Very interesting. It might be worthwhile to point out that this is why Old Order Anabaptists dress like they do: it's a traditional style, unchanged for centuries, and thus untouched by the modern contrivance of trendiness and novelty. It's homemade, meaning a family has a personal relationship with the clothing, they put their own sweat and tears into it. And its simple, promoting modesty and humility in one's presentation of themselves. I think there's a lot to learn from this.
It's easy for us to think old order groups are silly and stuck in the past. I live in a county with a large Amish population. Their work ethic, respect for the elderly, and their sense of community, are admirable. The horse and buggy seem quaint, but by not having high speed transportation, an entire multi-generational clan ends up living within 5 miles of each other. Not a bad thing. (They can also have some illogical rules. We have a neighbor who can use a riding lawnmower to move heavy things with, but his bishop won't allow him to mow the grass with it. He uses a push mower. ?!? One group will not fellowship with another over some fight they had a hundred years ago over what color socks to wear. ) I remember hearing some wise advice years ago. "Don't let the urgent crowd out the important." But with today's dependence on the internet and screentime, I can point the finger at myself and say, Don't let the trivial crowd out the important.
As an anabaptist and old colony descended and adjacent…That’s not why. Though I wish it was :) but I do love the theological meaning you’ve attached to it, and think that is thought provoking and helpful.
Not really- sort of! So, the color of the clothing is dark so as not to draw attention, and sometimes this is linked to modesty, but it was (especially among we of Russian Mennonite descent) also very practically a way not to stand out to potential persecutors. On a more macro level though, from the very beginning, Anabaptists have insisted that one cannot be in the world- you have to leave it, to be set apart in communities. It got them/us in a lot of hot water during the Reformation. So clothing is a way to identify oneself as not belonging to the world, of belonging to these societies that are called out. The caps on women are in conjunction with head covering passages. The pleats and size of the skirts etc are tied to modesty standards. You’re not generally allowed to wear jewelry, embellishment, etc, because that reflects vanity instead of a focus on an inner spiritual life- this is worldly. Overall, the clothing is quite tied to a community standard of set apart holiness, and to deviate suggests one is not wholehearted- something many of us in anabaptist culture struggle with regardless of whether we remain plainclothed or not. Does that make sense how links to modesty and such stem from this set apartness as the overall concept? I’ll see if I can link a paper…
Brilliant, brilliant piece Griffin. I am so glad to see this in the "wild" - and I am glad my thoughts were helpful.
This really is a critically important piece you have written, both from a theological perspective (consumerism is such a neglected topic for evangelicals) and from my agrarian perspective for fast fashion has severe implications for ecological unsustainability, worker exploitation, false conceptions of the good life, and "landscape-scale-visible-from-outer-space-level pollution".
Superb Griffin - only piece I read this morning as the Communal Digital Fast is starting and well worth it! Many thoughts on this and fully resonate especially with the anti-beauty perspective. You perfectly combine in depth research (and footnotes!), some smiles, and theology. You should submit this piece somewhere for wider publication!
Thanks so much Ruth! That means the world that it was your only piece of the morning. And wow I hadn’t thought of submitting it elsewhere (to be honest, it seems like since my writing has become more substack-ified, less other publications want to work with me). But I’ll brainstorm some places! Thanks Ruth :)
Such a good commentary on identity and fast fashion!!
Working part-time in retail has been a huge eye-opener for me in this regard. My department store is a "discount retailer," meaning we sell brand-name clothes (Calvin Klein, Gucci, Michael Kors, etc.) at a significantly reduced price. We also get a lot of cheap clothes from fast-fashion companies like Zara. Almost every single Zara garment we get is pure trash--flimsy, impractical, and ugly. It frustrates me that people continue to fuel these industries even though it's no secret that they are unethical.
On a positive note, though, working in retail has taught me to be more intentional about my clothes shopping and to invest in more sustainable fashion choices. I do a lot of thrifting (partially because I can't afford to buy new clothes, even at my own department store), and I'm learning to stick with natural fibers like cotton, wool, and linen instead of polyester and acrylic.
Working in retail has been a huge wake-up call for me. I hope this article will provoke people to thought and encourage them to change the way they approach their clothing consumption.
Wow that’s such excellent first hand experience! I can imagine that this would have a huge impact on how you’d think about clothes. I only started thinking about it more in depth a year ago and now I’m really just starting to see it everywhere and realize how pervasive the issues are…thanks so much for sharing your experience though and thanks so much for reading! :)
When I saw the title, I was expecting a fluff piece. But I'm glad I didn't skip over it. Thank you for putting some serious substance and depth to it. There are many topics that I have noticed are informed by our understanding of what all is included in being in the image of God. It's pivotal for lots of subjects. One of the Biblical admonitions often repeated is "to remember". There are many things we know, but to live them out consistently requires that we remember them. Your observations around hevel are good reminders we need. Most modern people are not deep thinkers. We need to be.
So good. That specific insight from Being Consumed re attachment v. detachment made me look at all the boxes in my garage full of previously desired amazon prime purchases, and my soul, quite differently.
This is amazing. Kind of want to write an essay in response now, because my relationship with fast fashion/buying clothes has pretty much followed this exact track, but also what would I say that you didn't cover here.
If you release a response piece, I can release a response piece to your response piece to make it seem like we have beef, and we can just keep going forever and it’ll be all anyone can talk about 😤
Excellent article-really made me think about my own clothing shopping habits and my own identity. I find my identity in Christ, so why do I get sucked into other ways to find identity, to belong or fit it? I’m going to ponder this one. Thanks!
So interesting to read from a male perspective what I've mostly seen dismissed as women's topic (but so evidently affects us all!). Have you read Lillian Fallon's book, The Theology of Style?
This is fantastic!👏🏼👏🏼 Spoke to me on many levels. I stumbled into minimalism about 10 years ago and wow did it ever open my eyes to examine my relationship with stuff- buying it, accumulating it, hoarding it, allowing it to build my identity…
I don’t know why this piece would prompt so many ‘unsubscribes’ except perhaps that it hit a little too close to home and they were attempting to eschew the conviction?? At any rate, well done.
I do wonder if kids who home school are afflicted by this at all. We did not have a lot of money but I did have some wealthy relatives who were older but shorter than me with a pretty decent clothing allowance. My sister and I used to joke they dressed us like teddy bears. Anyway I really wanted cool shoes and the Converse Onestars everyone else had were the most uncomfortable shoes I had ever worn in my life. I petitioned everyone to chip in for one birthday gift of these beautiful Fila skate shoes that I loved. Of course at school they said I was a 'Homie G wanna be'. You soon learn at high school there's no winning so you shouldn't try. Meanwhile I could walk all the way home in my beautiful Filas. I would buy those shoes today. And I still think Onestars are only good for drug dealer advertising.
This is the first time I've heard of Shein, but I just don't buy clothes online. I had heard something about the labor exploitation and waste in fashion—but I didn't know how bad it was until now.
We’re lucky to have pretty many Amish in our region. They’re onto something when it comes to sustainable style. The Robertsons of Duck Dynasty fame solidified their identity and wore their hunting garb to formal occasions. There’s been an interesting workwear trend among those who don’t do the hard manual labor. Maybe the cloth will make them???
Very interesting. It might be worthwhile to point out that this is why Old Order Anabaptists dress like they do: it's a traditional style, unchanged for centuries, and thus untouched by the modern contrivance of trendiness and novelty. It's homemade, meaning a family has a personal relationship with the clothing, they put their own sweat and tears into it. And its simple, promoting modesty and humility in one's presentation of themselves. I think there's a lot to learn from this.
Wow that is actually so beautiful. I love the idea of it being made personally by those you know. Thanks for sharing that!
It's easy for us to think old order groups are silly and stuck in the past. I live in a county with a large Amish population. Their work ethic, respect for the elderly, and their sense of community, are admirable. The horse and buggy seem quaint, but by not having high speed transportation, an entire multi-generational clan ends up living within 5 miles of each other. Not a bad thing. (They can also have some illogical rules. We have a neighbor who can use a riding lawnmower to move heavy things with, but his bishop won't allow him to mow the grass with it. He uses a push mower. ?!? One group will not fellowship with another over some fight they had a hundred years ago over what color socks to wear. ) I remember hearing some wise advice years ago. "Don't let the urgent crowd out the important." But with today's dependence on the internet and screentime, I can point the finger at myself and say, Don't let the trivial crowd out the important.
As an anabaptist and old colony descended and adjacent…That’s not why. Though I wish it was :) but I do love the theological meaning you’ve attached to it, and think that is thought provoking and helpful.
Could it be that it is the reason, but it’s just gone unspoken? I gleaned this from conversation with PD Mennonites
Not really- sort of! So, the color of the clothing is dark so as not to draw attention, and sometimes this is linked to modesty, but it was (especially among we of Russian Mennonite descent) also very practically a way not to stand out to potential persecutors. On a more macro level though, from the very beginning, Anabaptists have insisted that one cannot be in the world- you have to leave it, to be set apart in communities. It got them/us in a lot of hot water during the Reformation. So clothing is a way to identify oneself as not belonging to the world, of belonging to these societies that are called out. The caps on women are in conjunction with head covering passages. The pleats and size of the skirts etc are tied to modesty standards. You’re not generally allowed to wear jewelry, embellishment, etc, because that reflects vanity instead of a focus on an inner spiritual life- this is worldly. Overall, the clothing is quite tied to a community standard of set apart holiness, and to deviate suggests one is not wholehearted- something many of us in anabaptist culture struggle with regardless of whether we remain plainclothed or not. Does that make sense how links to modesty and such stem from this set apartness as the overall concept? I’ll see if I can link a paper…
https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA383925600&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00259373&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Eade8932&aty=open-web-entry
Brilliant, brilliant piece Griffin. I am so glad to see this in the "wild" - and I am glad my thoughts were helpful.
This really is a critically important piece you have written, both from a theological perspective (consumerism is such a neglected topic for evangelicals) and from my agrarian perspective for fast fashion has severe implications for ecological unsustainability, worker exploitation, false conceptions of the good life, and "landscape-scale-visible-from-outer-space-level pollution".
Thank you for writing it.
Superb Griffin - only piece I read this morning as the Communal Digital Fast is starting and well worth it! Many thoughts on this and fully resonate especially with the anti-beauty perspective. You perfectly combine in depth research (and footnotes!), some smiles, and theology. You should submit this piece somewhere for wider publication!
Thanks so much Ruth! That means the world that it was your only piece of the morning. And wow I hadn’t thought of submitting it elsewhere (to be honest, it seems like since my writing has become more substack-ified, less other publications want to work with me). But I’ll brainstorm some places! Thanks Ruth :)
Such a good commentary on identity and fast fashion!!
Working part-time in retail has been a huge eye-opener for me in this regard. My department store is a "discount retailer," meaning we sell brand-name clothes (Calvin Klein, Gucci, Michael Kors, etc.) at a significantly reduced price. We also get a lot of cheap clothes from fast-fashion companies like Zara. Almost every single Zara garment we get is pure trash--flimsy, impractical, and ugly. It frustrates me that people continue to fuel these industries even though it's no secret that they are unethical.
On a positive note, though, working in retail has taught me to be more intentional about my clothes shopping and to invest in more sustainable fashion choices. I do a lot of thrifting (partially because I can't afford to buy new clothes, even at my own department store), and I'm learning to stick with natural fibers like cotton, wool, and linen instead of polyester and acrylic.
Working in retail has been a huge wake-up call for me. I hope this article will provoke people to thought and encourage them to change the way they approach their clothing consumption.
Wow that’s such excellent first hand experience! I can imagine that this would have a huge impact on how you’d think about clothes. I only started thinking about it more in depth a year ago and now I’m really just starting to see it everywhere and realize how pervasive the issues are…thanks so much for sharing your experience though and thanks so much for reading! :)
When I saw the title, I was expecting a fluff piece. But I'm glad I didn't skip over it. Thank you for putting some serious substance and depth to it. There are many topics that I have noticed are informed by our understanding of what all is included in being in the image of God. It's pivotal for lots of subjects. One of the Biblical admonitions often repeated is "to remember". There are many things we know, but to live them out consistently requires that we remember them. Your observations around hevel are good reminders we need. Most modern people are not deep thinkers. We need to be.
Thanks so much Mark! Glad you didn’t keep scrolling haha.
So good. That specific insight from Being Consumed re attachment v. detachment made me look at all the boxes in my garage full of previously desired amazon prime purchases, and my soul, quite differently.
Ah I love that! Thanks for reading JD!
Re that story in Being Consumed about the college student who auctioned off “advertising space” on his forehead—this takes it to a whole new level 😳 https://youtube.com/shorts/y0QEawIOrKw?si=WoQjaNu0aT6PbOxN
This is amazing. Kind of want to write an essay in response now, because my relationship with fast fashion/buying clothes has pretty much followed this exact track, but also what would I say that you didn't cover here.
If you release a response piece, I can release a response piece to your response piece to make it seem like we have beef, and we can just keep going forever and it’ll be all anyone can talk about 😤
So what you're saying is you wanna be the Drake to my Kendrick
Ugh drake is the worse one but I guess so :/
Excellent article-really made me think about my own clothing shopping habits and my own identity. I find my identity in Christ, so why do I get sucked into other ways to find identity, to belong or fit it? I’m going to ponder this one. Thanks!
So interesting to read from a male perspective what I've mostly seen dismissed as women's topic (but so evidently affects us all!). Have you read Lillian Fallon's book, The Theology of Style?
no but someone recommended that I check it out after they saw this post! I'm gonna look into it for sure!
I still haven’t subscribed.
:)
This is fantastic!👏🏼👏🏼 Spoke to me on many levels. I stumbled into minimalism about 10 years ago and wow did it ever open my eyes to examine my relationship with stuff- buying it, accumulating it, hoarding it, allowing it to build my identity…
I don’t know why this piece would prompt so many ‘unsubscribes’ except perhaps that it hit a little too close to home and they were attempting to eschew the conviction?? At any rate, well done.
I do wonder if kids who home school are afflicted by this at all. We did not have a lot of money but I did have some wealthy relatives who were older but shorter than me with a pretty decent clothing allowance. My sister and I used to joke they dressed us like teddy bears. Anyway I really wanted cool shoes and the Converse Onestars everyone else had were the most uncomfortable shoes I had ever worn in my life. I petitioned everyone to chip in for one birthday gift of these beautiful Fila skate shoes that I loved. Of course at school they said I was a 'Homie G wanna be'. You soon learn at high school there's no winning so you shouldn't try. Meanwhile I could walk all the way home in my beautiful Filas. I would buy those shoes today. And I still think Onestars are only good for drug dealer advertising.
Thanks for writing this.
This is the first time I've heard of Shein, but I just don't buy clothes online. I had heard something about the labor exploitation and waste in fashion—but I didn't know how bad it was until now.
We’re lucky to have pretty many Amish in our region. They’re onto something when it comes to sustainable style. The Robertsons of Duck Dynasty fame solidified their identity and wore their hunting garb to formal occasions. There’s been an interesting workwear trend among those who don’t do the hard manual labor. Maybe the cloth will make them???
The Griffin Gooch posts go deep. 👍🏼
Excellent article!
Thanks Talia!!
Good points. 🙂
Thanks Mel!!