There’s a little dust-up over at Hallowed Ground on jumpers-are-frumpy and modest-but-stylish and blah de blah blah. We all know the drill.
I’ll let Pansy handle the topic of fashion if she likes, since it’s a topic that utterly bores me. I just can’t get excited about clothes.
I wonder, though, if part of the jumper thing is a generational thing. Women in their thirties and early forties spent at least part their adolescence in the ‘eighties. And in the ‘eighties, that “Little House on the Prairie” look was fashionable, especially in the South. Remember Gunne Sax? Drop-waist dresses? Prairie skirts with concho belts? When I was in high school in Texas, jumpers and floral dresses with big embroidered linen collars were the style. Maybe some of the jumper-wearing “frumps” are just turning to a style that’s familiar to them from when their tastes were being formed.
Just a thought (though probably not one that will impress those who believe that it’s part of a Christian woman’s duty to stay modestly au courant.)
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I love jumpers- they are very comfortable and breezy! Also, as I get older, I really do want to be more modest in my dress and jumpers make me feel feminine- I dunno, is that a bad word these days? I grew up wearing dresses and uniforms for Catholic school, so now jumpers and pretty Laura Ashley dresses are what I wear!
I tend to agree with you, Peony, I don’t like jumpers much, probably wouldn’t be caught dead in one, but that’s my personal style. If someone else wears one, I probably wouldn’t notice much. What I don’t get about jumpers is that the more I get into contact with conservative Americans the more it appears to be some kind of dress code for conservative americans… I didn’t even know that a “dress code” existed for conservatives or liberals, one certainly can’t tell a conservative from a liberal here in Canada, except maybe for a few exceptions… I certainly don’t think that to be feminine a woman has to wear a dress. I made a long, pretty dress for a Lord of the Rings party last year and put it on about an hour before the party, when I still had a lot of things to do to get ready and was rushing around the house trying to get ready and tripping in the stupid thing… how did women do it before the advent of shorter dresses and pants for women I do not know… I am just glad it is socially acceptable for ME to wear pants!!! 🙂
What is funny though, is that going to university, you could sit in the main lobby of certain pavillions and pick out from the crowd the students that were studying law (dressed in business suits), the ones that were studying language/literature/history, etc, (dressed very stylishly, nice shoes, well cut pants or if wearing jeans they were very nice jeans, no t-shirts… quite chic), the ones studying medecin (usually very casual), the ones studying theology (generally a little more frumpy than the rest of the students and often a bit older) the psychology students, even more chic and fancy than the language students (but not business suits) the art and music students (the ones dressed off-beat) and the science and technology students (jeans, t-shirts and running shoes).
” the more it appears to be some kind of dress code for conservative americans…”
It’s almost a stereotype now — the conservative mom in her jumper — but strangely, of the moms I know who homeschool a passel of kids, none of them are into jumpers.
I’m just bored with the sneering. I don’t think it’s an expression of groupthink (“so and so wears jumpers, so I have to wear jumpers”) as a bunch of women finding that jumpers fit their needs. It’s not enough that these women are mothering their children (and, often, homeschooling them), supporting their husbands, cooking, cleaning, and piloting their minivans all over the place — now they have to be fashionable as well. If there really are moms out there who are into jumpers, then leave them alone and let them wear their jumpers in peace.
f there really are moms out there who are into jumpers, then leave them alone and let them wear their jumpers in peace.
Woohoo!
Feisty!
I agree, I don’t know why such a big deal has to be made about clothes and certain groups anyway. Like you can only wear a certain type of clothing if you belong to a certain type of group… I guess people do tend to dress in the same way as their peers (take my university example for example 🙂 ) but it doesn’t mean one HAS to!
Not personally into jumpers. In fact, I was depressed during my first pregnancy when I had gained so much weight that all would fit me were a jumper and a pair of stirrup-style pants. lol Perhaps I should note that I always thought I wouldn’t be caught dead in either. rofl Funny how an extra 50 or so lbs changed things for me.
That said, there are some pretty cool jumper-style dresses that I used to get away with wearing back in college–the kind that looked cool with Doc Martens and such. 🙂
tell me. I’m a hsing mom, who has long hair, wears little makeup, and drives a big van. People LOVE to stereotype me, but that stereotype is not me at all. I just happen to like long hair, and have wanted it long enough now that I’ve let it grow and enjoy taking care of it. I HS for my own set of reasons, and I drive a van because I grew up in one like it, and enjoy the ride and space.