Confessions of a Mini-Skirt Addict -- My Wonderful Discovery of Modesty in Clothing

Modest and Feminine Christian Dressing :) - 2012

I love being a woman! :)

I love dressing up femininely. 

I love making myself look pretty.

I love pink.

I love flowers.

I love having womanly curves.

I thank God He made me a woman (and not a man)! :D

Early Courtship - 1998 (Same dress as the one below!)

"Scary Spice" mini skirt -1997

When Dong and I were just starting as boyfriend-girlfriend, he would always tell me that I would look very good in long skirts, and that he would prefer if I wore those instead of my well-loved mini-skirts. He also said I'd look nicer if I did not wear too-tight tops or too-high heels.

At that time, I was just 21, and The Spice Girls were en vogue, and I was so used to wearing very tight-fitting clothes and teeny-weeny skirts and very high heels, so I found his comment weird and him, old (He was 28). That was so not how I dressed! In my mind, I thought: "That is so manang (like an old lady)! I am just 21 for heaven's sake!"

Basketball muse -2000

My wardrobe as a young adult basically consisted of very short skirts and very tight tops or very tight dresses, which I found sexy. Those were my normal outfits. I wore them like 'uniforms'.

It validated me to be thought of as "sexy". I didn't mind and I reveled at male strangers' or male co-workers' ogles and stares. I think I even found it flattering when they said really bastos (lewd) comments regarding how I looked. Back then, I took in those nearly, if not actually sexually harassing comments as compliments! I felt so happy! Yikes!!!

 Skirt alert girl at left!!! With my good friends during a night out -1997

                     




I think my equation back then was :

That's me at the left in a High School play - 1995

I AM BEING DESIRED LUSTFULLY = I AM BEAUTIFUL.


I think this twisted view of how I regarded myself started as early as high school. I felt that the more I showed skin, the more desirable I was. It didn't help that my own mother never stopped me from going out of the house in those clothes. She even bought me those clothes herself. (I wonder what Mama was thinking back then!)

Mama and I going to a taping for Pen Pen De Sarapen - 1994

I held on to this mentality for a LONG TIME. You can even say, I was in bondage of wanting to be overtly sexy and of craving for the ungodly and lustful attention of men and appreciation/envy from women.

14 y/o in a dress Mama bought - 1991 

Writing about it now, I suddenly realized it was that bad.



I had it so very wrong! :(

At a morning show -2011

Compared to other girls now, my clothes might not even be considered as  "too sexy". It might just be labeled as "cute sexy" or sometimes even "moderately conservative", but that is not the point.

The point is my style of presenting myself was not representative of my relationship with God.




I was sort of "broadcasting my wares" in a worldly manner, while claiming to be a follower of Christ.

College Friends and I in my short black dress- grad night, 1996

No wonder that in college, some boys thought me to be a walking contradiction.They said I looked like I smoked and drank. (For the record: I have never smoked and I only drank liquor on very rare occasions, plus, I've never been drunk!) To their minds, I surely did not look the part of a "demure Christian"!

Super Short Skirt for News-2011

Example of an outfit Dong preferred. - 2011

Even as a new mother and till very recently before my conversion, I did not think twice about looking "sexy and available"  even when I was not available  and even when all I wanted was men's admiration -- not cellphone numbers and definitely not affairs!!!

I was what you'd call in the local tongue, maarte (girly girl) but not malandi (flirtatious). 

I just wanted them to look, but they could not touch! (What a tease!)

If I were to be brutally honest, during all those many years, I really desired to be wolf-whistled,

A short skirt again, that precarious sitting position again! - 2000

salaciously eyed and given lecherous stares. It boosted my self-esteem and made me feel oh so hot! Looking back, this unnatural desire to be noticed was because of my poor self-image issues. Proof of this long-standing problem with self was my decade-long battle with an eating disorder. 

This is all embarrassing to admit! But, it needs to be addressed.

In 2012, my "fulfilled dreams year", I worked for a religious network that was owned by and whose employees were largely of a religion different from mine. (I was a devout Catholic by the way, and still am.:) 

Hosting an event -2008

In this "independent" Christian sect, the women wore their hair long and never had them cut. They were forbidden from wearing jeans, so they always wore long skirts. They too were not allowed to wear makeup and put on jewelry. At first I found those rules too harsh. 

Coming from my background of always wearing short and tight clothes even during my newscasts, I did not know what I should wear in their TV station! I did not have skirts that went below my knees!!!

This one is a very long dress in A Song of Praise taping - 2012

TV plug shoot -2012

For that whole year, I conformed by wearing long outfits to my TV shows and if I were to wear pants, I made sure that my tops were long enough to have my crotch area covered. I did not want to offend them or their viewers, since they were super conservative, and apparently, I was really not.

I am the one in a long orange gown with former co-hosts

I have since resigned from that network in early 2013 for very personal reasons, but the one whole year of wearing modest clothing eventually rubbed off on me.

To be honest, during that year, especially when I was still just weeks or months into my new work setting, I kind of missed the wolf whistles and the lewd remarks I almost always got daily in my former work place.

I even felt unattractive and un-sexy because I could not wear my usual clothes. I was not forbidden like their women were in my own choice of clothes being not of their religion, but I just felt that I owed it to the other women in the workplace who were comprised of mostly members of their sect, to look wholesome and not.... uhm.."slutty". (That's how I felt next to them!)

Me, in a long skirt with members of MCGI or the Nikkalite fans :) - 2012

I have never thought of my look as "slutty" before, but being around modestly dressed women all the time,  I realized that my choice of clothes and my frame of mind regarding how I carried myself were far from Christian. 

In fact, I realized, that I actually looked worldly. I didn't outwardly express from my choice of clothes (very short, very tight, very sexy), how I inwardly felt (a great love for God).

The birth of Isabelle was part of that change.

When I underwent a great spiritual awakening in September of last year, 2013, along with my desire to let go and let God was my huge desire too, to be modestly clothed. 

I could not explain it except to say that perhaps when I humbled myself before God, that same humble spirit permeated in all aspects of my being, including my manner of dressing.

What was inside seemed to want to be manifested outside.

My lovely sister in Christ, April :)

April Cassidy of 'The Peaceful Wife blog' explains modesty in dressing so well in her post. Her favorite definition of it, and  now mine too is that :

 MODESTY is “humility in clothing.”

Lovely definition, right? :) Humility in the way one dresses. 

I used to think dressing discreetly should only be done at Sunday Mass (I always wore long dresses to church.) I didn't think it was necessary during most days of the week.

Weird and wild skin rashes :(

I would not be a hypocrite and say, that I now never wear short skirts (although I have thrown out and have no desire to wear my micro-minis anymore and my wholesome not-so-short-above-the-knee skirts I  really can't wear at the moment even if I wanted to, due to a weird breakout in my legs the past month), but I now prefer longer skirts and more tasteful clothes over my former choices of clothes.:) 

I can't explain it, really. I will try though...

Dong and I with his brothers and girl cousin - Jan 2014

Birthday of Reece - Dec 2013

It was as if when the Lord freed me from my bondage of control, He also freed me from my bondage of extreme self-consciousness and desire to be deemed as attractive.

Mother of 3 in my then usual get-up- Dec 2011

Having lost the abnormal desire to attract attention to how I looked, I now felt happy simply being "fully clothed". I still wear makeup (I don't mind going "bare" though with just a dab of lipstick now) and I still wear accessories (I don't mind not wearing earrings now though, whereas HUGE earrings were a staple before.). I still love wearing very colorful clothing (You cannot take that away from me! ;) but I do not have the urge to show off any skin anymore. :) 

That, in and by itself is freedom! 

I still enjoy occasionally wearing comfortably short dresses. :) - Christmas 2013 with family and relatives

Christmas Party with my college friends - Dec 2013 :)

I feel so comfortable now in my own skin that I don't feel the need to be validated anymore by showing off skin.:)

Family Outing - Dec 2013

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Isabelle's Baptism(top)-Dec 28,2013 and PTV reunion (below)-Jan 17,2014

He bought me for a price so I want to glorify God now with not just how I speak, with not just how I pray, but also with how I look and how I dress. :)

I usually wear a scarf now. Here's why.:)
Jan 22, 2014

Modesty is humility in clothing. 

May we all learn to be humble not just in deed, not just in thought, not just in word, but also in appearance. :)

What is inside should radiate outside.

The humility in our hearts should also be seen in our choices of clothes. :) 

(Coming from a mini-skirt addict, this is A HUGE, as in WHOA  HUGE AHA MOMENT! Oh, and I also now enjoy giving my very high heels their much-needed rest. My feet are happier now too.) :D

May we all be richly blessed! :)