Modest: The discreetly ascendent trend

When looking for skirts longer than 22 inches, or for a top with more than cap sleeves, I sometimes encounter the term "modest" or the tag "modest clothing". Women who seek more-covered styles for cultural or religious reasons, or simply because they don't want a short-tight effect are contributing to the rapid growth of the "modest fashion" niche.

These sites can be good resources for a woman in the Passage, too—especially if you are not soignée as Brigitte Macron in a mini.

Below, three pieces from The Modist,  whom I think of as the modest net-a-porter, and as pricey, but worth checking for inspiration. (And net-a-porter now have a "modest" label in their menu.) The Modist is packed with luxe head-turners; nobody puts Modest Baby in the corner.

Left: Zero+Maria Cornejo Aki Wave midi dress, $1, 695
Centre: Joseph Fair Isle patchwork sweater, $405
Right: Taller Marmo 8AM Tinsel Fil Coupé Midi Skirt, $970

TheModist also have an in-house line of covetable coordinates, called Layeur.

There are subsets to modest, and the term can be defined various ways, but generally means consciously choosing to not show too much skin. Reminds me of a workplace clothing policy I once read: "If you can look up it, down it, or through it, don't wear it to work."

Lady Modest: See the clothes worn by British royals for official functions, from weddings to football games. British houses like Carolyn Rose (below) have always supplied this look, for a clientele who wish to remain unacquainted with anything décolleté.

Left: Garcia coat, £995
Upper right: Black lace sweater, £395. Modest dressers wear lace over a cami.
Lower right: Orlando silk tunic, £795

Eccentric Modest

No one brings it like Batsheva, who has resurrected Laura Ashley and taught her to shoot hoops.

Batsheva Hay is a lawyer and conservative Jewish woman who could not find what she wanted, so started designing oddball pattern-mix prairie dresses which she wore with sneakers. When she took her child to the parks, all kinds of women asked where they could find her dress, and a business was born.

Below, three Batsheva styles; see web site for prices. Dresses are typically around $450 and blouses around $250. Sizing to 10 but she makes custom orders.

Batsheva's signatures are those ugly-pretty prints, big lantern sleeves, and head wraps. The dresses are so distinctive that you will know one immediately.

I saw my first Batsheva dress on a woman in a Montréal bistro, three years ago. She was in town to visit her university-student daughter (I eavesdropped.) She wore an emerald-green dress with shoulder puffs so tall and pronounced that they looked like bookends. The dress had a wide, matching sash, and an a-line skirt like the one on the far left, but was otherwise quite plain. She accessorized it with a matching head wrap, black ankle boots and black horn-rimmed glasses. In a sea of tight minis and little black dresses, she looked like a queen from another time, but also, more current than anyone else.

She kept hugging her daughter every ten minutes like a visiting parent does.

Minimalist Modest

Minimalist Modest is almost a tautology. Everlane, much of J. Crew, Vince—those clean/simple brands—make no mention of "modest" in their copy, but you will not find transparent, low-cut or tight there, except for jeans. (Modest dressers rock narrow jeans, but with a long sweater or tunic.)
Skirts are to the knee, the real anatomical knee, not the Missy knee that's a handspan north.

The new crop of "midis" range anywhere from the real knee to the calf, and there is a length that suits every woman, should she wish.

Minimalist cashmere dress: Cashmere v-neck dress by Everlane, $155.  The more modest end of the scale might fill in the vee neckline with a scarf or cami, but it's not too low for me!
Knits: Zara always offer some midi and to-the-actual-knee skirts. Knits take well to length when they drape and are not too voluminous. This skirt is under $50 and made of a washable viscose/poly.
Party: J. Crew sequinned midi skirt in melted caramel, about $185. The length is just over 27 inches, in a regular range up to 16.

Regardless of belief, there are times—and perhaps a time of life—when displaying one's charms lavishly is not what a woman wants. I put on a "little dress" last summer and thought, This is really not for me.

I'm not here to debate whether women in various faith communities should adhere to custom; I've learned from friends and colleagues that there is a range of interpretation and choice. Anyone for whom modesty is a value now has many more options, and I am thinking this is a desire for many women, given how the market is growing.