I don't get why being modest for religious reasons should be significantly different from working with someone who says "Oh, not the boobs--I don't like my boobs, no cleavage on national TV. And have you seen my cankles??"

Please--don't take this as me equating religious modesty with either shame or vanity. What I'm trying to say is that designers get the same sort of restrictions as she will give for many other reasons all the time. They might want to be dressing Halle Berry all the time, but everyone's going to have preferences, and even if someone's definition of "too plunging" isn't backed up by internet authorities, it's just part of the job for designing clothes for someone not you.

My closest Orthodox friend in high school's biggest clothing issues were with her parents. For some reason her mother *really* wanted her in a sleeveless dress at her brother's bar mitzvah, and she refused point blank. That was a fun week or so.

They compromised with lace sleeves.

Oh, hey--Jessica managed it in one sentence.

Mayim Bialik annoys me too much to waste a whole paragraph on her.

Something for the Good Things Tumblr: [link]

I'm in the office. Kind of wish I wasn't. One of my nicer coworkers is retiring, boo. And I have a messy teleconference at 10:30 I don't want to do.

ION, I have a pile of paperwork to send to my parents' physician, sort of behind my mother's back. I'm all stressed out about this, yes, but I think I need to remember that it's way more stressful for my mother...

Deep breaths, Consuela. If you can get them into this place, all of this will be very much worth it.

Mayim Bialik's dress doesn't look like anything you couldn't find in the mother of the bride department at any store. Also, don't call a designer, call a dressmaker, if you want to tell them exactly what you want. It's not hard.

I love her character on Big Bang, and the way she plays it, but every time she says anything about parenting, my eyes roll out of my head.

and so obviously HER quest for a long-sleeved gown is totally different from, say, Julianne Moore's or Julia Ormond or Lena Headly...

Yeah, those are all completely modest and attractive dresses.

Modest I will grant you, but that color on Julianne Moore was anything but attractive.

I once shopped with a friend who was looking for an orthodox-approved dress for an LA fall wedding (she was the sister of the bride, who'd converted), and you'd think that would not be that hard, for fall. Knee length or longer wasn't much of a problem, but finding things that covered the clavicle was. This was just in a mall, not at tv-star levels of access to things, of course, and could vary by season and current fashion trends, but she had very few choices indeed. I imagine for summer it could be nearly impossible.

that color on Julianne Moore was anything but attractive.

Really? I thought she looked amazing.

I liked that color on Julianne Moore, too. With her hair and coloring, I thought it worked. It didn't look as good on Julie Bowen at all.

As a person who prefers to wear dresses with sleeves, I have definitely found the shopping easier in the last couple of years, although department store formalwear gets Mother of the Bride really fast.

Frank, I'm so sorry.