In case you didn’t see the PR photos released from Ivanka Trump’s wedding, here they are:

Ivanka wore a custom Vera Wang gown with jewelry from her own line. What I found interesting was this tidbit from Vera on the topic of the design of the gown:

According to Wang, Ivanka liked the gown Grace Kelly wore to marry Prince Rainer of Monaco (which was made by the MGM costume designer) and asked for something that looked as regal and was covered in lace. Wang welcomed the opportunity to design a dress that wasn’t “naked and very Hollywood” and used three layers of different kinds of lace, each pieced together by hand, to make the dress.

Horyn believes this might mark the beginning of a trend for more demurely dressed brides.

“Nothing would make me happier,” said Wang. “I’ve been doing strapless dresses for 15 years. It’s tiring.” (via Coutorture)

Well Vera, we’re tired too. LOL But seriously, I absolutely love Vera Wang’s design asthetic and would love to see her produce a more modest line. Do it Vera, do it!

I’m loving each of their outfits. Kerry Washington has a very feminine, typically very modest style. Not sure how I missed this one, but here is a random shot of her at the Calvin Klein Spring 2010 show from a few weeks ago:

A fake orgasm never looked so fake…

In this romcom, Katherine Heigl plays Abby, an uptight TV producer forced to confront her rules about love and dating when she begins to produce “The Ugly Truth,” a show for women hosted by a misogynistic and disgusting playboy named Mike (Gerard Butler.) When Abby becomes interested in her new neighbor, Mike promises that if she follows his rules, she will have Colin eating out of the palm of her hand. These rules include sexing up Abby’s wardrobe and eating “phallic” shaped objects. (Errm…ok…) In the end, Abby does get Colin, a seemingly stereotypically nice guy with a fake tan and cheek bones I highly suspect have been surgically enhanced, but then realizes she’s lost herself.

Being an advocate of modesty in dress, I found the film’s approach to the topic to be full of mistakes at best. Mike explains to Abby that men are visual and therefore she needs to dress much sexier to garner the attention of men. OK, but then later on in the film he tells her she needs to keep some of her mystery to keep a guy’s attention. Well which is it Mike? Mystery or boobs on display?

The storyline continues with this battle of the sexes, and in the end the message of the film is a little fuzzy…which of course is a social commentary on dating in and of itself.

500 Days of Summer

The plot of this film can be surmised with the phrase, “the guy who wasted his time on the girl who just wanted to have fun.”

500 Days of Summer is the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is your typical average Joe—he works in an office, lives in a grungy studio apartment, goes to bars with his friends on the weekends, etc. When Tom meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) he is convinced that she is “The One”…despite her clear statement that she isn’t looking for anything serious. (I think the audience heard it and Tom just missed it. Poor thing…) Director Mark Webb then takes us on jumps through time to see the various stages of the couple’s relationship. Signals get crossed, sex ensues, break ups and drunken karaoke songs abound…

Critics keep ranting and raving about this one, but quite honestly I found it boring most of the time. This was due large in part to the lack of character development in Summer. We spend most of the film on an emotional roller coaster with Tom, but the film never really shows the audience why we should be so in love with Summer too, only that Tom sees something phenomenal within her. Admittedly she’s got great fashion sense, but other than that, I didn’t really get it. I sat with my apathy for a while and determined that perhaps this confusion is what Webb wanted?

I found the third act of the film to be the most satisfying. The plot twist elicited a general WTF? from the entire audience. Though it wasn’t an exhilarating ride through horrible dialogue and bomb detonations, I would recommend this one.

Paper Heart

In a pseudo-documentary that isn’t (or perhaps is…or something…) Charlene Yi (played by herself) embarks on a cross-country quest to make a documentary about the definition love and she does not believe in love. Through her trek, Charlene meets Michael Cera (played by himself) and the two fall in love…or do they?

Pressured by the camera crew that now wants to include her dating life in the film, Charlene must continue to confront her pessimism about love while simultaneously falling for the quirky nice guy.

Although I have been looking forward to seeing this film since the beginning of year, I was surprised by how much I liked it. I was literally holding my stomach laughing in some areas, and can I just say I’m glad to see a film in which a normal girl gets the guy?

As a filmmaker myself, part of what I found so hilarious was the ongoing behind-the-scenes comedy within the film crew—standing in the rain, running around in grocery stores—hey it’s all for the integrity of the film man!

Charlene’s interviews of random couples were also incredibly heart-warming and gave a reality check on love and marriage not often seen in films. What is love? Is it a feeling or a decision? Charlene seems to take the opinion of the former as she doesn’t think she could ever “feel” so strongly about someone, but the stories of the couples seem to support the latter. (Duh!)

All that being said, the ending was awful…like…God-awful…and I say that because I don’t think it had enough substance for the subject matter the film was trying to undertake. Despite this, I still recommend you go check this movie out.

BTW, Charlene Yi is the co-writer of the film and only two years older than me…quite inspiring for the soon-to-be senior in film school.

I think I can honestly say that I have never been so nervous to get dressed before. I kept putting on outfits thinking–Am I modest enough? Okay, now am I fashionable enough? LOl, it was starting to get ridiculous. I told this to the team that night, and apparently they all felt the same way!

The first session was entitled “What Statement Do My Clothes Make?” given by my friends Maggie and Laura (aka Lals). They were both extremely nervous, but in my opinion did an AMAZING job. There were a few points during the night when I looked around the room and it was completely silent, and it wasn’t because the girls weren’t paying attention, it was because they were really listening to what was being said.

The following is a clip of Lals giving an example of the worth of a woman using earrings as a metaphor. I have a pair of pearl earrings that I love dearly because they were a gift from my mother for my debutante ball. I only wear them on special occasions and always make sure I put them back in the box after I’ve worn them. Then again, I’ve got super cheap earrings that I lose all of the time. In this clip, Lals asks the girls that if we take care of material things in such a manner, why don’t we take care of and cover our bodies? (Skip ahead to :12)

The discussion groups were the highlight of the night. All of the girls were very insightful and very honest and open, which actually sort of surprised me given that I had a camera in their faces all night.

In this clip, one of the participants who is a native from Peru talks about the first time she went to a mass in America. It’s funny, but kinda sad:

We had some youth ministers in the audience who gave us some great advice that we will utilize in the coming sessions. One of the surprises of the night that we weren’t quite prepared for was the age range of the girls, 12-18. If you have ever taught kids, you’ll know that is a humongous range, and we want to make sure all of the girls are comfortable and feel like they’re opinions are being heard.

All in all, the session went really well and I’m looking forward to this Thursday. In the next session, Megan will be giving a talk on manhood and womanhood, which I am sure is going to provoke some nice discussion.

In other news, we have almost finalized the list of designers for the fashion show, and I’ll post that as soon as I get the green light. Also, if you are interested in bringing the program to your neck of the woods, just let me know and we will most certainly work with you.

~Rebecca

I’ve been hinting at it for a while now, and am so relieved I can now officially announce Decent Exposure, a modest fashion formation program for teenage girls, set to begin next week.

Together with Jessica Rey of Rey Swimwear, Katelyn Rose of Suddenly Darling, and a number of modest-minded friends, actors, and models from LA, we will be teaching our very first class of girls about Catholic womanhood, chastity, modesty, and of course—fashion! The four-week program will conclude with a fashion show on July 11th. We’re still in the planning phase for that show, but once we firm up the celebrity host and entertainment I will announce the info. At the moment we’re talking to Beverley Mitchell’s people. (Remember Lucy from 7th Heaven?)

The website for DE is being built as I type, but in the meantime we would love for you to join our group on Facebook.

Each week I will blog about the girls’ progress. I will also be directing a reality series based on the show to be released on DVD early next year.

If you are interested in bringing Decent Exposure to your city, let me know and we will certainly work with you! This is our first go-round, but we certainly plan on taking this program to a national level. Any one of us would be available to help you plan or travel to give a talk/keynote speech.

Your prayers for the success of the program would be greatly appreciated.

The “Wall of Shame” at Pearl Crisis Center depicts the relentless coverage in magazines, television and movies to show skinny, “perfect” bodies of young women.

And the roughly dozen young girls ages 10 to 13 in Pearl’s “Just As I Am” group are the ones who put the Wall of Shame pictures together.

Tired of seeing photographs of airbrushed, too-thin models in teen magazines, the girls have been meeting twice a month after school to talk about self-esteem, to scrapbook, do yoga and eat cake!

The girls want to see more modesty in clothing rather than baring it all.

But rather than just talk about it, they decided to try to make a difference by doing something about it.

The girls recently sent a letter to Jordache Enterprises, a clothing company, which often shows more skin than clothing in its advertisements.

From its website, Jordache touts, “In business for more than 30 years, Jordache has become a powerful name in the world of fashion and beyond. As the originator of the designer denim phenomenon in the late 1970s, the Jordache brand quickly became synonymous with sexiness.”

The Just As I Am girls each wrote their own thoughts to Jordache on the advertisements used to sell Jordache clothing.

Alissa, age 12, wrote, “I realize that people can go to extreme lengths to make money, but is there any other ways to do that besides showing off girls’ bodies in a sexual way? A lot of girls around my age can be affected by it in a negative way, and their self esteem can be lowered a lot. I wish you wouldn’t advertise like this.”

Twelve-year-old Hope wrote, “I think that your advertisements are really inappropriate because it shows off a girl’s body. In this group, we try to make ourselves feel better and strong and not think of ourselves as fat. Your advertisements are not helping us. I think you need to think of other ways to make more money by advertising and please cover your models private areas that we don’t really care about.”

As one girl in the group said, “It makes us feel like we don’t have perfect bodies or we need to be a perfect size to be attractive.”

The group of Just As I Am girls are a variety of shapes and sizes and have different personalities, but they are all strong and they are all beautiful.

And they are trying to help other girls understand that by letting their fellow classmates and friends know that no one has a “perfect” body. Shifting the focus from the body to what’s inside.

“I don’t think our bodies matter, it should be our personalities,” one stated.

“You need to take care of yourself and stay healthy,” another teen added. “As long as you’re healthy, it shouldn’t matter how you look.”

The girls are trying to maintain a positive attitude about themselves and help others keep a good attitude too.

“Don’t let how other people judge you affect how you look at yourself,” one of the girls commented.

That’s a positive outlook, but a difficult one for many teens to follow through on.

According to National Eating Disorders, as many as 10 million females and one million males in the U.S. are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Forty percent of newly identified cases of anorexia are in girls 15-19 years of age.

Of the top 10 teen magazines on the web, only one showed teen girls not looking “sexy” or airbrushed. They were in basketball uniforms. The rest had pictures of airbrushed entertainers and models.

The girls want to continue Just As I Am, but funding for the program has run out and another grant will be applied for so a new group of girls can participate.

“Can we help?” the girls asked their coordinator Natalie Hagle. “Can we visit? We don’t want it to end!”

The girls will be able to help the next group of teens, just as they’ve already been doing by making the decision to speak out and be proud of who they are. 

(Source)

Shakespeare may have been right to write that “all that glitters is not gold.” But some young Catholics are out to buck that logic with a little spiritual alchemy.

Working amid the glitz and glamour of the entertainment and communications industries, these young people are, through their faithful witness, successfully transforming elements of the media into spiritual treasure.

Their tool is zeal. Their message is modesty.

Paige Rees of the Cajun band L’Angélus is one of these young Catholics.

“Immodesty is prevalent in our society,” she says. “In his World Youth Day address, Pope Benedict noted that ‘people sometimes treat others as objects to satisfy their own needs rather than as persons to be loved and cherished.’ Modesty in dress is important because it safeguards against the objectification of persons that the Holy Father speaks of.”

Paige, along with her sister Katie and brother Stephen, has been performing with L’Angélus for 12 years. (The band is online at AngelusBand.com.) She doesn’t make presentations on modesty but, instead, lets her music — and her own modesty — do the talking.

“I keep in mind that external appearance is a reflection of an interior attitude,” she says. “St. Peter tells us that our adornment ‘should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight’”(1 Peter 3:4). “Many times, mothers have thanked us for dressing in a way that is attractive and modest. They tell us that their daughters want to dress the way we do.”

Actress Jessica Rey agrees that it’s important for girls to have a role model. When it comes to choosing clothing, she says, “Girls often don’t want to listen to their mothers. And that leaves a void that needs to be filled.”

Rey, creator of the Rey Swimwear line and star of the Family Theater Productions film Rosary Stars (FamilyTheater.org), is launching a modesty-formation program in southern California. “If girls are not learning about modesty,” she says, “they’re going to turn to media like Seventeen magazine and MTV for fashion advice.”

The current fashions “are all about being half-naked,” says Rey, who works in television shows and commercials. “In essence, the media is saying that you have to sell your soul in order to be fashionable.”

It is just these trends that inspired Rey to design her own line of swimwear. Its tagline is “Who says it has to be itsy-bitsy?”

“Our collection is named ‘Audrey,’ after Audrey Hepburn,” Rey says. “Audrey lived during an era when women dressed and acted like ladies and didn’t feel they had to ‘bare it all’ to be attractive. Modesty is all about beauty. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s boring, frumpy or dull!”

Dignity by Design

Joseph McClane, founder of The Catholic Hack blog (CatholicHack.blogspot.com), explains modesty from the male point of view.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that ‘modesty guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons’ (No. 2521). Modesty isn’t another stuffy rule to follow. It’s a beautiful opportunity to seek holiness.”

McClane is a Catholic media producer, podcaster and evangelist. He also identifies himself as a former pornography addict.

“Women cooperate with God by bringing life into this world. To compromise that gift of their femininity for the lie of this world is absolutely evil,” he says. “Modest dress is an outward sign of an inward truth: Our sexuality is sacred and purpose-driven.”

“I think that most women do not understand this point and therefore don’t realize how serious it is to be the stumbling block that causes others to sin,” he says, adding that his years of employment “in the world” fueled his pornography problem.

“No matter where I was working, I was absolutely surrounded by immodesty and immorality,” he recalls. “There were times when I helped to perpetuate this environment and the objectification of women. In my job at a secular radio show, I used sex and scandal to attract listeners. Is this what God had in mind when he gave me my aptitudes?”

McClane believes young Catholics need to employ their own talents in spearheading a return to virtue. “Embrace modern technology and media,” he urges, “and use it for the glory of God.”

Rees agrees. “In the 1936 encyclical Vigilante Cura (On the Cinema), Pope Pius XI wrote that ‘there does not exist today a means of influencing the masses more potent than the cinema.’ The encyclical goes on to affirm that ‘good motion pictures are capable of exercising a profoundly moral influence upon those who see them. … They are able to present truth and virtue under attractive forms.’”

“Although the Holy Father wrote these words in the days before television and the Internet, I believe that they speak to committed young Catholics today,” she says. “The message is: ‘Go! Be a light in the darkness.’”

Even committed Catholics, however, may find it hard to withstand the temptations that are part and parcel of the popular culture.

“‘Frequent not the company of immodest persons; keep company with the chaste and virtuous,’” says Rey, quoting St. Francis DeSales. “But that can be pretty tough when you’re active in the entertainment industry.”

“A well-meaning Catholic will try to walk the line between good and evil — making an effort to get to daily Mass, but also partying at the hot spots at night, and sometimes trying to evangelize the people he meets there,” she says. “This is dangerous at best and can lead someone into serious sin. I’ve seen it happen.”

Changing Hearts

“It takes courage,” emphasizes McClane, “the kind of courage that the Holy Spirit uses to change hearts.”

“When God knocked me off my high horse, I made a commitment to stop being influenced by my environment and to rather start influencing it by my faith,” he says. “By the grace of God, I was able to stand firm. But this doesn’t mean that young Catholics should lightly fling themselves into environments that are hostile to the faith. They’ve got to be well fitted with a strong armor of faith before working behind enemy lines.”

It’s a battle that can be won, all three agree.

Says Rees, “God is faithful; he keeps his promises. He will give us the grace to listen to the voice of truth, if we ask him. In a society where the ‘voices that advocate a permissive approach to sexuality’ [Vigilante Cura] are a billion-dollar industry, we must follow the radical call to imitate his purity, his love.”

Concludes McClane: “We need people to be bold for Christ, and to use media for the purpose which God meant for it: to communicate the faith. The victory is ours — if we have the courage to take it.”

Dressing modestly does not equate to being frumpy. Just because Jessica hasn’t been seen wearing any low cut, super tight, Herve Ledger dresses like some of her fellow actress contemporaries does not indicate that she has no sense of style, or even that getting married and having a baby somehow diminishes your sense of self. Case in point, here’s some shots of JA a the LA premiere of “Sugar”:

Wear’s the frump? I honestly don’t see it…