Chapter 18—“Adopt a Simple, Unadorned Dress”

Nevertheless, she still urged that Seventh-day Adventist women “adopt a simple, unadorned dress of modest length,” and suggested “another, less objectionable style.” This consisted of “a plain sack or loose-fitting basque, and skirt, the latter short enough to avoid the mud and filth of the streets.” It was to be “free from needless trimmings, free from looped-up, tied back overskirts.”—Testimonies for the Church 4:640.SDARD 12.6

Such a dress Mrs. White personally wore during her later life, but she deplored any attempt to urge a uniform style upon others. When in later years a few conscientious sisters in the faith felt that a move should be made to restore the “reform dress,” and to agitate for its general adoption, she earnestly counseled against this. She sought to correct a mistaken impression, saying:SDARD 13.1

“Some have supposed that the very pattern given was the pattern that all were to adopt. This is not so. But something as simple as this would be the best we could adopt under the circumstances. No one precise style has been given me as the exact rule to guide in all their dress.”—Letter 19, 1897.

By this time, prevailing styles had changed and were more sensible and healthful, and there was no reason for departing widely from established custom in the matter of dress. In view of this fact, Mrs. White spoke decidedly against an issue “to divert the minds of the people and get them into controversy over the subject of dress,” and she counseled:SDARD 13.2

“Let our sisters dress plainly, as many do, having the dress of good material, durable, modest, appropriate for this age, and let not the dress question fill the mind.”— Ibid.