What Not to Wear
I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her books, loosely autobiographical—about a young girl who explored the West with her pioneer family—were the basis for games my friends would play during every 2nd and 3rd grade recess. We fought over who got to play Laura, her blind older sister Mary, or the darling younger sister Carrie. We made boys pretend to be wolves and guarded our “homes” against them.
We never got so involved in
the game that we developed costumes, but if we had, this women’s clergy
blouse from Wippell
would have served the purpose nicely.
While I still reflect on my
childhood novels, I no longer aspire to embody them, so a professional
blouse that would look at home on a pioneer in the 1870s is not quite
“the look” I want to present as a young clergy woman.
Finding clerical shirts as
a young woman priest can be tricky. We want to present ourselves
as professional persons, but also spiritual persons. We also want
to present ourselves as modern and relevant. Is all this possible?
At times the deck seems stacked against us.
When I asked The Rev. Dr. Robert Prichard, professor of History and Liturgy at Virginia Theological Seminary about the history of the clerical shirt, he wrote, “Detachable collars were popular for any well dressed male from the middle of the 19th century until the 1920s. At that point, the Arrow Shirt Company introduced the fixed collars that we know today. Clergy, always conservative in dress, retained the older detachable collar style at least for Sunday dress. The only real mystery is why the clergy turned their collars around backward from the way that others wore them.”
This tendency
towards conservatism may explain why the design of women’s clergy
blouses are so different from design of a modern woman’s professional
blouse. Most modern clergy shirts made for women today lack breast
darts or curved panels, making women with smaller chests look like young
boys, and larger women look shapeless. They are also designed to be
worn with pants that fit at the waist, which very few pants now do.
The design of the shirts is
only the beginning of the problem. When ordering clergy shirts
from the two most popular vestment companies, I have had friends told,
“Our men’s clerical shirts are so much less expensive than women’s clerical shirts because there is more demand for men’s shirts.”
(To a tall and thin woman) “Well, if you want sleeves long enough for you, you should order your shirts from Womenspirit.”
“Those can’t possibly be
your measurements. Those measurements are a child’s measurements.”
“Your neck can’t possibly
be that small if your bust is as large as you say it is.”
“And no, we cannot accommodate breast darts. We are not in the business of fashion, we are in the business of clerical wear.”
The very companies that are supposed to clothe women clergy seem fundamentally uncomfortable with women’s bodies. The female body has long been an object of discomfort in Christian history, representing temptation and even evil. Any woman minister who has been ogled or groped knows that her body represents things to others that she could not even imagine. However, if we, as the church, are supposed to teach God’s grace and love for people of every shape and size, should we not begin by respecting our own bodies and clothing them in dignity?
My women friends do not want
flashy clergy shirts that show cleavage or belly rings, we simply want
shirts that fit. Some of us have found private tailors that will
make shirts that suit us (at a hefty $120 to $150 a pop); others have
used their ingenuity and sewing skills to modify brand name blouses
to fit a clerical collar. Thankfully, some clerical wear companies
are beginning to listen. Womenspirit, a women-run company, recently
released their “fitted shirt”, a modern blouse with three quarter
length sleeves that can be worn un-tucked.
We may not ever get affordable clerical wear as forward thinking as Maria Sjödin’s Swedish “Casual Priest” line of clothing: a jaw dropping collection of well fitted women’s clergy shirts with dramatic, architectural cuffs, soft lines and even one shirt made of (gasp!) jersey. While some of my friends find her clothes too fitted, to me they exemplify my image of a young clergy woman—rooted, confident, not afraid of her femininity, but not defined by it, either. (Unfortunately, due to the weak dollar, these shirts run from $154-$235; prices that are prohibitive for most young clergy women.)
Even if the large clerical wear companies are not comfortable with Sjöden’s cutting edge aesthetic, I do hope her work can serve as an example of how well-fitting shirts, cut specifically for a woman’s curves, can be both professional and feminine, without the help of puff sleeves or other features of 19th century women’s fashion.
In the meantime, young clergy women are showing great ingenuity—even engineering their own clergy shirts. Susan Fawcett, an Episcopal priest, demonstrates how to adapt a mandarin collar shirt sold by Target by adding two small buttons to the collar in her clerical wear blog, Collar This!. In other posts on Collar This!, young women clergy (including this author) share shirts they have found that are easily adaptable. For those who prefer not to muck about with needle and thread, a clerical dickie can be worn underneath many blouses, suit jackets and sweaters. But all of these are simply adaptations, adaptations that no clergyman I’ve met have ever had to make.
For after all, young clergy women do not want to play dress up, or feel like we're playing dress up when we get ready for the exciting life of ministry every day. We simply want to find affordable clothes that help free us to do the work we've been called to do.
Comments
Teri writes:
oh my. That outfit is....something else.
Right now I am so happy to be serving in an only mediumly liturgical church where we wear robes but normal clothes!
—October 31, 2007 at 11:44 PM
Lisa Barrowclough writes:
Thanks for a great reflection on a difficult topic. I wouldn't tell them this, but I often envy the men I serve with for the simplicity of their wardrobes!
Check out Coldwater Creek for - great, reasonably priced, usually washable, often lightweight, and almost always "wearable" with a black shirt and white collar - jackets and blazers. I have several that are worn on a regular basis. (Just don't wear them to convention, since many colleagues have also discovered this previously well kept secret!)
—November 01, 2007 at 07:55 AM
Elsa writes:
The Rev. Dr. Robert Prichard makes me laugh:
“Clergy, always conservative in dress, retained the older detachable collar style at least for Sunday dress."
I don't think he's met the Fidelia's Sisters readers -- or at least, not this one.
—November 01, 2007 at 10:36 AM
Sarah K. writes:
Elsa, I just asked him about the history of clerical collars--I think he meant that in that time frame clergy always tended to dress conservatively.
—November 01, 2007 at 10:42 AM
SKO writes:
I only wear clergy shirts once in a while--based on the type of congregation, etc. And I'm older than 39, but I like to think I dress a bit on the young side. Here's my deal with the clergy shirts---I want a clergy camisole.
I'm not a blouse wearer (generally), so no matter how cool the blouse is, I'm going to wish it was a T-shirt or a sweater. I like soft stretchy knit next to my skin, thankyouverymuch.
And the clergy dickies? They either leave a lump in an unfortunate location, or flop around. (Although I do give one thumb up to the dickies that have the collar already attached--were it not for the unfortunate lump, I'd be down with them.) Both styles make it hard to wear knits over them.
I say, if it's possible to create a camisole with a bra inside it, why not create a camisole with a clergy collar attached?--tight to the skin and flat, washable, and thin enough to go under anything?
I will give one thumb up to the womenspirit fitted shirt, though. It's attractive and fits--except for the arms, which go to my wrist, but the petites thing is another issue altogether.
Color me whiney on clergy shirts, but color me impressed with this article!
—November 01, 2007 at 10:49 AM
page95 writes:
As a Methodist I don't often find the need for a clergy shirt...but, I've been assigned as an associate pastor in a church where no one wears a robe of any sort during worship, and I find it very difficult to find plus sized clothing appropriate for preaching (unless I dress like I'm 80!) and I'm contemplating making the clerical collar my usual Sunday Morning attire.
I did purchase one of the long sleeved shirts from the "Lydia" collection and found it better than the men's shirts...but my size 16 certainly wasn't cut for a plus sized bust and I worry I strain the buttons a bit.
Converting shirts that really do fit me give me some hope! Thanks for the links...and now I'm going to pray for forgiveness for coveting the Swedish Casual Priest clothing.
—November 01, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Heather Culuris writes:
The Lydia shirts are some of the best out there at the moment. Better than the previous Friar Tuck pastel-see-through puffy shouldered women's shirts... But those aren't a perfect fit either.
I generally wear men's short sleeve clergy shirts, but then they are so long in the waist and boxy....
Thankfully in this call, I generally wear clergy shirts less than half of the time!
—November 01, 2007 at 12:46 PM
reverendmother writes:
Even though I don't choose to (nor am I expected to) wear a collar, I thought this was a great article. Awesome job, Sarah.
I hope someone out there might write an article for FS on how she decided to wear a collar, or to not wear one (for those who have the choice).
—November 01, 2007 at 02:18 PM
Stacey writes:
Collars are a choice in my denomination, and I choose never to wear one, but I really enjoyed this article anyway. It's hard to find non-collared clergy-appropriate women's clothing, too.
—November 02, 2007 at 02:13 PM
Alex writes:
I love this article, Sarah. Are you the model in the photo?
—November 02, 2007 at 05:36 PM
Sarah K. writes:
Oh no, no, no, no that is your friendly Wippel model, not me. :)
—November 02, 2007 at 07:04 PM
mibi52 writes:
Having studied with Bob Prichard, I can attest that a) he is very familiar with many women clergy who wear clerical blouses and b) he never looks below their collarbone. Thus, he did not address the issue of lack of darts in women's clerical wear...
—November 03, 2007 at 08:26 PM
Emily writes:
I think you raise an excellent point Sarah: We do need American designers who make the exact same styles as Maria Sjödin and expand to include other styles that fit women who are large, small, in betweenk, etc.
Why have we allowed Almy, Whipple and a couple of others to have the market? I feel this is an AMAZING opportunity for designers to make a direct impact on clerical wear.
I do not sew--nor do I have the time to sew--but I demand to have shirts that fit. It's all about a woman's right to choose...and this begins with our clothing.
—November 04, 2007 at 06:42 PM
Emily M writes:
Amen, Sarah!!
Before I was ordained, I wondered what it was about all those ordained women who wore frumpy clothes... well, now I know!! It's because you can't buy clothes that make Wippell's shirts look good on a woman.
[Almy and even Womanspirit don't make blouses small enough so I can't speak for theirs...]
I recognize that we're never going to get the clergy-shirt-business to make really good shirts to fit all of us - it's economies of scale - there simply aren't enough of us, compared to the rest of the population, for most of us to find something more-or-less flattering and comfortable for all the varieties of body we have...
But it will continue to be an issue - because clothing profoundly affects how people see us (which, after all, is why I wear my collar in the first place - even with it on, I get asked if I'm the patient's grandaughter...) and being able to look professional instead of sloppy is beyond price (at least, miles beyond my budget!)
—November 04, 2007 at 09:50 PM
alice quint writes:
Whooee! Great ideas here.
I sew well (make shirts for husband, even a suit); I knit pretty good. I need clergy shirts now and then, too. Bring me my portable sewing machine right now! (Whether it's coffee or Spirit, I'm feeling inspired.)
Give me a week from today (7 November 2007) to get designs up and running.
—November 07, 2007 at 12:55 PM
Loren Hague writes:
I just bought my first clergy shirts yesterday (a fact I'm still getting used to!) and was a little disheartened by the whole process...thanks for the advice, links and good humor!
—November 15, 2007 at 11:25 PM
Kary writes:
Thank you! Thank you! But, please realize that middle-aged women also no longer own pants that rise to their waist. Nor do we tuck our shirts in. Finding a decent clergy shirt is a big problem but it doesn't just affect young women.
Alice Quint, if you get up and running with your designs, tell us how to find you!
—November 28, 2007 at 08:39 PM
Lorraine Collings writes:
Interesting article and comments.
—August 20, 2008 at 04:37 AM
Rev Julia writes:
Dear Sisters in Ministry
This past spring, I was I dialogue with Emmy Kegler of Augsburg Fortress. I was
inquiring about shirts in new colours- something other than pink/grey/lilac etc.
She pasted on my query to the manufacturer, and I have hope I will see “warmer colours” eventually. Maybe you would like to added your voices to mine, and maybe we can see some changes.
Blessings Julia
~~~~~
Emmy Kegler
Customer Service Associate
Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
P.O. Box 1209
Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209
Customer Service: 800.328.4648
Direct line: 800.426.0115 ext. 105
emmy.kegler@augsburgfortress.org
—September 09, 2008 at 10:14 AM