The Fashionable Jew

[ 16 July 2007 ]

“I’ve read a bunch of advice you gave and was wondering if you could apply your great wisdom to my case too. I love fashion and style, and I wish I could muster the courage to wear some really cool attention grabbing outfit… I am in tenth grade and wear a long (floor length) denim skirt with a black T-shirt just about every day. I have to abide by some rather strict religious rules with regard to dress – not just at school, everywhere. (The rules: no pants, nothing tight or revealing, shirts up to the collar bone and past the elbows, absolutely no exposed midriff, skirts past the knee, no visible underwear, nothing transparent or too sexy in general.) I was wondering if you could help me get out of my rut, or if I should just resort to wearing a burka. I would be eternally grateful… I am a [modern] Orthodox Jew (not Ultra-Orthodox) and I live in Israel, where — according to a relative of my mother — fashion is more extreme: either very racy and immodest or very dowdy and frumpy. But if you manage to think of cool outfits that are modest enough for me I’m sure I’ll find equivalents locally.”

This cry for help was a true test of my abilities! I’ve never been to the Middle East & I have very little knowledge of Judaism, so here goes! Most of what I have written is in accordance with Tzniut. Please know that I have tried my hardest & my intention in writing this was not to insult anyone, but instead to give a girl some style hope!

I recognise that Jewish women are not the only people in the world with restrictions placed on their dress by religion, & I hope that any of you in a similar position will be able to use this article as a springboard for your own appearance! Alright, without further ado…

Hello, my sweet! Thank you for writing & I’m sorry it has taken me so long to put this together.

Really, I think the best way to approach this is to work with the things you’ve got, rather than focussing on the limits you have. Thinking about restrictions all the time is very boring & tiring, so let’s accentuate the positive!

Take your hair, for example. You can do, literally, thousands of things with it. Colour it, have it cut, give yourself a mohawk if you can get away with it. Pull it back from your face & pin some big, sparkly brooches into your hair — say three stars (one on either side of your head & one on the top, charmingly askew) or a rose. Even if you’re wearing all black, a bit of glamour in the hair will cause you to dazzle everyone in the room! Tease your hair up into a wild bird’s nest & stick feathers in it. On days when you can’t be bothered with your hair, throw a brightly-coloured silk scarf over your head, or tie it up into a (fashion) turban.

Buy up vintage t-shirts on Ebay. If you buy men’s shirts in the same size that you are (a men’s small if you’re a small in women’s clothing, etc.) — that way they won’t be tight or too clingy. You can buy all sorts of crazy shirts, featuring anything from Mickey Mouse to World’s Biggest Ball Of String. Wear a thin hooded sweatshirt underneath & pull the hood up through the t-shirt’s collar, so it flops back behind you. Alternatively, throw a cardigan over the top, even one with 3/4 sleeves should do. Short little cardigans that end at the waist are super-adorable, while a cardigan which ends at the hip is really wearable, & a long cardigan is great for hiding in or bundling up on cold days. You can always push the sleeves up a little bit if you want to show your wrists, or if you have bracelet mania like me!

Try piling your wrists with bangles in any colour scheme you like. I’m nutty about clear lucite bangles at the moment, but you can buy AMAZING vintage bangles on Ebay. I especially like stumbling across people selling collections of red bakelite bracelets, they’re beautiful. (Just look on Ebay for bakelite bangle or bracelet.) Wear them all the way almost up to your elbow & remember that if you have skinny arms you should wear big bangles, while you should wear fine ones if your arm is bigger.

Try a knee-length skirt with striped stockings & mary janes, or a floor-length skirt with combat boots. Mary-Kate Olsen (above) has been rocking an ankle-length black silk skirt & gladiator sandles recently & it looks gorgeous. You could also try doing a femme Karl Lagerfeld kind of look, which would be ultra-cute. Wear a starched white shirt, fingerless leather gloves, a long black skirt, a belt & sunglasses.

Accessories are really going to be the best way to differentiate yourself from everyone else, so start buying them up! Go for unusual things. Often you can buy entire estate lots of jewellery on Ebay. You’ll end up with a LOT of very interesting pieces, & the stuff you don’t like you can give away or resell. I love choker necklaces, big dangly earrings & weird clip-ons, bracelets galore & antique rings.

There are so many small things you can do to spice up a plain outfit. Brooches are brilliant for this. Have a friend buy you some in another country, borrow them from your favourite relatives or source them from strange little second-hand shops. They tell fabulous stories. Try changing the buttons on your cardigan, jacket or shirt — you could go for big, brassy, military-type buttons or cute novelty ones. I once saw purple rollerskate buttons, they were incredibly cool. Belts are fantastic too — wear one around your waist like a big bow or slung around your hips. I love pyramid-studded belts worn over floor-length skirts, I think the contrast looks gorgeous.

Buy huge sunglasses which make you look as if you’re on the run from the paparazzi! They add instant glamour to any outfit.

Make-up is every woman’s best weapon. Learn how to use it! You can go for the natural look or impersonate Elvira as it suits you. Play around with it, create a signature look which makes you feel magnificent.

Finally, you can always take a hint from the 80’s. When women first started entering the corporate “man’s” world, they thought that in order to compete they had to almost disguise themselves as men. The “power suit” was a big, boxy look, further emphasised by shoulder-pads. Thankfully, today, most women realise that they have just as much power by allowing themselves to be women, but at the time, a lot of women wore beautiful lingerie underneath their big man suits to help them retain feelings of femininity. No one has to know, it can be your little secret!

Good luck!

Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala

Tags: advice, aesthetic, consumption, how to, life, madame

Share this! + Email This + Del.icio.us + Facebook + Stumbleupon + Technorati

Comment

Thank you so much! You raised a lot of cool ideas and I’ll be trying them out right away! You made this little Jewish girl very happy!!
Love,
The girl who asked :)
Shifra · Jul 16, 03:06 PM · #
What a wonderful article :)

I’m a student of piano and in concerts, I can’t really wear anything else than elegant black. But you gave me some ideas I’ll try out without fearing what my teacher might say :D
Ajda K · Jul 16, 05:19 PM · #
I’m a Catholic woman living in a predominantly Jewish community in New Jersey, USA, and I’ve notice many of the orthodox girls and women wear the most georgeous hats! I think it may be part of the orthodox religion of covering one’s hair, but hats are also another way of accessorizing and looking stylish. They’re functional as well; keeping one warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They’ve totally inspired me to incorporate more hats into my wardrobe!
'tine · Jul 16, 06:50 PM · #
I’m so happy to see this! Just knowing there’s another Israeli reading iCiNG puts a smile on my face…

But also, being a girl living in Jerusalem from a modern orthodox background in Judaism (although I’m completely secular myself), I know how this girl feels! I attended an all-girls religious high school, and while our dress-code wasn’t so extreme (we had to wear skirts below knee length, elbow-length shirts, etc), I was surrounded by girls who did want to “up” their modesty level yet do so in a fashionable way too, without looking like a Jewish American Princess.

Tzniut, in my opinion, has both a positive and negative side, but shouldn’t and doesn’t interfere with being stylish. Dressing modestly gives one’s style a very classy look, always.

Keep on doing what you do my fellow Israeli, and it’ll all be sababa!
Yaffa · Jul 16, 09:43 PM · #
Shifra — Yay yay yay! So pleased to be able to help.

Ajda K — Ahh, that’s so cool! When I write things like this I never know how helpful they’re going to be to anyone but the original person who asked the question, so I am stoked that you can apply it to your life too!

‘tine — Hats are wonderful, I am a huge fan myself. It’s great that you have been inspired by the way other women have worked around their limits, that’s what getting dressed is all about!

Yaffa — Thank you for your comment. I went to a private school myself where we had a whole lot of tedious rules about uniform, but we were all very aware that there was no real point to it. Religious significance, however, is a completely different story!
Gala · Jul 17, 01:34 AM · #
Well done Ms Gala! This was such an interesting post; I have been mulling it over for ages. Let’s face it, we can’t all be outrageous and avant-garde on a full-time basis. (Some of us have jobs teaching teenage boys.) These ideas for tweaking up a conservative silhouette are really clever! I love Yaffa’s comment about dressing modestly giving a classy look, too. My own tip would be long sleeves pushed or rolled up – I find this look irresistible on anyone, anywhere! That kind of top-button-undone, tie-loosened, ‘I started out immaculate this morning but I’m WORKING here’ vibe. Think about going into an almost man-style look, but making sure everything fits you like a dream. I used to have a man’s vintage pinstripe waistcoat with D-ring adjusters at the back waist, and I would tie it up as tight as it would go.
Nadine · Jul 17, 11:44 AM · #
Thank you, sweetpea! I agree with you on rolled-up sleeves, it looks totally hot! Especially in conjunction with a tightly-fitted shirt. Rawwrrr!
Gala · Jul 17, 03:15 PM · #
Great piece! I was speculating the other day about the way language divides what we wear into revealing/concealing or sexy/frumpy. That’s not what it’s about! Dressing is art; it either expresses who you are or expresses something you’re not. Dressing attractively isn’t the same as dressing sexily, and neither are the same as dressing revealingly – or conservatively, or concealingly, or so on. There’s room to work between the lines!
Sir Frederick Chook · Jul 17, 06:11 PM · #
Oh, and I just posted my Imaginary People post on FrillyShirt. :)
Sir Frederick Chook · Jul 17, 06:12 PM · #
Thanks, Sir Chook! & OMG! Love your imaginary owners of antiques piece! Especially Lola Delarosa, she is perfection! You are fabulous. Well done old chap!
Gala · Jul 17, 06:17 PM · #
Oh, thank you superly! It was such a fun concept to write!
Sir Frederick Chook · Jul 17, 07:15 PM · #
It is rather weird, how us non-religious (majority) Israeli girls have to be very careful with our dress when wearing long skirts in order to AVOID looking religious! :D I love long skirts, but hardly ever get to wear them. When I do, however, way… say, my silver vintage maxi skirt from Berlin, I wear a bright red long vintage silk scarf around my hips as a sash, pull up my hair and wear outrageously big wooden hoop earrings with a slashed black top(tight and full of safety pins, for that gothly-pirate feel). It looks absolutely wonderful, I get tons of compliments, and avoid looking too religious.
I’m guessing one who would want to still look fabulously like a gyspsy-latina boho-pirate would do something similar- long skirt, silk scarf as a sash, big accessories and a more modest shirt- maybe something with a batwing cut?

As to the Israelis roaming around looking for fashionable clothes- they can be find anywhere, I think!
Azriely mall in Tel-Aviv offers all the big chain stores, like the Spanish MANGO- they have lovely maxi skirts with nice patterns, gorgeous shirts- puffy sleeves (short, long or 3/4), batwing style shirts with metallic prints etc’.
The “Srigamish” store (upper level) seems to be directed towards religious crowds and offers more subdued clothes- but I find that they have many of the basics one needs.

I’m amused that this is asked here, because I sometimes see the semi-religious girl around in the street, and knowing their limitations, I’m still left quite bemused at how unimaginative the clothes can sometimes be (denim and denim and denim and denim!) when the options are so endless! Especially with the recent “India-chic” around here, where you can find nice boho-like skirts for no money at all (The Carmel market in Tel Aviv, or the adjacent Betzalel market have a lot of trash in them, but looking hard enough would yield great and impossibly cheap finds!).

Oh, one more thing- The flea market has a whole part dedicated to clothes from India. There are wonderful silk-like (maxi!) skirts in vibrant colors (fuchsia and teal and everything possible!), that would look great with a plain black long sleeved tee and some gold bangles. Just be careful not to get ripped off- I once paid 120 NIS (about 30 USD) for a skirt I found in Tel-aviv for a third of that price! (40 NIS = about 10 USD)

I hope I didn’t ramble too much, and I’ll try to see if I can come up with any more specific recommendations for stores around these parts.
Nufar · Jul 17, 08:20 PM · #
Hi,

I’m a muslim and was really impressed at how you handled the post!

Although we have a religious dress code, it is only for when we are outside and in the presence of men (other then family and husband)

The style tips were brill and something I can try for going out in.

Loved the jewel in your turban, think I will try finding a similer broach and wear it on the back of my hijab.
a · Sep 21, 02:41 AM · #
Thank you kindly for this awesome post! I’m muslim too, and I can only wear skirts, which I find, as a college student, to get a bit boring. But you opened up some great possibilites! I will definitely be trying your Lagerfield sugeestion out when I go back to school on Monday :3
Winter · Nov 24, 10:23 AM · #

Name		Remember
E-mail
Website
Message

The Fashionable Jew

[ 16 July 2007 ]

Comment

Read more tagged advice...

Read more tagged aesthetic...

Read more tagged consumption...

Read more tagged how to...

Read more tagged life...

Read more tagged madame...