Plain Dress

Traditional Plain Dress Resources

Traditional plain dress runs quite a gamut, but in general the women wear long dresses, often with a cape or kerchief or other second layer to cover the bosom. Fabrics are usually solids or simple prints. Aprons are also common. Most distinctive is probably the headcovering, which falls into a fairly limited range of styles which are outlined on these pages. Black shoes and stockings are worn by the most conservative. Makeup and jewelry are avoided, per I Tim. 2: 9,10 "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold or pearls, or costly array. But that which becometh women professing godliness."

Women in the traditional plain churches are adhering to a community standard in dress that includes what headcovering to wear, the style of dress and the fabric colors. Plain dress styles are usually self-consciously anachronistic and have specifically symbolic items that are required. Modern plain dress has evolved from earlier styles, with some items being retained long after being abandoned in the mainstream, in particular bonnets, shawls and aprons. There are plain-dressing groups that I have no examples to share, including the Hutterites, the Shakers and smaller Amish-Mennonite groups like Holdeman Mennonites.

The Amish and Mennonites are the best resource for plain dress available today. Some costume historians believe the Mennonites modified their plain dress somewhat after coming to America in ways that were more Quaker-like, who were the predominant plain-dress observing group at that time. So, perhaps it is only fair that we switch it around the other way. I wear traditional plain dress. My goals have been to emulate historical Quaker plain dress without being slavishly historical, and to find a combination that works for me functionally on a day-to-day basis. I felt the desire to dress distinctively. I want someone who is knowledgeable about the plain peoples to have to at least ask my background, so that I do not look too Amish or too Mennonite, but definitely plain. I met these goals by adopting a plain soft cap, solid-colored plain dress, a light tan shawl, and a neck-kerchief.

Places to Purchase Ready-to-wear
and Custom-made Plain Dress

Places to Purchase
Plain Dress Patterns

Useful Ready-to-wear & Patterns
from Historical Re-enactor Resources

Websites for historical re-enactors can be excellent resources for filling in gaps in a plain dress wardrobe. Shawls, shoes, capes, bonnets, caps, aprons, kerchiefs. Find what problems you need to solve, and then find out how others have (historically) solved those problems.

Catalogs and Stores That Sell
Plain Dress and Plain Useful Items

About Shoes

I found shoes to be one of the most difficult issues to resolve in my quest for a traditional plain Quaker habit. The Gohn Brothers catalog has shoes (see Catalog above), but no pictures, and blind purchasing mail order shoes was a bit nerve-wracking. Probably the best selection for mail order with pictures is GVS. No website, but they can be contacted by phone to request a catalog at 1-800-398-2494. I also have very narrow feet, and plain-shoe purveyors' offerings tend toward wider-width sizes. I ended up using plain black Reebok athletic shoes with the brand name blacked out for every day, which is quite popular among the plain women I know. Very comfortable and fairly inexpensive, it is also a style that has been available for many years. I ended up purchasing a pair of Australian "school shoes" from Vegan Wares for meeting, but the exchange rate has become such as to make recommending them impossible due to the expense.

Two readers have contacted me with some interesting options for an old-fashioned high-top plain shoe, though they are a bit pricey, they are actually less expensive than the classic old-fashioned high-top plain shoe offered by Gohn Brothers. Both solutions are actually boots. (1) from Abigail, a boot for Civil War re-enactors offered by BlockadeRunner.com. And (2) from Kathryn, the idea of wearing Paddock boots. A search of Google images for Paddock boots brings up a great many photos of plain-appropriate boots.