It’s like the old question, “Do you
lock your house to keep people out,
or to protect what’s inside?” Should
a person act modestly and dress
modestly in order to prevent
intrusion from the outside,
undesirable things from happening,
or to preserve and maintain what is
inside? Like it or not, what we dress
in is a direct reflection of who we are
personally, socially, and historically. I
don’t see how a piece of clothing can
be indecent. A person, yes. There is
much to support the view that it is
clothes that wear us and not we that
wear them; we may make them take
the mould of arm or breast, but they
would mould our hearts, our brains,
our tongues to their liking. Clothes
are never a frivolity: they always
mean something. Clothes can
suggest, persuade, connote,
insinuate, or indeed lie, and apply
subtle pressure while their wearer is
speaking frankly and straightforward
ly of other matters. Those who make
their dress a principal part of
themselves, will, in general, become
of no more value than their dress.
All women’s dresses, in every age
and country, are merely variations on
the eternal struggle between the
admitted desire to dress and the
unadmitted desire to undress. I have
heard with admiring submission the
experience of the lady who declared
that the sense of being perfectly
well-dressed gives a feeling of inward
tranquility which religion is
powerless to bestow.