'Fashion Frenzy' shows growing national interest in modesty

PLEASANT GROVE — Teen models in the recent "Fashion Frenzy" show at Pleasant Grove High School featuring modest-but-show-stopping fashions represent a growing national interest in modesty, says a sponsor.

"What we're finding out there is a great need for modest fashions for all ages including the young women. We're really in the thick of it," said Jane Walker, owner of Walker's Bride's Emporium and Eternity Gowns in Provo. Walker started focusing on modest lines of formal wear seven years ago and now tours the country and Canada with affordable, modest prom and bridal gowns that sell well.

"The truth is, I probably wouldn't be doing this if I'd been able to purchase modest gowns," Walker said. "Now we're the largest manufacturer of modest clothing in the U.S. and Canada. I think it's kind of a backlash against clothing that shows everything."

Walker said headmasters in the South approve a student's prom gown before they can be worn to a dance. Cotillion and debutante ball committees exercise the same right.

But if a young woman buys an Eternity Gown, they don't have to bring it in to show committee members. Those in charge have confidence in how the gown will look, Walker said.

"I think it's interesting that they mandate modesty in the South but here we just suggest it," Walker said.

For a long time, modesty was tied to frumpiness, said Walker, but that thinking is changing.

Modest gowns designed by Walker and her staff have shown up at the Presidential Inaugural Ball, on Miss and Mrs. America queens, and in the current Miss Utah's competition wardrobe.

Her gowns were part of the show in Pleasant Grove where the guys and the girls strutted, danced, and even sashayed in a variety of casual and formal wear options that the high school crowd can wear without apology to their peers or their school administrators.

Marlena Moreira wore an eye-catching outfit she put together from the pieces in her closet; a pink, silky top with a white cotton jacket atop a white, scarf-point skirt, worn with high-tied, stacked heels.

Shaun Carley showed what he could do with a little imagination, a few dollars and a couple of trips to a discount clothing store. "I like how I look and this has been fun," Carley said, garbed in a plaid blue-and-white Argyle sweater pulled over a bright orange sweatshirt and a light blue, cotton dress shirt along with khaki, knee-length shorts and a pair of Elvis' blue suede shoes.