Women's Orthodox clothing - what to wear to church

Usually, when the phrase “believing woman” is used, an image of a tortured, pale woman in a robe and a dark scarf appears; her appearance exudes gloom and gloominess. But believing in the Lord does not mean depriving yourself of the joys of life.

Orthodoxy brings light and joy. Therefore, the opinion about how a woman who attends church should dress is often erroneous. A woman should always look attractive. This applies to both clothing chosen for worldly life and clothing intended for going to church.

Why shouldn't a Christian woman wear pants?

The Holy Scriptures prohibit wearing clothing of the opposite sex, since such an act is considered a perversion: “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not put on a woman’s clothing, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 22:1–30). However, it cannot be said that this rule is fully acceptable in modern conditions, since women's trousers are still not men's clothing, just as men's Scottish skirts (kilts) are women's clothing.

Fashion brands

Few people know that religious fashion exists. The Orthodox wardrobe also corresponds to certain fashion trends. The goal is to emphasize the modesty and purity of the fair half of humanity. The basic rule: no trousers and a closed style, that is, no neckline, cutouts, or slits. The fabric chosen is opaque and plain. The image turns out to be modest, but stylish, emphasizing individuality.

Online stores are becoming popular. For example, “Miryanka” offers decent dresses. The models have a unique style that any secular fashionista will envy.

“The Peasant Young Lady” is also in demand. The manufacturer presents a series of outfits in which a religious woman is not ashamed to appear in public.

The 12 Holidays store produces modest clothing. The brand has reasonable prices.

Can a Christian be interested in fashion and dress stylishly?

Of course it can. The main thing is that such interest does not acquire painful forms over time, and, of course, you need to understand that not all fashionable clothes are suitable for a Christian. For example, you should not wear something that will tempt someone. In addition, in the modern tolerant world, there are even Orthodox fashion designers, Orthodox designers, Orthodox fashion, and many online stores offer Christians and Christian women clothes that look quite stylish and at the same time do not conflict with Christian piety.

Colors and symbols

For the church, each color has a specific meaning. This also applies to the wardrobe, especially women's scarves. To ensure that the chosen shade matches the church symbols, familiarize yourself with the meaning of the colors.

• White has become a symbol of the Divine color not made by hands.
• Red (the color of blood) is a symbol of love for Christ and all humanity.
• Gold and yellow tones symbolize the glory of the Lord.
• Green options speak of eternal youth and life, personifying birth.
• Blue elements mean the purity and chastity of the Mother of God.
• Purple color in church meaning is suffering, in particular of Christ for the human race.
• Black, a color that expresses grief, is also worn during days of mourning.

Things of different colors, with flowers or polka dots, are intended for work and cleaning. If Orthodox Christians honor the traditions of the church, they choose robes of appropriate colors for services, but this is not necessary.

Does a Christian need to bless clothes?

There is no need to bring new purchased clothes specially to the temple for consecration. If desired, you can sprinkle a new thing with holy water or sign the sign of the cross, or it is better to do both: take holy water into your palm or into a cup and sprinkle the thing with it crosswise, saying: “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen". In some prayer books you can find a prayer for the consecration of a thing: “To the Creator and Maker of the human race, the Giver of spiritual grace, the Giver of eternal salvation, Himself, Lord, send Your Holy Spirit with the highest blessing on all things.” This thing, because it is armed with the power of heavenly intercession for those who want to use it, will be helpful for bodily salvation and intercession and help, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen".

About white clothes, jeans and “Orthodox” fashion

Before their fall, Adam and Eve were surrounded, as if shrouded in God's grace.
This was their “clothing”, and they did not need anything else. And throughout their entire history, through all their wanderings, right up to the current extreme spiritual savagery, people have carried in the depths of their consciousness the memory of this radiant grace that illuminated and warmed their bodies and souls during the times of heavenly, sinless life. This memory, having overcome the pagan love for diversity, manifests itself in a stable, reverent attitude towards white simple long robes - this weak, crudely sensual likeness of it, which has not eroded over the centuries.

The snow-white ancient Egyptian kalaziris, Greek chitons and long white shirts of our ancestors are nothing more than expressions of this memory.

It is interesting that the ancient Egyptians, the beginning of whose culture is lost in the depths of thousands of years, extremely valued linen fabric of dazzling whiteness and so thin that moles on the body were visible through several layers of clothes made from it.

The ancient Hindus were able to make even thinner, completely transparent fabrics from cotton. It is not difficult to understand what could be the prototype of such robes.

White color has always been a symbol of purity. Cleanliness of clothing or body was originally understood as spiritual purity, as freedom from unclean

strength: it was in this sense that they spoke about an “unclean” place and, in general, about any uncleanness. The hygienic understanding of cleanliness has come in our time. In traditional Orthodox culture, cleansing the body and putting on clean white shirts was part of the necessary preparation for church services, painting an icon, building a temple and other godly deeds.

Even in the modern corrupt world, a special attitude towards white robes remains. The bride's white dress is still a symbol of her innocence and moral purity.

Having eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve “knew... that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made aprons for themselves” (Gen. 3:7). Their bodies, accustomed to the warmth from the grace that permeated them (remember how the snow melted around Seraphim of Sarov, so that his interlocutor Motovilov was also warmed up) felt not only spiritual, but also physical vulnerability. Instead of spiritual clothing, man received, like an animal, coarse carnal clothing. “And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21).

Clothing was supposed to not only protect from external influences, but also cover the “shame” and protect chastity. But with the development of culture, people began to use clothes for something completely different from the purpose for which they were given by the Lord. Clothes acquired a symbolic character and became a kind of language of their self-expression.

Ancient people were hardy and were not afraid of cold weather. But they put on the skins of animal totems, which replaced the true God for them, as a sign of kinship with this animal for the sake of its protection (other rituals also served this purpose, for example, the acceptance of sacrificial blood). Much later, in Ancient Rome, whose legionnaires, as you know, fought both in the north and in the south, it was customary to dress musicians in similar skins with an animal’s head instead of a hood, whose main task was to raise the morale of soldiers. This is also why savages wore skins: to intimidate the enemy, to maintain the morale of “our own people.”

An example from another era. Wasn’t it stuffy for our boyars and nobles in the summer heat under several layers of lush clothes, in a heavy fur coat, in a high throated hat? Their costume spoke of nobility of origin and high position in society. It was considered important to declare this, for the sake of this one had to endure.

Modern fashionistas have not yet outdone the French ladies of the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, who wore translucent dresses worn either over a naked body or over a wet tights, and at the same time seriously discussed the possibility of doing without any clothes at all. The shameless women of that time could not be stopped even by the exhortations of doctors who organized excursions to cemeteries to the graves of victims of the “naked” fashion who died of pneumonia.

And in photographs from the mid-19th century we see the British who came to Cuba - prim gentlemen in crinolines and tails. And this in forty-degree heat! And next to them are half-naked natives.

Photographs taken by ethnographic expeditions of the beginning of the last century in the Russian outback: village girls dressed in festive costumes. It’s the beginning of autumn, the soil is soggy underfoot. Rich brides wore leather boots, under which were worn several pairs of woolen socks with patterned edges. Nearby are girls from poor families, barefoot.

Some are not hot, others are not cold.

***

We adopted Christianity from Byzantium, which once mixed in its artistic crucible the traditions of a huge cultural region: Celtic, Roman, Greek, Indian and others. The ascetic idea of ​​maintaining chastity bizarrely turned into incredible, truly oriental pomp, diversity, and overload in her costume, so that the human body turned into a stand for demonstrating all this luxury.

Rus' treated the artistic heritage of its great predecessor very selectively. “The Third Rome” scrupulously and without fuss selected from the rich Byzantine chest only that which corresponded to the calmly quiet Russian soul - simple, noble, ingenuous, full of inner, unostentatious dignity. Only that which corresponded to the purity and spirit of Christian truth.

In everyday life they lived modestly: they took all the best to church. The decoration of God's temples and the liturgical attire of the clergy of Rus' visibly demonstrated the greatness of the Lord and the heavenly palaces. The magnificent royal vestments were the property of the state, as were the clothes of the royal servants and servants. They were not luxury items for personal use. Their purpose is to express the high state status of Orthodox Rus', headed by God’s anointed.

Quite many essential features of our mentality have remained unshakable. Even after Peter’s reforms, which were disastrous for patristic morals, Russian ladies differed from their Western European sisters in being more modest.

In the novel “War and Peace,” Leo Tolstoy, a writer who was given a very keen sense of the subtlest shades of the moral state of society, repeatedly calls the St. Petersburg “lioness” Helen Bezukhova, who followed the extreme French fashion of the early 19th century, “naked Helen,” thereby emphasizing the inconsistency of this fashion Russian mentality. And about another heroine of the novel, whose image is contrasted with Helen, Natasha Rostova, who is going to her first ball in her life, he writes: “Natasha seemed like a girl who had been exposed for the first time and who would have been very ashamed if she had not been assured that this is so necessary."

This fact is very significant: when Russian women put on low-cut dresses, they, as a rule, took off their crosses. If they did not do this, then it was perceived not as a manifestation of great piety, but, on the contrary, of a deep spiritual decline: the cross turned from a shrine into a beautiful trinket. This “fashion” came from France.

The famous French film star Brigitte Bardot has already “refreshed” the fashion of her depraved predecessors by wearing a cross, which with her light hand has again become a popular “decoration” of European women’s costume.

Generalissimo Suvorov, the greatest hero of our Fatherland, wrote that for him, above all else in the world, the honor of his daughter. Is this strange? No, it's not strange. Because he, a true Christian, who could not take a step without God, without prayer, understood well that no military victories would save Russia if chastity was trampled upon.

Modest behavior, a girl’s chastity, condemnation of loose relationships, preservation of the family - all these are the main moral components of the social system, the guarantee of the future of the country, the necessary conditions for raising new generations.

***

The denim age has arrived - a genuine revolution in clothing, reflecting a new phase in the relationship between a man and a woman. Once again the patriarchal traditions, which still persisted even in the destructive environment of communist “equality,” were shaken.

As a moral justification for denim fashion, the myth of the “comfortability” of trousers as such compared to an “outdated” skirt has finally taken hold in society. But this can only be said when comparing trousers with miniskirts. And, really, what is more convenient - to throw a skirt over your head or to fit, squirming, into two tight, prickly legs, and then suffer with a zipper that often fails? And in what outfit does a modern woman look more beautiful? In fact, the question of “simplicity” depends on habit and psychological attitude. For example, for the same Japanese, there is nothing more convenient than eating by squatting in front of a tiny table and even using two long chopsticks instead of a fork. There is hardly a European who might like this. A resident of Central Asia prefers the Turkish position for his dinner, and the ancient Greeks, Romans and representatives of many other nations reclined at banquet tables.

Whether jeans are comfortable or uncomfortable depends on how a person is used to behaving, what manners are characteristic of him. It is very uncomfortable to sit in a modest position with your knees together and your back straight. Jeans require their wearer to lounge casually on the seat, legs spread wide. In jeans, a woman can smoke freely and naturally, wear a man's haircut or tousled hair, and have cheeky conversations peppered with rude, indecent words and an abundance of slang phrases. Jeans suit a very specific lifestyle, otherwise you will look completely unnatural in them.

Another myth: trousers are supposedly warmer than a skirt. Create a draft in two passage rooms, then cover the open doorway with a simple chintz curtain that reaches the floor. You will immediately notice how much less it blows. A significant part of the cold air will seem to flow down even the thinnest, but vertically hanging fabric. So, for the information of those who claim the warmth of trousers: these clothes create a constant, very thin draft around the pelvis, which has the most detrimental effect on women’s health. And in the old days, and in general, all our ancestors wore long shirts - men wore them over their pants.

If modern women's trousers create this kind of draft, and even squeeze the skin, muscles, blood vessels, then judge for yourself how useful the trousers are!

Jeans, in addition, create a constant unnatural support, pressure from below, thereby slowly but surely curving the spine, preventing the vertebrae from functioning normally. Therefore, those who constantly wear jeans from their youth develop a very specific posture - a stooped back. Of course, the degree of deformation varies, but the fact remains: among regular, long-term wearers of jeans, it is impossible to meet a person with a slender figure. Jeans simply won't tolerate this. It’s sad and funny, but there were “theorists” who justified the “beauty” of jeans by turning to... Russian icon painting! In the 1970s, an article appeared in a reputable art magazine in which it was quite seriously argued that faded and worn (and later deliberately bleached) places on jeans trace their aesthetic ancestry to the depiction of gaps on icons and frescoes.

I remember how at one student conference at a textile university a report was discussed in which a young lady, with everyone’s warm approval, proved the extraordinary femininity of jeans.

At the same university, during a seminar class, another girl dared to make a report on the Orthodox understanding of the term “femininity.” She spoke about the Mother of God, holy women and their robes... The audience listened to everything in deathly silence, and even the innate student corporatism did not help: not a word of approval or support. As if we were talking about something extremely inappropriate and indecent. This is how our future fashion designers are being brought up today, the vast majority of whom are women.

Why be surprised? Understanding femininity is a kind of litmus test for the state of moral health of society.

During the period of maximum savagery of man, unknown ancient artists depicted a woman as an incredibly overweight figure (the so-called Paleolithic Venus). Such figures have no face at all, because in those days the only valued quality of a woman was her ability to reproduce.

On the contrary, the embodiment of mannerism, coquetry and a proud sense of superiority over others are the images of the so-called “Parisian women” of the Aegean culture of the mid-2nd millennium BC - painted, curled, in elaborate, low-cut dresses.

The late Renaissance ideal of Italian female beauty of the late 16th century was plump, lazy, infantile and sensual people with cow eyes.

And in Russia in the post-revolutionary era, strong girls in red scarves, rubber slippers, with sharp manners and a political economy textbook under their armpits were considered incredibly popular, and therefore feminine. To each his own.

In this sense, the sad dynamics of fashion for nudity of the female body in our time are very characteristic. So, in the 1980s, the flashing of the waist strip exposed when bending over, raising arms and some sudden movements due to an insufficiently long blouse was considered a piquant, semi-decent detail. This ended with the emergence in the 1990s of a fashion for so-called tops - short blouses like Indian choli, now completely legally exposing the lower half of the back and stomach to the waist.

Several more years passed - the blouses, however, lengthened somewhat, but the line of the belt dropped, so that the navel was deliberately and provocatively exposed. In the hectic conditions of urban life, this does not look at all seductive and elegant, but rather physiological and unpleasant. And even piercing, this touch of Papuan fashion, indicating that the possibilities of “civilized” fashion have been exhausted and there is simply nothing further to look for in it.

And then, in exact accordance with the degrees of decline in morality, the belt line crept even lower... It’s awkward to write about this, but where to go if this is our vile everyday reality. And it truly makes you laugh through your tears when you move your eyes up from this shame and see a simple-minded face, not at all stupid and not at all depraved. A kind of modern Natasha Rostova, who is convinced that this is how you can and should dress, because “everyone” wears this way now.

***

Today it is easier to come to God than 20 years ago. The false ideals of the atheistic “earthly paradise” have finally been emasculated, and for many of our compatriots the time has come for genuine Christian insight. But at the same time, their own problems also came: para-Orthodox forces were bustling around in all corners - from cynical “candlesticks” shifting from foot to foot in churches in order to gain popularity among believing voters, to a whole pack of “programmers” of all stripes, writers and breakers of all kinds “ programs" and "projects" on an Orthodox theme - on medicine and ecology, art and pedagogy.

And we also have the phenomenon of home-grown Orthodox “fashion”, born in a near-monastery environment. N.A. writes wittily about this. Pavlov, characterizing the situation in the first years of the revival of Optina Pustyn. “The pilgrims hastily changed into black from head to toe and, tying their scarves low in a monastic manner “in a frown,” called each other “mothers.” With the “priests,” the situation was like this: just at that time, a large batch of naval greatcoats was donated to the monastery, which were in great demand. Because if you add a black cap like a skufya to a black overcoat and take a heavy rosary, then the look was almost monastic” ( Pavlova N.A.

Easter is red. M., 2000. P. 16).

Monastic vestments have extraordinary expressiveness, charm and attractive power for believers, for they are the material expression of a deep spiritual meaning. As for the dark clothes worn in imitation of him, they are really very beautiful and completely transform any person, be it young or old. But they are suitable only under one condition: if they correspond to the spiritual structure of its bearer. If there is no harmony between a person and the so-much-obliging semi-monastic robe, then such a costume turns into a kind of sectarian uniform, causing legitimate irritation of non-church and even church people who do not adhere to such a “fashion”.

Generally speaking, only monks are supposed to wear rosaries openly, and the discrepancy between appearance and the pretense of piety and inner attitude is not a Christian phenomenon at all.

But what, the reader may ask, should a modern Orthodox woman wear? And to this, as to any other question, the answer should be sought in the Holy Scriptures.

“And why are you worrying about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow... But I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of them; If God clothes the grass of the field, which exists today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more so than you, O ye of little faith! So do not worry, and do not say, “What shall we eat?” or “what to drink?” or “what should I wear?” Because the pagans are looking for all this, and because your Heavenly Father knows that you need all this. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:28-33).

Man comes into the world to be saved. So let's think about salvation and not waste precious time and money on all sorts of trifles. The Lord will send what we need in due time.

If you are still very young and want to be liked or are still weak in spirit to refuse some decorations, there is always the opportunity to add something to your toilet to suit your taste and pocket, without violating its modesty, compliance with your occupation, age, and mandatory requirements decency accepted in Orthodoxy. The main thing is that the clothes are natural, not imposed by anyone or anything from the outside, and correspond to the state of your soul. Any fashion is a reflection of someone else’s taste, and therefore – violence.

But the most important thing is to think as little as possible about how we look in front of people, and more about how we look before the Lord, Who sees us constantly, no matter what we wear. Then we won’t have any problems with the suit.

This also applies to the habit of wearing makeup, which many Orthodox and even church women sometimes cannot overcome. We all know that distorting the image of God is a sin, but... how often we try to shift the blame onto others, like the true daughters of foremother Eve: my husband, they say, likes it this way, we can’t do otherwise at work, and so on. But if you are a good worker and your work does not contradict Christian principles, what is there to be afraid of?

For centuries, Christians have endured terrible torment for the sake of Christ, but we are afraid to wipe off the lipstick from our lips and suffer a little bewilderment from our acquaintances and colleagues.

In family life, no one has yet gained special respect, as well as lasting happiness, with the help of cosmetics and fashionable suits. If a loving husband thinks that a painted wife is more beautiful, then he will soon understand his error, and this will be the first step towards achieving true Christian love in your family, which everyone, both young and old, should seek.

How did the holy women dress, before whose images we pray today? Just like all women of their time. And, undoubtedly, modestly and unassumingly, because their thoughts were occupied with completely different concerns. Painting them on icons, frescoes, mosaics, artists of different eras, as a sign of deep reverence, sometimes clothed them in lush, precious clothes of their time. But no matter what they wore, their main “clothing” was the grace of God, which made their appearance beautiful and immortal for all time.