The cape dress: Its origins and evolution over the ages

[Josh]

Oh, that must be a hoot to read. Do you know what journal it was in?

linda [sic] Bradley in Journal of Mennonite Studies, vol. 15 (1997). If you enjoy reading fiction, a certain LA Bradley wrote another article in 2017. For a sociologist, she somehow makes observations that don't match my experience at all.

Article is at https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/ ... ew/499/499

In essence, she had a conclusion she wanted to arrive at, which is that (a) Holdemans once had a strict mode of plain dress (which they never actually did; in the 1930s, their clothing would have looked the same as their neighbours), and then (b) that the cape dress is an important part of exercising social control over women. This conclusion is an interesting one since Holdemans never have used cape dresses at all, unless you count John Holdeman and wife and their 25 relatives and associates from 1859-1874 before they joined with groups of Russian Mennonites.

The article starts off confusingly with fictitious place names:

Bend is a town and rural district of 250 people on the Sacramento River in Northern California. It is a small community of white middle-class farm families, the vast majority (65 families) of which are Holdeman Mennonites. The Holdemans drive ten miles to the county seat of Mayfield (pop. 4000) to shop for grocery staples. Most of their food, however, is home-grown and preserved.

Whilst there is a place called Bend, there sure isn't any place called Mayfield that is a county seat. The only Mayfield in California currently sits underneath Stanford. I am guessing she decided to rename Glenn to Bend and Willows to Mayfield. This was published in 1997, and my wife grew up there, and she sure doesn't remember most of their food being home grown and preserved - unless you considered large scale rice or corn farms or walnut or almond orchards.

The most specific item that illustrates this is the black head covering worn over uncut hair pinned into a bun.

This is another "import" from other Mennonite groups - Holdemans don't hold to a doctrine of "uncut hair" like certain other groups do and trimming, cutting, or otherwise shortening hair is commonplace.

It follows that gluttony, too, is despised. Over time the Holdeman Mennonite community has seen obesity as a sign of gluttony and generally indicative of a lack of control. "Lust of the flesh" is a term used by the Holdemans to indicate sensory enjoyment of anything from eating to sexual pleasure. Although their major social activity is eating, ideally it is a functional, rather than pleasurable activity. According to the Holdemans' physician, the obesity rate of women in the surrounding community is forty percent, while only ten percent of the Mennonite women are considered obese; these rates have stayed consistent in the past decade.

This is a case where I wish a sociologist were correct; it is true that (some) groups of Mennonites (including Holdemans) have less obesity that surrounding people, but I have not seen much evidence of the spiritual teachings she described above, and people I have asked sure can't remember any. (I am also a bit shocked to hear the prevailing obesity rate of women in Glenn County was 40% in 1997. The obesity prevalence now is 32% which is below the national median.)

Similarly, sexual expression is kept under tight rein, and is only allowed within the confines of marriage. During my years with the Holdemans, there were no cases of premarital pregnancy, due in large part to the constant separation of the sexes from adolescence until marriage. Motherhood and adulthood are synonymous; married women unable to conceive (a very rare occurrence) will adopt children. The occasional spinster generally marries a widower later in life, and then has step-children. Birth control, sexual behavior and the physical expression of love between man and wife are regulated by the church

It's true there weren't cases of out of wedlock pregnancy, but, well, there have been excommunications for fornication or other similar sins. I am also not sure I would concur "a very rare occurrence" given how many people from that setting are adopted (whom I've met) who would have been being raised in 1997. It is also flatly not true that "birth control ... [is] regulated by the church"; whilst once again I think it should be, it isn't, and people mostly make their own choices.

Upon reading the article a bit deeper, the author does state that the cape had vanished in the community she interviewed (after earlier asserting the cape dress is a standard part of the uniform), but that didn't stop Wikipedia from citing her article as follows:

The women of the Holdeman Mennonite community in California wear a cape-dress that has a high neckline, loose bodice and fitted waist. The cape of the dress covers the shoulders and bust.

Having spendtplenty of time in California, I can attest that not all necklines are high, not all bodices (or even most) are loose, and fitted waists have basically gone out of style, replaced by loose waists. And there isn't a cape at all. I don't know how people can get this so wrong.

A while ago, Mennonite World Review had a good article that books and news articles about the Amish tend to reflect what people want to see, not the way things actually are, and often are more of a reflection on ourselves than the Amish. It appears this author is the same way. (My mother in law was one of the people who met this researcher.) She is well-cited, and it is questionable how much of any sociological research like this can be relied on it when it gets so many details wrong, and then comes to conclusions that don't seem to line up with how the culture actually is at all.

[DanH]

Here is a little more food for thought in relation to the origin of the traditional cape dress.
As I tried to learn more about what the Bible teaches in dress, I came across this nugget that I find helpful in understanding why the cape dress became the practice of those who try to follow Bible principles in every area of life.
1Tim 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
Adam Clarke makes these comments regarding the word apparel:
The katastolh seems to have been the same as the pallium or mantle, which, being made nearly in the form of the stola, hung down to the waist, both in back and front, was gathered on the shoulder with a band or buckle, had a hole or slit at top for the head to pass through, and hung loosely over the stola, without being confined by the zona or girdle. Representations of these dresses may be seen in LENS' Costume des Peuples de l'Antiquit‚, fig. 11, 12, 13, and 16. A more modest and becoming dress than the Grecian was never invented; it was, in a great measure, revived in England about the year 1805, and in it, simplicity, decency, and elegance were united; but it soon gave place to another mode, in which frippery and nonsense once more prevailed. It was too rational to last long; and too much like religious simplicity to be suffered in a land of shadows, and a world of painted outsides.

I sadly observe that many Mennonites are more afraid of plain dress than they are of worldly conformity of dress.

[Elmer]

Wendell Heatwole on the Plain Suit & Cape Dress: https://www.youtube.com/live/m2k5LwQosrI?feature=shared

[Ken]

Wendell Heatwole on the Plain Suit & Cape Dress: https://www.youtube.com/live/m2k5LwQosrI?feature=shared

What does he say? Or do I have to list to an hour and a half YouTube video to find out?

[Elmer]

Wendell Heatwole on the Plain Suit & Cape Dress: https://www.youtube.com/live/m2k5LwQosrI?feature=shared

What does he say? Or do I have to list to an hour and a half YouTube video to find out?

If you start at 22:00, you have just under an hour to listen. If you use the settings to speed him up, you can make it through even faster.

[Heirbyadoption]

Wendell Heatwole on the Plain Suit & Cape Dress: https://www.youtube.com/live/m2k5LwQosrI?feature=shared

What does he say? Or do I have to list to an hour and a half YouTube video to find out?

If you start at 22:00, you have just under an hour to listen. If you use the settings to speed him up, you can make it through even faster.

Elmer, could you graciously summarize it in a paragraph or two for those of us who don't always have the time to listen to more videos (even at higher speeds, lol). Thanks!

[Josh]

Here is a raw transcript of the message:

the mind can only absorb what the seat can bear and so if I remember about halfway but done this
evening I'd like for the song leader to be prepared just to lead out in versus song as we stand and give our seats some
relief this morning hopefully we lay a groundwork
for going forward uh we talked not only
about separation and non-conformity in anabaptist history but also hopefully a biblical
groundwork A framework for why all of that now this evening and um the next
two evenings focusing more particular on distinctive applications of ways in
which anabaptist people have attempted to uh live pleasing to the the Lord
in in uh applying scripture and two distinctive features
shared by many conservative groups of the Swiss branch of the anabaptist uh American menites are the
pl coat and the Caped dress in fact these two articles of clothing are
practically uh a touchstone uh for us in that many people
who practice those two particular applications also practice many other things in common we feel a certain
kinship with people who tend to practice uh that the sisters are wearing Cape DS
dresses and and uh that the men are are
wearing playing coats or at least they have one in their
closet and we saw in the morning's message that that nonconformity uh in minite anti Baptist
inight history is uh includes the you know the practice
of simple or plain clothing uh among Amish and and uh menites and it's
practically as old as anabaptism itself in the very first year of anabaptism uh
it was noted that there was this humility in the way they attired themselves and we pointed that out this
morning but where did these two particular forms of dress come from did
anabaptists wear straight cut coats uh uh did anabaptist we women uh wear capes
on their dresses is there some biblical principle involved or are we just mindlessly trying to perpetrate some LGH
held cultural practice that really has no value uh somehow another we've
convinced ourselves that it's important that it's valuable and and so we're just trying to pass this on from generation
to generation where where is where we at on this where where did it come about how did it come that I'm here here
standing before you with a straight cut or a plain coat this morning I emphasize that our
applications of nonconformity should be biblically based and so let's begin our
study of the development and practice of the plain code and the cape dress by looking at one aspect you know there's
number of biblical of aspects of a Biblical teaching that inform us or guide us in in the way that we dress and
the way that we present ourselves and so I just want to look at basically one aspect of that this
evening as we look into the biblical base uh for this for these two
applications and it has to do with Simplicity and so let's open our Bibles to First Corinth 1 Timothy Chapter 2
we're going to look first of all at the biblical basis for Simplicity in personal
appearance and so let's
read 1 Timothy chap 2: 9 and
10 now remember I read from Men of Simons this morning where he said if this is what Peter and Paul said for for
the women how much more for the men and so while this is addressing women in
these two verses I do believe that principles are for men as well um
obviously just because of the nature of uh of Womanhood it seems that that
uh there's somewhat more Temptation there for ladies but the the principle
is is the same for both men and women so let's read those verses in like manner
also the women that women Adorn themselves with modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety not with
braided hair or gold or pearls are costly array but which becometh women
profess professing godliness with good works and this is the biblical basis I
believe for a form of personal appearance that is and I'm quoting from the dictionary not decorated or
elaborate elaborate but is simple or ordinary in character not decorated or
elaborate but is simple or ordinary in character and that is the definition the
dictionary definition of the word plain now in truth we cannot take the
English dictionary definition of plain and run away with that because the Bible
instruction here revolves around the word modest not
plain and we use the word modesty in two different and yet similar ways one has
to do with decency clothing ourselves in a way to avoid sexual
suggestiveness and the world often does the very opposite it closes itself
intentionally to be sexually provocative or sexually
alluring and so one word one uh aspect of the word modesty has to do with
decency the other meaning of modesty is very similar in meaning to the word
moderation for example when we talk about a modest house what are we talking about well we're
talking about one that was moderate in size or appearance and so modesty is the quality
or state of being relatively moderate Limited in or small in amount rate or
level an an an antonym or an opposite of the word modest is ostentatious
something that's designed to impress or to uh attract
notice and this is how the word modesty is used uh primarily in in the verse here in in
1 Peter 2 verse 9 apparently the meaning of some of the
words in this verse it talks about in the King James here talks about modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety
and it's kind of like cutting the the baloney it's kind of like cutting the meat it's it's kind of slic kind of thin
there's there's similarity between these these words and so if you go to the NIV
or if you go to the new King James or some other translation instead of
necessarily saying modesty so shamefacedness and sobriety you might say modesty decency and propriety or or
different words and so you'll notice that that that in the English translators trying to translate the
Greek words into English uh are are using different words to try to to carry
those Concepts and and apparently there is a certain similarity within those
words in the Greek in the Greek
language regardless of of how the various words there are to actually be
translated modesty is the thrust of this passage and it's not sexual modesty
primarily but simple modesty uh rather than trying to just tease out the shades of meaning of what
those different words mean I want to read from a non- metanite commentary a a
u from the Bible knowledge commentary which um comes out of a a place in Texas
a seminary in Texas but but notice what this man says that his understanding is
of the meaning of the words in this passage he says these terms stress not
so much the absence of sexual suggestiveness though that is included
but rather an appearance that is simple moderate and judicious and free from
ostentation and so this verse in like manner also that women and I believe it
includes men Ador themselves with modest apparel with shamefacedness shamefacedness maybe has more the idea
of reserve and propriety not with braided hair or gold
or pearls or costly Ray this is the biblical BAS basis at least the primary biblical basis for uh dressing ourselves
in a way that is what we' call Simple that is moderate that is not showy that
is not impressive like a modest house uh or a modest automobile or modest
clothing not so much clothing that is not revealing but clothing does not
scream out and say look at me see me see my wealth see my my fin you see how how
um decked out I am now I would point out that the Bible
does not specify exactly what simple clothing is or what modest clothing
is neither does the bible exactly specify what modesty means in terms of
sexual modesty of decency in my church The Stand says that
women's dresses should be well below the knee when standing or
sitting um that is speaking to the sexual aspect of modesty to the decency
aspect and I had the Good Fortune of just about the time that I was ordained
to function as Bishop that the Styles started asking for long
dresses and uh it pretty well lasted for the duration as and so that was not one
place where I had to spend a lot of uh I had to spend energy and have have to beat on on that on that
drum but our church has specified a certain level of modesty in terms of
ladies dresses that the dresses should be at least this long and you know we do
that same thing in in other as aspects uh the Bible does not say really in all
detail exactly what it means to have a moderate or a simple uh way of of
attiring ourselves it's to us as individuals and to us as congregations
or fellowships or whatever to come to some understanding that well in our
culture in our time we would like this measure at least this measure of Simplicity this measure of of moderation
in our clothes and so you know we ask that you you don't do this or we that or
or or or the other and no it is not thus says the Lord on every detail but but we
are trying to apply the scripture to come to a certain measure of application
both on the decency side of modesty and on the moderation side of modesty okay
with that Foundation then uh I'd like to go on to think about the menite
anabaptist practice of Simplicity and clothing
apparently many of the early anabaptists were distinguished by their Simplicity of dress we noted that this morning as
another example there was a reformed Pastor um from the Swiss imenti writing
in 1693 and his purpose was to try to persuade his parishioners that they didn't need to be anabaptist well you
could be a good menite you could be a good uh Christian I'll put it that way I
misspoke you can be a good Christian by being reformed instead of by being anabaptist but so that was the context
of of uh what he wrote but he said about anabaptist and I quote in their
distinguishing themselves in outward clothing from all other honest people do they not thereby make it understood that
they are not adverse to being recognized among the people so that one can immediately say this is an
anabaptist and so at least among the Swiss anabaptists or among this group of Swiss anabaptists and the latter part of
the 1600s the way they dressed uh they could be identified in some way as
anabaptist more specifically this man as he wrote he said this they wear no
collars around the neck and were nothing embroidered or of lace or anything else
that our rural people consider pride in ostentation of
dress so how did it come about that anabaptist could be distinguished that
well this is an anabaptist you know like today well this is a Amish or this is menite or this is conservative menite or
this is beichi or whatever how did that distinguished or or distinctive dress
come about among some anabaptist menites well the historical record is not
entirely clear on whether some forms of dress were by deliberate choice or whether they came
about as a result of resistance to change uh thereby retaining some old
reforms but whatever the role that traditionalism or conservatism may have played anabaptist minite dress reflected
to taking of scripture to heart and a particular Focus over the centuries as I mentioned this morning was this matter
of Pride and we already noticed it this evening in the quote that I gave there was a real concern about Pride about you
know dressing yourself in a way that that that draw attention yourself and and it that burnished your
pride now I believe that in the last century we at least in my circles I
don't know about yours but that we have kind of moved away from this thing of using Pride as a
as a caution uh as our society has become more and have become more um
indecent in their dress we are pushing the modesty the the the uh sexual
quality side of dress the indecency side rather than the moderate side and so so
we're telling our people look don't dress in such tight clothes or don't dress in such revealing clothes and all
that and we're pushing that more than we're pushing uh this saying well don't
dress to to show off with your finery so I think we shifted and I don't know if
there's anything wrong with that pride is still an issue we need to guard against that I'm just observing that I
think that the aspect of of modesty that we've pushed on more in more recent
years has been the decency side rather than the moderation side it's a matter of like I said putting the grease of the
wheel that squeaks and that's the wheel that's that's squeaking
now another thing that has happened is that until the last about 125
years uh anabaptist clothing was regulated but it was irregulate by what
was prohibited rather than what was required now today a lot of the regulation that goes on in our churches
is is what is required we require that you wear the cape dress or we require
that you wear a plain coat or we require some other things and and apparently
prior to that uh there was very little if any happening in mainstream
anabaptism is rather we forbid this and we forbid that and we forbid the other
and but what happened was over time it kind of had the same effect is that a certain type of dress developed one time
because it was certain things were prohibited and other times because certain things are required but it developed a certain uh
distinguishing uh style that people became recognized in part by their
plainness of dress and it developed over time into a standard way of dressing
well now let's look more specifically at this matter of the plane coat the origin and development of the plane coat where
did this particular present day application of the straight cut plane coat come from and how did we move into
requiring particular Styles particular this particular especially this particular style well according to
Stephen Scott uh who used to work for meral good up
and at uh good books up in Intercourse
um Stephen Scott said that the practice of weing a coat is a part of man's suit
began in the 1660s the general Western European and Colonial men's coat was a standing
collar coat that buttoned up to the top you may find it interesting to google
Western European standing collar coat after church please Western European
standing collar coat now that doesn't mean that men's
clothing and coats were plain at least for dress up clothing edel Burge said
that paintings of people of high social status uh often depict them with large
Pockets or cuffs or big buttons or a variety of collars and so it'd be like if okay so if I had a a plane or
straight cut coat on but but uh you know I had these big um
big uh Pockets or different things that
happened to make it make it stand out even though it was straight cut and so that's the reason he he refers to it as
a strip down a plain version if you will of what was in common
practice this uh particular standing collar coat that was
common in Western Europe and in the colonial period of United States was something that kind of went out of style
at the beginning of the 1800s and what happened was that the collar Rose higher and
higher uh until it was turned down to become a lapel coat how many of yall
have ever heard of a lapel coat referred to as a roll collar coat that must be a Virginia thing
because you know I heard it referred to as a roll call coat and and that's really you know kind of what it is that
the coat got bigger and bigger till it rolled and you see these notches here you look on a lapel coat and they are
there like vestigial organs uh and so that in itself gives some indication of where the lapel coat
came from it was this standing collar coat with The Notches that the collar
got bigger until it was rolled down and it still has those things and it it
still has the little buttons there little like a button hole like in the lapel of of coats at least some of them
yet today so after the 1800s the early 1800s
or 1800s the standing collar coat was very rare among the general population another thing that happened
in terms of men's coat was that it used to be that uh men's coats were frock coats and some had long tails and those
I believe were so that you could ride a horse properly and your coat could fall
down on on either side of the horse's
back well what happened was that that frock coat um
became a short coat and and is called a sack
coat um I don't know where it came as a sack uh maybe just is kind of so what I
have on and probably what most of you men have on who have a coat that's a sack coat it's not sackcloth I guess it
just kind of looks like a sack I don't know but it's a short coat and um and then around 1900 some
groups begin to put standing collars on these sack coats and so they created a new kind of plain coats and some groups
that are resistant to change still have the require the frock coat even today or at least the among some of the among the
the leaders well I mentioned this morning how industrial changes in the 1800s
brought about affordable manufacturing clothing and the younger men of of plain dressing groups were especially
influenced and so they begin to exchange their you a little more dumpy homemade
clothing for store-bought suits and the change became so pervasive in the US
West that um only the ordained wore the standing collar coat and apparently this
moving away from dressing plainly not only by men but also by women as well
alarmed some of the church and so there was a shift from from uh this shift
happened from more restrained Thou shalt not to Thou shalt and so then became
this pushed in of how you should dress rather than how you should not uh dress
and so this started in Earnest around the turn of the 20th century and gained momentum for uh several
decades uh another book that was published by Merl good I Merl good good
books is a book called uh Men andite Women of Lancaster
County 1885 to 1935 have any of yall seen that book by a secret I forget what
her first name was but it an interesting book if you want to see what your great grandmothers look like uh or Dom
menonite great-grandmothers anyway uh and so they were affected as
well and I don't know maybe they were pre um church members but but you see a
very um immodest immoderate dressing of of
men andite women during that period of you know Frills and finery that was not
was not plain dressing during that time and so the church you know pushed back against that and so that's what led in
part at least to this thing of church requirements uh on what you one should
wear well today the plain suit is combined with not wearing neck ties and the wearing of ties in modern times is
traced to the 30-year War which was 1618 to 1648
that was in Europe and um the French the the Croatian
mercenaries who the French hired used a kind of a knotted uh kief neckerchief
scarf to hold their shirts or their jackets closed and the French were uh impressed
with that and of course the French are known for for style and they became
impressed with it and took it from there to make it the dress staple that is become the French word for neckti is
Katz I don't speak French so I may not be say uh I think that's the way you you
say that but it actually comes from the word French word gravate which means cro
and so the French word for necktie is the word for croat because that's where
it came you know they picked up this idea of tying something around your neck but it might have been instead of a a
top button that they tied this to to to hold this together and maybe it was a style statement as well who knows well
over the years ties have taken different forms and so uh if you look at a colonial
picture of perhaps James Monroe or James Madison or somebody like that and if
they have this kind of fluffy tie that is called a creat and apparently creats uh began to
give way to bowas around the beginning of the of the 19th
century um around the beginning of the of the
1900s these uh bow TI begin to give way to Long ties and and menites seem not to
have taken issue with the wearing of some form of tie until around the beginning of the 20th century in some ta
cases a tie may have been used for the same thing to hold your coat or to hold your your shirt
together shirt collars didn't always have the stiffening in them that they they do now women needed a starch and
and ironed those shirt collars I don't know how many of your mothers did that or your grandmothers that you put it in this starch and then they get it out and
ironed that and would stiffen up your shirt collar and some men like my maternal
grandfather or jodis Yoda who taught it was a Milwood Bible School uh that they
wore this cell cellulose collar it was kind of a plastic collar and if you think buttoning your shirt collar is bad
you ought to put one of those things on it's just kind of like a plastic collar that you put on top of of your Shir
shirt and then the women didn't have to scrub your shirt it's much and it was more formal looking you just take that
thing off and and and uh and wipe it off and I never wore my grandpa blosser's uh
thing as an adult I just put it on as a child you know but I think it was probably fairly uncomfortable but
anyway that's what that's what men did some men did and it's it saved a lot of
work in washing men shirt collars but as ties developed into the modern tie some
menites considered some form of the bow tie with its traditional Association to
be acceptable but a long tie to be flashy and worldly and while that still resonates
with some people today others find it perplexing and inconsistent now I don't
know how long's been that but brother Aaron lab Jr stayed in our home uh one
night how long's that been 12 15 15 years ago or such a matter and and I guess your history book was kind of new
that in and so he gave me a copy of the weavertown history book and I pulled the thing out uh a couple weeks ago and was
doing some looking at it and so I noticed ties in your background as a church as well at least at least bow
ties and I don't know when it became unacceptable to wear bow ties here at
weavertown but but that was a a transition that happened it used to be that at least some form of tha did not
have the disapproval among menites that it does
among conservative um menites now and it seems that one Catalyst at least one
Catalyst for dispensing with the tie was a connection at George Brun the first
then of Kansas who had been the father of the George Brun who had the tent meetings here back in the 50s uh and he
was of Kansas at that time and he had a connection with the Holiness people who
wore pel coat with no tie and so he and other influential young Church leaders
promoted getting renting of ties and while it generated some controversy at gain traction to where for example
Virginia conference warned In 1902 against woring flashy neck ties and then
by 1920 endeavored to have all Church officials cease wearing ties and by 1941
advised all Brethren Not to Wear Ties they never did accomplish that I grew up
in Virginia conference uh until I was older teenager and and there always was
uh certain people who who wore ties without uh without a plain coat but all
the leaders wore plain coats the first um the first Minister that I know
of in Virginia conference who wore a tie in modern times relatively modern times
been old times for some of you younger people but in my lifetime was a a man by
the last name of Jansen who came into the area to uh work at an old folks home
and uh he was from the general conference Minit probably and and he wore a tie and he was accepted at at the
Weaver church just west of of U harrisberg well maybe it was the
Harrisonburg Mite church that that he was a minister but
anyway after World War II especially many people just revolted against these
dress standards and that became a major issue in the breakup of the church uh to
where you have you know large section of the menite church have ass simulated into cultural norms for personal
appearance and uh those who practice some degree of distinctive Simplicity
for uh their personal appearance has has become um sifted out into other under
groups in my thinking the the the period of time when plane coats and Cape
dresses in the larger Swiss minite Church uh lasted was about 75 to 100
years and so before that time uh you know was don't do this don't do do that
don't do things for Pride's sake and then there was just strong emphasis on Plain coats and Cape dresses and then
you know you take Lancaster conference for instance or LMC as it's called now uh then and they jettisoned that and
that period lasted about 75 or 100 years all right I want to move on then
to um I I just say that that uh you know the plane coat then had its
origin in a type of coat that was common among Western European colonial American
people who many of us were and it was a like edel bir says
birge it was a stripped down it was a modest a moderate coat and we have
retained uh that that uh that to to this day that practice is a way of expressing
moderation when we wear a suit I have a little bit more to say on that as we
wrap up but now it's time for you to stand and for us to sing a song and we'll go on to the cape dress shall we
all stand at car to and where our song leader just lead us in singing one verse of
[Music]
song The and the
[Music]
seated while the plain coat addresses the aspect of modesty that has to do with Simplicity the cap cap dress
addresses the aspect of modesty that has to do with decency addressing the matter of sexual Allure and so who invented the
cape dress well basically the origin of the cape dress is very much like the standing collar coat in that it was in
general Practice in European Society at least as early as the
1500s and that incidentally was the time when anabaptism started in the
1500s again according to step Scott in his book quad do they dress that way the
Cape is found in many surviving Western European folk costumes and so they have
these you know German folk costume or Swedish costumes or whatever that people don't normally wear but when they dress
up for some festival or something and what he's saying is in those folk costumes which represent the way people
used to dress those uh dresses the Cape is is uh is often retained a part of
that of that uh dress and scottt conjectures that its wide
appeal to Country women was in its modesty and it in its privacy uh for
nursing a baby now there's a man by the name of Melvin Gingrich and Melvin
Gingrich uh wrote a book called menite at attire through four centuries and
that book was published 1970 I think and so when he wrote it it was actually a little before then but but he wrote this
book it was published in 1970 menite attire through four centuries and he
says that it's hard to trace menite women's dress before the age of Photography because a few women set for
portraits and the women who did set for portraits the menite women who did set for portraits were probably not the
conservative women and so it's a little hard to see well exactly how did women
dress back then because we don't have that visual much Visual Evidence
nevertheless he does describ some drawings and paintings that do exist and as I read through this many of his
descriptions do include some form of D of of cape and he says in fact and I'm
quoting from him the dress of American men andite women in the periods for
which information is available although plain avoing the ornamental followed the
silhouette of conservative dress worn by other American women except they continued to wear the cape and apron
which many other groups had discarded now Mr gri taught at Goan
College which is not considered a it was especially now it's not a conservative
college but even when he taught there it was not a particularly conservative minite College he taught there from 1949
to 1970 and he flatly states that capes are not a minite phenomenon in other words
capes are not something that minites invented capes are something that common people wore uh in Europe as early as the
1500s and the specific evidence he gives in making that statement is from pictures of English
women in from a book on custom in which he said at least seven women are wearing
the equivalent of modern menite capes and he also cites uh paintings and
pictures from both minite and non- menite women from the 1600s to the 1800s wearing something of some form of cape
and he concludes and again I'm quoting from Mr Gingrich from the Eis evidence
of the cape or similar garments in England Germany and Holland one must assume that here again was a commonly
accepted article of dress which conservative minism retained after he
had gone out of fashion in Europe and America now while I was studying for
this subject and I I gave some of these talks over in ewn Elizabeth Town at Park
Street mid night church uh October of of 2022 and you know brother Aaron was
there and he laid hands on me and so that's why I'm here now because one thing led to another and so here here I
am but while I was studying for that my wife and I were over in Big Valley at
Beth at um Belleville for a wedding and it was around the time of our wedding anniversary and so we took our time
going home and I enjoy history and so we went over to Mount Vernon and i' had been to Mount Vernon George Washington's
home when I was a boy uh but I hadn't been there since and then we went on down into Virginia and looked at a
couple other historic sites but one of the things impressed me about Mount
Vernon is that he had a wonderful view of the patomic river it sets up there on the bluff and it is it is a gorgeous
view but there was another thing so I was studying this subject uh and there
was two two portraits there in Mount Vernon of George and
Martha and guess what George was wearing a standing collar coat with a large
Notch and a fluffy tie a cat I guess you would call it and Martha
had on a short cape in a head covering now they didn't look exactly
like how we are you know I mean they were people of some uh well I don't know
how wealthy he really was you know some of those people were had a lot of debt but they were people of stature in
society and so you know her head covering uh and I'll I'll refer to this
again tomorrow evening her head covering was not as plain as a Monday night uh
cap covering and and his coat you know his his attire he had ways to to uh show out
a bit uh but that same basic thing is is
right there and so go to Mount Vernon and see it if you don't believe me uh if those portraits are still there which I
assume they still are now I'd like to Camp here just for a moment so while the exact styling of the present day plain
coat and Cape dress have changed some over the years they not some Innovation that our uh anabaptist forefathers or no
our menite forefathers back uh uh you know George Brun the first and
Daniel Kaufman later and and some of those people people just sucked out of their own thumb it was something that
was clothing that was common practice coming out of our heritage as as the our
Western European Heritage and Colonial Heritage and the way that Heritage
actually has uh you know there is this way the Western World dresses and even
Beyond Western World and so you know the basic uh form of dressing a shirt and
pants and jacket and this type of thing that that come out of Western Europe is
something that that we took and adapted or used the plain style of it to then
make application for Simplicity in our own personal appearance now the question is if you go to India or you go to some
other place of course India some of their dress is Western and some of it is not but if you go there you go to other
places where they are not necessarily wearing West W style clothing or whatever do they have forms of clothing
in their history that can be adapted to Simplicity to modesty uh that that suits
uh in their own in their own setting just as we have adapted the plain coat and the cape dress are their forms in
other people groups that can be adapted may be made more simple more plain more
moderate more modest more decent but yet can be adapted for the these applications and I think that is right
uh that there are different ways to adapt the matter of modesty whether it
is simple modesty uh moderate modesty or whether it is decent
modesty now let's talk a little bit more about the form that the cape actually
took Cape patterns have evolved over time to the type of pattern that most
concerted menites were today originally cas were a large square piece of cloth
folded into a triangle and later instead of taking a large square piece of cloth
and folding into triangle they just simply made a triangular piece of cloth and uh then that triangle was
draped over the shoulders forward with the points two points forward and one
point uh in the back and uh so then you could fasten the
cape uh here in the in the front at at some place uh at the neck or at lore and the
two points were either allowed to hang straight down loose or fastened at the waist or crisscrossed and uh and
fastened at the waist according to grick this triangular
Cape with points hanging free in the front to the waist was the pattern of Lancaster County menites men andite
women even as late as the 1920s how many of you you remember any of
that but there is a group a conservative group that wears a cape similar the the
German Baptist you've seen those uh sisters that have uh capes that I'm not
sure if they're pointed or not but is a a loose hanging and maybe even some have have points well so then following that
it was followed by a cape being a near rectangular piece of cloth with an opening for the neck
which was then sewed into a belt and in my home circles capes are now simply
sewn into the waistline as an incal part of the dress now I see something of this
development uh of the cape pattern in Rockham County Virginia menites is
where I was born and raised my maternal great-grandmother was born in 1862 and
in a picture when she was 20 years old she's wearing a large triangular style cape it hangs several inches over her
shoulders and appears to be fastened at her neck um under her collar and the front
points are unfastened they're hanging slightly below her waist and they're gaap several inches in the center and so
she had that triangular piece one point in the back draped around pulled forward
fastened here that's what uh she was like it would been about 1882 when she
was 20 years old well in 1913 uh she's pictured with her husband
she's been married now for 31 years her dress has a rectangular Cape which
extends a little over the shoulders it has a pleat at the neck and gathers at the waist and so this pleat here at the
neck opens up and gives more fullness uh to to the cape I remember my mother
having a detachable Cape who was sewn into a belt and you know when I was a boy I I
didn't pay the world's most attention to those sort of things as probably most boys uh
don't but I believe my mother wore capes to church but not always at home and that eventually changed to sewn on capes
worn all the time and my mother's practice illustrates that uh changes came into the menite
church uh you know just as young men were influenced by the changes of styles
and by uh store-bought suits that had lapel coats or whatever so there were
there were influences uh there were influences on what the sisters wor as
well but then with this Resurgence of the conservative movement uh beginning in the 50s and all then my mother became
more standardized in consistently um wearing a cape
dress well at the turn of the century of the 20th century in other words in the
early 1900s with that emphasis that I've talked about several times of of renewed emphasis on plane cathing then capes
were one of the one of the things in menite circles that were emphasized and so again Lancaster
conference the first written discipline of Lancaster conference was 1881 and in that it does not name any
specific articles to be worn and so you see it reflected that thing of what you should should not do
because it protested against pride and Hess in every respect but it didn't say
anything that should be worn that was 1881 by 1926 the conference specified
that so that was what 45 years a plain dress is made up of plain Goods full to
the neck the sleeves long to the wrist the skirt long enough to be modest in every way the waistline properly
observed and retained the cape must not be om commed and so that reflects that
shift well you know what happened to langas conference a few years
ago 15 10 10 or 15 years ago this a lady in our church uh who went to Lancaster
mid night school and so it was her her 50th uh anniversary of of her class
reunion and and she she had U so the students there they submitted a page you
know about what has happened to them and F last 50 years or whatever and and U I
borrowed that book or she loaned it to me and I read in there people and of course by that time most of her class
mates had turned liberal and some had joined at least you know one had joined the Catholics and all and so there but
as I read that there was a lot of bitterness there was a lot of bitterness
in in that book there was a lot of people who conformed but they conformed against
their will um you can read John Ruth's book uh
and John Ruth's book the Earth is the Lord which is the history of Langer conference and and he talks about
clothes and and he kind of pokes he kind of pokes fun at at their standards and and so part of what happened was I
believe is that they enforced strict
standards uh Richard her said that it seemed like every year at community
Union time they came back and there was stricter standards you know strict standards they en forced strict
standards but people were not convinced uh and so they were uh there
was enough strength there in their discipline to oblige people to do things for a
while but when that when when the weight shifted and then it just went very very
rapidly among some groups uh and so that's instructive to us you know if I
can reemphasize what I said this morning it's not a matter of just of forcing people it's a matter of this is
what the Bible says now how are we going to apply there needs to be a there needs to be an understanding there needs to be
an appreciation of what the Bible is saying and and what is what is the the
principle and so a plain coat or a cape dress is not a flag that says I am
menite I am Bei I am no that's not it it's not a flag to identify who we are
it is an expression it is a way that we are trying to to apply biblical
principles and I'm saying the principle for a cape dress is to modesty in the
decency side and the principle for a plain coat is Modesty in the moderation
side not to be showy and fancy now in conclusion the plain code and the cape
dress both have their validity and their problems today the cape dress is
sometimes misunderstood or misappreciation underappreciated are both and as I say
it's not a flag to Mark um your religion or your denomination it's an aid to
modesty and consequently unless or until that is understood and accepted and
appreciated its purpose is neutered by dresses that are too tight light or too
clingy or by the use of sweaters or other accessories that tend to shrink
wrap the feminine form there's a Methodist businesswoman in a town where we do some
business and um in in South Carolina and she once
told one of our sisters in the church we don't make our dresses as tight as you
do this woman nothing I she's met she she don't wear a cape
dress and the sister wears a cape dress but what she's said was she
observed that we our men andite women made their dresses tighter even though
they were capes than she did which are not
capes so the cape dress is not the only way to make a modest dress in fact it's
prevalent Evolution and presentation is certainly not always the most modest way
a woman can be dressed actually in the standards uh of
our church the church that I'm a part of it speaks of a modest Cape dress not all
Cape dresses are modest nevertheless despite the shortcomings of
some Cape dresses I don't have the confidence that the level of modesty among the sisters either in your church
or in mine would improve by discarding this pattern in favor of some simple exhortation that you sister should dress
modestly and um and be decent it's an application now I'm
moving on to Suits the standing collar plain suit you can go to goods and buy one there's no
Goods where I live and so when you get when you get into the more
remote um menite communities it's it's more difficult to
get a a plain suit you have to buy either got to go to Pennsylvania or Virginia to buy one or or you get a a
lady in the church that will change it over uh and so my sister changed this code over for
me um and probably they don't get paid enough she didn't charge me anything uh
to do it but few women really want the job to do that and so plane coats are
increasing inly difficult to secure outside of large conservative minight communities and not only that suits
themselves have fallen on Hard Times in fact the whole concept of ding dressing up has been redefined by
practice to lesser standards I saw a picture probably few years ago but now
but I think it was when President Biden was President so it's been fairly recently but it was of the leaders of
what they call the G7 Nations certain nations in Europe maybe Japan United
States and those people were were standing there with suits and open collars and no ties 15 years ago 10
years ago that would have never been they would have never dressed that way and so it's not just that you know in
your circles and in mine that suits have fallen on harder times that people are dressing more casually that that's
reflected uh across across the board uh few years ago I went to buy a pair of
dress pants and a dress shirt and I noticed that stores carry reduced inventory at least in our way of dress
clothes and so dressing up is a controversial issue that's really beyond the scope of my
assignment but if we're truthful probably we have made some accommodation to that in 1973 January 2
of 1973 I flew to Guatemala in
vs and I wore a suit when's the last time you wore a suit to
fly I haven't worn one myself for a long time uh perhaps not
since then to fly so in spite of less stuffy standards
most people still have ways to feel like and to communicate that they are dressed
up even if some of us fail to read or appreciate their language that I am
dressed up some person may feel that they are dressed up in a certain pair of sneakers and a certain kind of jeans or
whatever and we may some others of us may not really uh appreciate or
understand that be uh one father was disgruntled about the church asking his future
son-in-law to wear a suit at his wedding and he said well there's lots of ways to dress up indeed there really are and
that's precisely one value in the plain suits suits plain suits or suits for
that matter are not mandated in scripture but suits suits still have a
life in many settings where conservative menites
live uh there are still people in Lancaster County who are not menites that there is an appropriate time for
them to wear suits to be dressed up and so it is a part of what is seen as a
matter of propriety of dressing up that we're giving respect uh to the
occasion and the plain suit is a way to present
oneself as fully dressed in a plain and simple
manner so remember that the plain suit and the cape dress are not ends in
themselves they are applications of modesty modesty is Simplicity and
modesty is decency and so allow these principles to to shape other of your
applications both your personal standards and those of your
church I'll give the time back over to
Alfie
well a lot to think about appreciate that perspective and very balanced I think and a lot of history and thank you
so much wend for being here come back tomorrow evening subject
tomorrow evening will be on the head covering and his Styles and I'm sure he has a lot of good things to talk about
there too so um bring your church family thank you visitors for coming come back again and
we'll have another good evening tomorrow evening so bless you as you uh leave here I think we'll have a closing song

[Judas Maccabeus]

Oh, that must be a hoot to read. Do you know what journal it was in?

linda [sic] Bradley in Journal of Mennonite Studies, vol. 15 (1997). If you enjoy reading fiction, a certain LA Bradley wrote another article in 2017. For a sociologist, she somehow makes observations that don't match my experience at all.

Article is at https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/ ... ew/499/499

In essence, she had a conclusion she wanted to arrive at, which is that (a) Holdemans once had a strict mode of plain dress (which they never actually did; in the 1930s, their clothing would have looked the same as their neighbours), and then (b) that the cape dress is an important part of exercising social control over women. This conclusion is an interesting one since Holdemans never have used cape dresses at all, unless you count John Holdeman and wife and their 25 relatives and associates from 1859-1874 before they joined with groups of Russian Mennonites.

The article starts off confusingly with fictitious place names:

Bend is a town and rural district of 250 people on the Sacramento River in Northern California. It is a small community of white middle-class farm families, the vast majority (65 families) of which are Holdeman Mennonites. The Holdemans drive ten miles to the county seat of Mayfield (pop. 4000) to shop for grocery staples. Most of their food, however, is home-grown and preserved.

Whilst there is a place called Bend, there sure isn't any place called Mayfield that is a county seat. The only Mayfield in California currently sits underneath Stanford. I am guessing she decided to rename Glenn to Bend and Willows to Mayfield. This was published in 1997, and my wife grew up there, and she sure doesn't remember most of their food being home grown and preserved - unless you considered large scale rice or corn farms or walnut or almond orchards.

The most specific item that illustrates this is the black head covering worn over uncut hair pinned into a bun.

This is another "import" from other Mennonite groups - Holdemans don't hold to a doctrine of "uncut hair" like certain other groups do and trimming, cutting, or otherwise shortening hair is commonplace.

It follows that gluttony, too, is despised. Over time the Holdeman Mennonite community has seen obesity as a sign of gluttony and generally indicative of a lack of control. "Lust of the flesh" is a term used by the Holdemans to indicate sensory enjoyment of anything from eating to sexual pleasure. Although their major social activity is eating, ideally it is a functional, rather than pleasurable activity. According to the Holdemans' physician, the obesity rate of women in the surrounding community is forty percent, while only ten percent of the Mennonite women are considered obese; these rates have stayed consistent in the past decade.

This is a case where I wish a sociologist were correct; it is true that (some) groups of Mennonites (including Holdemans) have less obesity that surrounding people, but I have not seen much evidence of the spiritual teachings she described above, and people I have asked sure can't remember any. (I am also a bit shocked to hear the prevailing obesity rate of women in Glenn County was 40% in 1997. The obesity prevalence now is 32% which is below the national median.)

Similarly, sexual expression is kept under tight rein, and is only allowed within the confines of marriage. During my years with the Holdemans, there were no cases of premarital pregnancy, due in large part to the constant separation of the sexes from adolescence until marriage. Motherhood and adulthood are synonymous; married women unable to conceive (a very rare occurrence) will adopt children. The occasional spinster generally marries a widower later in life, and then has step-children. Birth control, sexual behavior and the physical expression of love between man and wife are regulated by the church

It's true there weren't cases of out of wedlock pregnancy, but, well, there have been excommunications for fornication or other similar sins. I am also not sure I would concur "a very rare occurrence" given how many people from that setting are adopted (whom I've met) who would have been being raised in 1997. It is also flatly not true that "birth control ... [is] regulated by the church"; whilst once again I think it should be, it isn't, and people mostly make their own choices.

Upon reading the article a bit deeper, the author does state that the cape had vanished in the community she interviewed (after earlier asserting the cape dress is a standard part of the uniform), but that didn't stop Wikipedia from citing her article as follows:

The women of the Holdeman Mennonite community in California wear a cape-dress that has a high neckline, loose bodice and fitted waist. The cape of the dress covers the shoulders and bust.

Having spendtplenty of time in California, I can attest that not all necklines are high, not all bodices (or even most) are loose, and fitted waists have basically gone out of style, replaced by loose waists. And there isn't a cape at all. I don't know how people can get this so wrong.

A while ago, Mennonite World Review had a good article that books and news articles about the Amish tend to reflect what people want to see, not the way things actually are, and often are more of a reflection on ourselves than the Amish. It appears this author is the same way. (My mother in law was one of the people who met this researcher.) She is well-cited, and it is questionable how much of any sociological research like this can be relied on it when it gets so many details wrong, and then comes to conclusions that don't seem to line up with how the culture actually is at all.

It is everything you promised....a heal hoot!

Elastic waists have gotten less common throughout the Menno world, at least according to my wife. She does not know why. And even I know that COGICM ladies do not wear cape dresses.

Whoever wrote this article did not bother to include her raw statistics. That would have helped figuring out what data she was actually looking at. Some of her conclusions are a bit preposterous, why would hand stitched buttonholes be more plain than ones using a buttonholer? Did she even do basic research on clothing practices in the (Old) Mennonite church of the mid 19th century? I am looking at a book here from the Pennsylvania German Society that suggests capes were uncommon in the mid 19th century.

I don't know if we are typical, but the only time my wife and I ever discuss dresses is when she is actually making one, and keeps bringing it to me to ask "does this look good?" She is, of course, referring to the quality of the seams, not to the cut of the dress.