By Sophia Schack

In an age where fashion becomes a statement on identity, politics, and empowerment, there comes a question of who female modesty is truly for. The “modest fashion” movement is more than a trend – it’s a statement. From brands like Pretty Little Thing and Revolve catering towards a more covered-up and “old money” aesthetic, to influencers such as Nara Smith romanticizing a domestic and trad-wife image, we are witnessing a cultural shift in real time.

From Urban Outfitters to Chanel, brands had previously promoted a more revealing look. However, in the past year, there has been increasing popularity in the “milk-maid dress” and other conservative clothing. Modesty is beginning to be viewed as chic, a dramatic shift from the tight-fitting and sexy clothing popularized in the early 2000s and continued by influencers and celebrities. It’s worth asking now: who is modesty for, and who is it serving in either revealing or covering a woman’s body? 

For years, there has been a movement towards revealing clothes as female empowerment through sexual liberation. Yet, as the scholars Patricia Miller and Martha Fowlkes remind us, women still have to explore their femininity and sexuality “in the world of men”. Even in popular literature, there is little exploration towards a woman’s sexuality in a normal environment. More commonly, it focuses on and fetishizes young girls’ bodies. The ideal for a woman’s body and in turn, her clothes, have become based on these ideals instead of a reflection on an average woman. 

I see this all around me: when walking in Soho, stores whose audience is geared towards young women, such as Edikted, are flooded with pre-teens buying booty shorts and faux-leather tops. These clothes are not meant for the average developed woman’s body. Most fashion trends aren’t, in actuality. The so-called positivity surrounding women’s clothes is only positive for certain demographics. Every summer when shopping for bathing suits, I notice that they are progressively getting smaller, until I’m not sure if they would cover up anything on a woman’s body at all. The romanticization of these revealing trends are built towards a specific model – slim, toned, and Eurocentric. Keeping this in mind, the narrative of body positive clothing has become more complicated in practice. 

Enter the movement towards modesty. Whether it is from a religious perspective – Nara Smith and Mormonism as an example – or the “clean girl” and “quiet luxury” aesthetic, modest fashion is undergoing a renaissance. Slowly filtering into mainstream media, modest clothing is being explored and popularized by previously hyper-sexual influencers such as Kylie Jenner, while wearing dresses that purposefully cover her body instead of extenuating her figure.

Something previously frowned upon as prudish and undesirable, is all the sudden becoming aspirational, sought out, and polished. I can’t help but question whether this is a movement based on women taking back control over their body and clothing, or just another way of pressuring us into a certain social role, only this time, wrapped in neutral color palettes and midi-length dresses. 

As the traditional role of young women – marriage – shifted with the rise of feminism, so did the social expectations that they had to undergo. The previous goal was to maintain desirability for their chosen purpose: getting married, and appearing ready for that role. Now, that goal has shifted with the normalization of hook-up culture, and, suddenly, a woman’s job has shifted from exuding the energy of a respectable life-long partner to something fast and easy for men to obtain without much effort. While some view sexual choice as liberating for women, there is still little doubt that men often gain more from these sexual interactions than women. 

In the words of Miller and Fowlkes: “Whereas males are encouraged to give full expression to their sexuality as an indication and demonstration of their masculinity, female sexual response has traditionally been thought to be appropriately derived from relationships with men and their needs… Women’s sexuality is affected by socialization into the female sex role and the subordinate status attached to it in common ways…”

Whatever the social situation may be, women have always had to remain desirable to a male audience. To become fully autonomous in fashion choices, women must also be viewed as equal in economic, political, and social spheres, and not at the mercy of a male superior. With the increase in “toxic masculinity” and continued normalization of rape culture, there appears to only be backtracking in the realm of socioeconomic equality among genders. 

In a country where a woman’s bodily autonomy and reproductive rights are constantly being threatened, it’s easy to place an increase in modesty as a part of a politically conservative agenda. However, choosing to dress modestly shouldn’t be viewed in itself as socially regressive. Modesty is profoundly personal to certain marginalized groups in Western society, and can be a part of spiritual choice, an act of resistance, or a way of reclaiming control over the female body that has constantly been defined by external pressures. 

The problem itself is not modest or revealing fashion trends. It’s the dualistic nature of expectations of women’s fashion, and the imposition on individual choice and freedom that society is experiencing right now. The polarization of fashion trends has led to a hostile environment in which dressing one way is seen as an erasure of culture, politics, or social standing.

Female empowerment in fashion is rooted in why and for whom we are wearing something, not what that item is, and should be viewed as a reflection of personal agency rather than a political or social statement of any group. Until a woman can dress without the judgement of others – whether in a turtleneck or crop top – we will still be dressing in the confines of a gaze that isn’t truly our own.