karenhealey

A month or so back someone on Twitter linked to an article about Israeli politics, from an Israeli media outlet. Reading it, I found I was missing a lot of context, so I started looking at things like the "Who is a Jew?" debate and opening 200 Wikipedia tabs. Not long after, I found myself on Youtube watching a series of rather awesome head-covering howto videos, and then sidetracked into watching documentaries about Amish and Hutterites, and all about religious orders (fuelled also by watching Call the Midwife around the same time).

At the same time, the seasons have changed here, and it's getting cold. I brought out my winter underwear, which is mostly the merino leggings and long-sleeved undershirts/spencers that Target Australia sells. I habitually wear them under *everything* in winter -- sometimes in basic black, sometimes stripes and colours depending on what Target has.

Then, also, I'm working from home, which means I am dressing for practicality and comfort, and not worrying too much what other people think of my attire. I don't have to "fit in" with a work culture, and the area I live in (inner north suburbs of Melbourne) is somewhere on the border of "hipster" and "hippie" so pretty much anything goes.

Also, I like natural fibres (especially wool and linen, but cotton's okay too) and wear them as much as possible; I've recently discovered Gudrun Sjoden and have some of their simple dresses in linen and cotton, and I just ordered some new stuff from Flax in preparation for my upcoming US trip since I'm short on summer clothes after wearing all my last batch almost to rags. (Btw, anyone else know similar mostly-natural-fibre brands, that serve plus sizes? Apart from Eileen Fisher, which I'm not that into at that price point, but will occasionally buy from charity shops if I get lucky.)

Also, I am a history nerd and know quite a lot about historical (western) clothing styles. I've also spent a fair amount of time wearing them, through the SCA and stuff like that.

Also, I am kind of a nanna and into things like wearing aprons (because they keep your clothes clean and save on laundry) and wearing hats outdoors (for sun protection and because I don't like the feel of sunscreen) and buying clothes that will last and/or can be mended rather than throwing them out.

Also, I do the "no poo" thing where I only wash my hair with water, or occasionally conditioner, rather than using shampoo/soap/detergent of any kind. My hair's getting longer and going through a bit of a phase where it gets a bit greasy sometimes, but isn't long enough to put up/back on bad hair days. Actually it's just at that irritating length where I can't do a damn thing with it.

The result is that at the moment I am kind of dressing in a style that I would call "European grandma meets inner north hipster". I tend to wear knee-length or slightly-below-knee-length (because I'm short and haven't hemmed them up) dresses with long underwear underneath, a cardigan over that, and lately usually some kind of bandana or head scarf over my hair. Sometimes there is an apron. When I am around the house I wear ugg boots, but when I go out I usually put on Doc Martens or my Vevo barefoot boots which kind of look like those ones boxers wear.

So maybe it's because all this season-changing and bad-hair-month-ing is going on at the same time that I've been reading/watching all this stuff about religious communities and religious modesty, but I'm having lots of complicated thoughts about the way I'm dressing lately, which has a lot in common with religious modest dress styles, and wanted to sort of poke at them and see what happens. So, in no particular order...

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