Youth and Fashion’s Modest Twist /2007
Interview With Brenda Sharman By Kathleen Naab CUMMING, Georgia, NOV. 28, 2007 (Zenit) - The director of a new modeling group says that some girls have been finding it hard to spend hours at the shopping mall. Their problem? Clothes offered by retailers do not meet the youths’ standards of modesty.
Brenda Sharman, director of Pure Fashion , explains in this interview with us that her group began when would-be shoppers could not find anything that was “pretty but not provocative.” Q: How did Pure Fashion begin and how does it work? Sharman: Pure Fashion shows began in 1999, when several girls across the country decided to present modesty fashion shows to counteract the immodest fashions that were beginning to permeate local retailers.
These moms and daughters were looking for ways to dress modestly, yet fashionably. Word spread over the next five or six years through Challenge Clubs — a Regnum Christi youth apostolate for girls ages 10-16 — and modesty fashion shows began popping up all over the country. In 2006, the fashion shows were unified by establishing the apostolate of Pure Fashion, which is now in 24 cities in the United States, as well as Australia, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Spain, France, Hungary and Canada.
From those modest beginnings, Pure Fashion has continued to grow, with professional shows such as one in Atlanta in April, attracting audiences of more than 2,000 people. Pure Fashion’s most important mission is to touch the hearts of young women with the love of Christ and to help them live out that love in all they do. The eight-month Model Training Program certainly includes segments on fashion, etiquette, hair and makeup, public speaking and the practical aspects of personal presentation.