A well known protestant preacher, who is in jail today, a man otherwise close to Orthodoxy through the many heartfelt presentations and debates that he made in regards to Creation and by refuting Evolution, said once this particular utterance: “If you are not in business, why do you advertise?”. He was referring to a girl or a woman who were not dressed properly, revealing details of the body in all circumstances, to anyone looking at them. But why were they looking at them?
Obviously, the ‘prostitute’ type of appearance is not out of extraordinary, today. Unfortunately, such girls and women have this sort of apparition, everywhere, even into the Church. Or if this style of dressing is avoided while in the Church, the fatal dress is worn without any problem at work or at shopping. Evidently, we are not to police any of these descriptions. It is just an attempt to summarize the different forms of understanding that ‘clothed’ people have in relation to the Orthodox Church and own Salvation.
Fashion, that is a change of people’s appearance at a given ‘signal’, became in this modern age an exercise of revealing as much flesh as possible. It is quite hard to describe the present and past fashions, because what is left uncovered is greater than what is covered, or if it is covered, it is covered with yoga pants that reveal more than would otherwise be revealed without pants at all! The only description that we can give, without offending people with common sense, is by talking about ‘wrappings’ around bodies: bow-knots, belts, hats, girths, straps and sandals.
Summer time, especially, is the season of maximum exposure. It is interesting to identify that even during cold seasons miniskirts are not losing their appeal to be worn by the wishful ones. It can be observed that young ladies wearing a minimal covering of their bodies, during freezing conditions, seem not to suffer of such low temperatures. The devil is ‘protecting’ them not to be ill with for making man attracted and lured into the realm of bodily corruption. If women are in such ‘business’, they do advertise, unfortunately! The problem that both the ladies who dress in this manner, without being ‘professionals’, and the ‘real professionals’ have is with this wrong advertisement.
From a ‘fashion’ perspective, with its heavy announcements, every single item worn by girls and women, such as underwear products for instance, are associated into the people’s minds, through external and perverse inducement, with the parts of the body that they are supposed to cover. So the fashion is mainly about ‘revealing’ not hiding. If one is serious in the Godly Business, well, do advertise! What kind of advertisement? It must be the ‘commercial’ of the out-of-this-world look: modesty and sternness, verticality and joyfulness, alms-giving and love and patience, away from the advertised décolletage.
