www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall orthodox fashion show

a fashion show devoted to modest clothing
http://12praz.ru/pages/about/release2.html

I am left wondering how one determines where Russian modesty ends and Orthodox modesty begins. My college Russian is too far gone to translate that article now... But from the photos, I am not so sure that the sense of modesty and propriety is as much "Orthodox" as it is traditional Russian.

I really like the way these women look. These are the type of clothes and ensembles which one can buy from any store. I have.

I like the way they put together the ensembles with their accessories, including the head scarves.

Alice

Yes, that was a nice collection.

I would have liked to see more headscarf designs and ways to wear them.

Yes I agree...it is so hard to get those headscarves right, and young fashionable Muslim girls seem to have nice ways of wearing them.

I was once watching a popular Turkish serial in Greece where a family whose wealthy married daughter brought a nanny over from Russia. She was very striking, so the mother and other daughter were trying to 'trick' her into wearing their traditional dress (although they themselves didn't), in order to be less of a temptation to their wealthy Greek son-in-law.

So they gifted her with a long dress and a head scarf...when she put it on, they complimented her to death (it was really a cute episode)...anyway, the whole point I am getting to, is that they tried to teach her how to wear the scarf (in the most covering manner) in the correct way, and it seemed that they put the front over the forehead and told her to then put it behind the ears (to secure it, I guess), and then brought the rest of it frontwards...

I am probably making little sense, but one thing I have always had a problem with when visiting Russian churches or Greek monasteries, is keeping the scarf in place--not to mention, feeling like I have gone prematurely deaf!!!

Alice

Yes, as a child or an adult, whenever I wore a bathing cap that fit tightly around the ears, I noticed that my hearing was considerably diminished. Maybe that is why girls tend to scream more loudly in swimming pools as they are the ones who usually wear those caps, not boys.

However, when I got my degree in Communicative Disorders, we studied this phenomenon where people who use tight head gear or earphones can experience temporary deafness due to the penna of the ear (outside ear) closing the external auditory canal. Especially in senior citizens, the penna can collapse, cover the opening to the external auditory canal, and then limit the ability to hear. This is why using an external head set in those auditory tests is not always reliable. A sound proof room where an external head set is not required gives a much better result.

of course, there's always this oldie:

That's hilarious. Does anyone remember the commercial with Joe Piscipo pretending to be a member of the East German Women's Swim Team?

I remember those commercials.

Many of my friends of Russian descent were quite offended by the stereotypes presented. I know a lot of skinny Russians and some are driven to anorexia due to commercials like this.

Sheesh! We cannot make videos of other ethnicities, so why is this allowed?

Very feminine, very modest and stunningly beautiful.

My wife and I were discussing just this weekend about the beauty of the headscarf. There are some women in our mission who wear lace mantillas, but to me nothing expresses the beauty of femininity like a headscarf.

God bless,

Fr. Deacon Daniel

Although it was not nice at all to make those commercials we saw, let's remember the context: it was before the end of the Soviet Empire, during our cold war, and at a time when no one had ever visited Russia or really knew contemporary Russians (living there).

I have to admit that I also thought that they were kind of funny then...we all thought of Russian women of that era as being tough babushka types, and with all they endured to survive, and without proper nutrition and medical care because of poverty, or money to spend on themselves, on the most part, they were. So were Greek women of that generation. The beauty they had was much deeper though in that it embodied a strength to overcome incredible hardships and trials for themselves and their families.

The last laugh, however, as far as externals, is on those that created those commercials-- the young women of modern day Russia and Greece today are on the most part, breathtakingly feminine and gorgeous! An American college friend of my daughter's recently spent some time in Athens and exclaimed that he had never seen so many beautiful girls in his life. I have also heard the same comment by some Russian immigrants I used to work with. They had gone to Moscow on business, after being away from Russia for twenty years, and they were bowled over by the young beauties they saw everywhere...so I would say that that commercial is about as 'out of date' as one can get, and therefore, I don't think that your friends or anyone else, Russian or otherwise should worry too much about the outdated stereotypes! Judging from the above Turkish show I mentioned, and from what I hear and see in Greece, today's Russian women have the opposite stereotype of those commercials! They are considered beauties the world over!

Alice

The majority of the Russian women I've known have been very beautiful, and all of them were quite feminine and reminiscent of American femininity in the 1950s. And their shoes!!!
I love the headscarves in the fashion show!Knockout outfits and shoes,but the chest forward postures were a bit too provocative, especially considering that clergy was present. But the headscarves were the real stars.

Indigo,

All models are taught to walk with correct posture. Yes, it might seem provocative, but beautiful women can only be draped like Muslims to prevent showing their figure.

Sheesh! There was a nun I knew who wore a size 48 DD bra. She had to make her own bras because they were not available or were too expensive to buy. However, even her religious habit did not cover her adequately. She was a Dominican so there was the habit, scapular, and cape covering her, but still her figure was revealed.

Here is another link to a new clothing store. These are beautiful skirts.

https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/298414/Modest_attire_for_the_ladies#Post298414

The link you have provided, Slavi, is mostly out of date with several of those companies no longer in business.