Modestia

Hey Ladies!

I’m moving places this week in LA, so the blog will be on hold for a few days. New posts will be made Thursday.

~Rebecca

Kaye Dodson is the designer of Parsimony, an Etsy line specializing in sweet, feminine, frocks in delicious colors.

Check out the entire line at Etsy.com. She also blogs here.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t done a Swimwear Week this summer, it’s because I’ve been underwhelmed by the 2010 lines currently out by most retailers. (Although as an aside, the 2011 line of Rey Swimwear is super fab!)

In any case whenever I get bored with the big kids on the block, I love taking a look at some of the smaller designers. Etsy has a number of very cute, completely unique pieces of swimwear up for sale.

By The Red Dolly

Swanwear has some funky, yet conservative designs.

Dana Lia by DP

(Note: With swimwear, obviously not all of these designs will be modest on every body type. Please use discretion in your purchases!)

My friend Claire just premiered her film The Waiting City in Australia…and looked gorgeous while doing so! If you’re in Aussie land go see it…it’s in theaters now.

Ladies, as I have said in posts before, it is imperative that as women we be a voice for the voiceless:

An Iranian woman faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery. Amnesty International yesterday called on the Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and the hanging of another woman said to be a political activist.

Ashtiani was convicted of having an ‘illicit relationship’ with two men in May 2006 and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite this, she has also been convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. The 43-year-old has retracted a ‘confession’ she said was made under duress.

Appealing for help to the international community, her daughter, Farideh, 16, and son, Sajad, 20, said yesterday: ‘Please help end this nightmare and do not let it turn into a reality. Help us save our mother.’

Sign the petition by clicking here.

Still haven’t gotten ‘em all…but you’ve waited long enough. (I’m on vacay in SD, but when I get back to LA I will upload the runway video which is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.)

Per the request of the parish, this time around we didn’t do a full 4-week program, but smashed everything together into a three-day conference. To kick things off, on Friday evening we had a tea party, which to my surprise the girls really loved. In addition to getting to meet everyone, Maggie gave an etiquette talk and Jes gave an introductory talk about modesty.

On Saturday, I gave a talk about fashion, followed by a talk on chastity given by the super-amazing actor Skylar Testa. We also had a runway class, as well as another talk by our friend Sarah.

Sunday’s runway show show was split into three categories: casual, swimwear, and dressy attire. Most of the clothes are from Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom, Target, Lulus, & Villain’s Vintage. A few of the items are from the respective closets of Jes and myself.

Funny story: Jes was super excited about this lighting she had bought to project our logo…we get there and the thing doesn’t even work. So our girls had to draw our logo!

These are our girls from last year who we are going to train as “student leaders” of sorts to start giving talks as well. (Aren’t they super cute?!)

The Decent Exposure A-Team: Myself, Jes, and Maggie

So sorry for the lack of posts lately; work took over, I’m moving, etc. etc. But…

Here’s a sneak peak of photos from Decent Exposure! I have video and whatnot, but am still waiting for everything to load. This photo is from a run through.

Fashion Show pics and vids coming soon!

Congratulations Amy P! You are the winner of the free copy of How to Be a Hepburn in a Hilton World. I will be contacting you shortly.

I also want to send two sets of public congratulations to Samantha, author of the Hepburn Girls blog, and my roommate V, who have both recently gotten engaged! Congratulations ladies!! Please know you and your future spouses are in my prayers.

Update on Decent Exposure

Well…the next Decent Exposure fashion show is coming up this Sunday evening in Orange County, CA! Instead of weeks of classes, the parish hosting us decided it would be better to do a weekend retreat, so we’ve condensed our program into three days.

On Friday, we will be having a tea party with an etiquette class and an introductory talk about modesty. On Saturday, I will be giving a talk about fashion and modesty. I’m really excited that actor J. Skylar Testa is coming to meet the girls and talk to them about chastity. We’re also having a photo shoot and a catwalk class, as well as some other goodies. I’m super excited!

Ladies, please pray for the success of the program, and that Jesus will open up the hearts of these girls.

~Rebecca

Amada Rosa Pérez was one of Colombia’s top models before she disappeared from the public eye five years ago. Now she is making headlines once again, but this time by sharing her conversion story.

Amada explained to the Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo,” that she had been diagnosed with a disease that left her with only 60 percent of her hearing in her left ear. The news caused her to question her lifestyle. “I felt disappointed, unsatisfied, directionless, submerged in fleeting pleasures …” she said.

“I always sought answers and the world never gave them to me.” (Source)

“Before I was always in a hurry, stressed out, and got upset easily,” she continued. “Now I live in peace, the world doesn’t appeal to me, I enjoy every moment the Lord gives me. I go to Mass, I pray the Holy Rosary daily, as well as the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m.

“I go to confession frequently,” she added.

Amada now works tirelessly with a Marian religious community in Colombia.

“Being a model means being a benchmark, someone whose beliefs are worthy of being imitated, and I grew tired of being a model of superficiality. I grew tired of a world of lies, appearances, falsity, hypocrisy and deception, a society full of anti-values that exalts violence, adultery, drugs, alcohol, fighting, and a world that exalts riches, pleasure, sexual immorality and fraud.

“I want to be a model that promotes the true dignity of women and not their being used for commercial purposes,” Amada said. (Source)

I just want to say publicly that I absolutely loved Annapolis…I’ve never seen so many men wearing khaki shorts at one time; it was like walking around in a J Crew catalogue all day! I wore pearls almost every day too…it was fabulous.

And in case you were wondering, these are my girlfriends from high school!

The USNA Grad Ball (first night I was there.)

Views of the Academy

The most bizarre parade I’ve ever attended…60 of them fainted on the field!

USNA Commissioning Ceremony

My little officer!!

I just got back from my trip to Annapolis and really can’t think of a better way I could have spent the last week. The photo below is from the USNA grad ball…will post more photos tomorrow.

Don’t forget to pray for our troops!

A reader asks:

So summer is right around the corner…..and I’m trying to decide if tank tops are okay to wear if the come up high enough and they aren’t spaghetti strap. I attached a picture of a tank top I really liked. I would wear it with a higher cut tank top so there wouldn’t be any cleavage showing or anything. And I was thinking I would buy one of those bra strap converter things for racer back tanks so you wouldn’t be able to see my bra strap or anything like that. What do you think?

So as you know, I tend to shy away from categorically declaring something “immodest.” In general, do I think tank tops are modest?  No, not really, but you can still look modest if you take certain precautions.

I actually have a tank top identical to the one above that the reader is thinking about buying, and if it’s really hot I usually throw on a high camisole underneath it and go about my business. That said, there are other modesty issues to think about when it comes to tank tops other than cleavage.

First, make sure your bra straps are not showing. (A racer back bra can help with this.) But also, please make sure that the sides of your bra are not visible when you lift up your arms. That being said, DO NOT WEAR SPAGHETTI STRAP TANK TOPS—–they’re not modest and they aren’t stylish either.

Here’s a photo of Kate Bosworth out shopping in NYC…her dress is a tank top, but in my opinion she still looks great.

Questions? Do tell…

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this, but much of my collegiate theological research was spent exploring the Church’s teachings on contraception. When I began college, I didn’t quite understand what the Church’s deal is…but I do now, and praise God more and more women are beginning to catch on as well:

Pikesville gynecologist stops giving out birth control

Dispensing birth control had been a regular part of Dr. Mary Ann Sorra’s gynecological practice for eight years. Not anymore.

After a lot of prayer and discernment, the Catholic doctor embraced a fully pro-life practice about a year ago. She stopped giving out contraceptives and has been working to promote the pro-life message among her patients.

It was one of the most difficult decisions Sorra ever made, but one she believes is in keeping with what God wants of her and her medical outreach.

“I do believe that God was certainly calling me to do this,” she said. “I don’t believe you can be happy unless you do what God is telling you to do. He’s the author of our happiness.”

Early in her practice, Sorra viewed the distribution of birth control strictly as a healthcare issue. Besides, she argued, if she didn’t supply it, someone else would.

“It was what I thought was the standard of care,” remembered the 38-year-old parishioner of Church of the Immaculate Conception in Towson. “We’re trained to think that birth control was important and good for women – that it prevents unwanted pregnancies, decreases abortions and provides fertility control.”

In the back of her mind, however, Sorra struggled with reconciling her church’s teachings and her actions in her medical practice. Late last year, while attending a spiritual retreat in Emmitsburg, she asked a priest about the morality of distributing birth control. In no uncertain terms, he told her it was “absolutely morally wrong.”

Yet, other priests had suggested it might be considered the lesser of two evils – that birth control would be a better option than abortion.

Sorra prayed on it and then made an appointment to meet with Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. In the meeting, the archbishop helped clarify the church’s teaching against artificial contraception.

“I’ve worked with the Catholic Medical Association as chaplain and episcopal adviser over the years on this matter,” Archbishop O’Brien said. “Once they get into it and study it and are open with God’s grace to the Church’s teachings, it’s a new day for them.”

The archbishop noted that if Catholic doctors believe artificial contraception to be an immoral practice, it would be “nonsensical” and “immoral” for them to encourage women and couples to use it.

Sorra stopped giving out birth control, transforming her Pikesville practice into what she believes is one of only a handful of gynecological practices in the region that don’t distribute artificial contraception.

Some patients left in anger, but she picked up 100 new ones…

Read the rest of the article here.

She didn’t ask me to do this, but I’m so proud of her I had to…

Select pieces from the 2010 line of Rey Swimear are now being carried by the fantabulous retailer Shop Ruche. Ironically enough, I discovered Shop Ruche about a week before Jes informed me that she had struck a deal with them, haha. I’ll talk about Shop Ruche more in a separate post, but for now, take a look at the photo shoot they did with two RS suits. The polka dot and cherry print tankinis are on sale now!