Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Photographs from the 1953 raid on Short Creek, now the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., show men, women and children dressed like anyone else of that era.

So how did women's style of dressing evolve to the single colored, mostly pastel frocks of today? The photo above by Tribune photographer Trent Nelson shows a group of school-age girls a year or so ago in Colorado City. Adult women dress identically.

I learned a little bit about dress styles during a visit to southern Utah a few weeks ago, when I went to dinner with a group of women from Centennial Park, Ariz.

While no longer part of the FLDS community, they were able to explain how dress styles changed. Here is what they told me.

Every community has its fashion trendsetters. Decades ago, it was the Steeds and Johnson families in the twin cities.

One woman said that women in the family of Leroy Johnson, a former leader, first began wearing dresses that hit mid-calf. Lengths kept falling as leaders emphasized a conservative ethic, particularly through the turbulent 1960s and 1970s.

Women were also encouraged to make their own clothes and many became -- and still are -- fine seamstresses. There were several fabric shops in the towns, including Sew-Rite, owned by Margaret Fischer, and Zion Design. Floral prints and patterns were OK at first.

Women began adorning their dresses with ruffles, pleats, lace and bead work. It got out of hand, one woman said. Certain women would brag about the amount of fabric that went into the ruffles on their dresses.

The women in Newell Steed's family were the trendsetters in the 1960s and 1970s. At community dances, they would arrive in matching dresses layered with ruffles and flounces.

A dance didn't start until the Steeds came in, I was told.

''All you saw was legs and slips as they ran across the floor to pick dance partners,'' one woman said.

Florals and flounces were the fashion until the end of the 1990s, when Warren S. Jeffs began playing a more pivotal leadership role in the community.

He advised the FLDS to avoid wearing store-bought clothes and called for a return to more modest, humble styles. He emphasized the need to be covered up from ankle to wrist.

He pushed use of a certain fabric -- polyester suiting -- as the preferred dress material. Women were to avoid printed material in favor of solid colors, particularly pastels.

''The next thing you knew, everybody was wearing solid colors,'' one woman told me.

And overnight, the bolts of floral and print fabrics at Sew-Rite were worthless.

Jeffs also, according to these women, gave his female followers permission to wear pants under their dresses. Many do, even in the heat of summer.

The FLDS are not the only people to have a peculiar, symbolic way of dressing. So do some sects of Old Order Amish. Clothing is handmade and use of zippers is avoided. Men and women wear clothing that, like the FLDS, covers their bodies. Boys begin wearing straw hats at a certain age, while girls wear aprons over their dresses.

Women also wear head coverings and the cut and position of the head covering is an indicator of how "fast" a particular woman is, according to one expert.

Not all women in the FLDS community adhere to the dress style. I have noticed several women in long skirts and blouses. And as the photograph above shows, some are still wearing floral prints. But most do. And it is one of the most notable characteristics of the community.

Can anyone add to this information?

Labels: Amish, dress styles, FLDS