The Fashionworn Mom

A fellow blogger once referred to them as "jumper queens": homeschooling moms who think modesty means donning a potato sack over a turtleneck, paired with tennis shoes, and cropped hair. My dear ladies, it is possible to be a Catholic, a mother, and a wife, and still appear feminine and dignified.

I have great sympathy for mothers who labor under the strain of childrearing; I have two children under the age of three, and, apart from my husband's occasional help, am their sole caretaker (no babysitters, daycare, in-laws, etc.). Never has anything required so much energy, so much patience, so much discipline and self-control as raising two very young children. It is true there is a period of time when one is simply not interested in fashion (for instance, the ninth month of pregnancy, and a number of months after that); but it seems some women remain perpetually fashionless, making no effort to appear even the slightest bit attractive to their husbands.

I humbly offer a few samples of tasteful dress. (I note that Americans and Europeans have different ideas of modesty, gauged more or less by the Puritan influence on their culture; the more Puritan the influence, the more severe the dress code.)

Vera Wang, Spring 2008 Collection


Chanel, Fall 2007 Collection


Calvin Klein, Spring 2008 Collection


Ralph Lauren, Spring 2007/2008 Collection