Sister Missionary Fashion Show

One of the many things I have to do to prepare to leave for my mission is finding clothing to wear. And it can be difficult sometimes because, you know, there are rules...

Sister missionaries have to dress even more modestly than most Mormons do, BUT the church has changed the guidelines so they don't have to look as...as...conservative? (I'm being nice).

This is how they used to dress. 

As you can see there are a lot of long skirts and dark clothing. I know for certain that the skirts used to have to come to mid-calf. It's hard to find that length so most missionaries settled for long skirts. I'm not sure if un-form fitting or button up shirts were rules too (some people have told me yes) or if that was just what developed over time. Regardless, it wasn't attractive. 

The elder definitely have it easier because of what this says:

At the very least they don't look dumpy. 

I'm really not trying to be mean! It's just how it was. Plus, I bet it was frustrating because a good amount of these girls dressed very fashionably before and after they were missionaries. They looked like totally different people. 

Finally the church realized that people were not as responsive to sister missionaries as to the elders. Some of it was because they thought the sisters were polygamists. But I think it was because women thought that if they joined the church they would have to dressed like the missionaries who were teaching them did and men were worried they're wives would. 

So the church changed the guidelines. They now encourage patterns, colors, more form and less bagginess, and allowed to the skirts to be shorter, they just have to cover the knee while sitting down. 

http://missionary.lds.org/dress-grooming/sister/

My mom and I have been worrying about this for awhile. It was important to both of us that I look fashionable (especially in Paris!!!), but we still needed to make sure I was modest. After a few shopping trips we think we're on our way. I'm supposed to have 8-10 out fits. I have a few dresses, but our goal is to have skirts which can be paired with several different shirts which will create opportunity for a lot more than 10 outfits without taking up too much space.

I divided them into winter and spring.

Winter

Spring. As you can see I like turquoise, but I bought
a skirt with pinks and yellows for variety.

In addition to skirts, shirts and dresses I've also bought several sweaters in different colors; turquoise, purple, black and white, I'm still looking for a pink one. I've also bought a white dress jacket because I've heard that some mission presidents require dress jackets for baptisms and meetings with the president. I haven't heard if that's the case for my mission, but I thought it couldn't hurt. I'm looking for a black one too.

The last thing I should talk about  are the shoes. As cute as the clothes can be now, you pretty much can't have cute shoes because they aren't practical. This is the part that is killing me the most. I LOVE shoes, but there is no way you can wear high heals and walk 9 hours a day, especially on the cobble stones of Paris. And you don't even really want to buy cute flats because most of them with wear out in a couple of months and they don't have very good support. 


So, I broke down and bought ugly, but durable and comfortable shoes; one pair black and one pair brown. Hopefully, after a few months in the field I'll be so focused on the work that I won't care as much. I'm thinking about bringing a pair of white flats, even cheap ones, because I wouldn't wear them too often and they would really help complete a few summer outfits. I have to convince my mom first because there is the issue of luggage space.