite to oppress the lower classes. They genuinely believed that individuals had the right and ability to determine for himself whether to wear modest clothing or no clothing at all.
It is piteous how quickly the upper class was willing to give up standards of modest dress when the lower classes declared war on modesty. Today the only standard of the elite is the individual's right and ability to develop his own criterion concerning modest dress. I believe it's time to declare war on this “nonstandard” that denies the freeing beauty of women, and especially teen girls wearing modest dresses clothing.
Writing about early America, Alexis De Tocqueville stated, “Among the Anglo-Americans there are some who profess Christian dogmas because they believe them and others who do so because they are afraid to look as though they did not believe in them. So Christianity reigns without obstacles, by universal consent,...” He continues, “...everything in the moral field is certain and fixed,...” (Democracy in America, Mayer, 1988, pg. 292). This is why prior to the twentieth century women, teens and girls virtually universally wore long, modest dresses.
To reclaim modesty as a fixed standard today's modest woman must throw off the thinking of the 1960's which has oppressed women for nearly fifty years. Live Christian dogmas because you believe that they free women to dress in modest clothing. If you have any doubts about the freeing power of God's law consider this fact: theologians count a little over 600 laws in scripture, but congress passes thousands of bills every year.
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