Garments, Modesty, and the Questions Worth Asking About What We Wear and Why

When the shorter sleeve garment dropped and Latter-day Saint social media exploded, I did not expect to have big feelings about it. But I did, and they surprised me.

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What the Garment Actually Is

For those unfamiliar, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wear a two-piece undergarment after going through the temple. The styles, fabrics, and lengths have changed significantly over the history of the church, from ankle and wrist length to much shorter and more fitted today. You begin wearing them after making covenants in the temple, promises centered on living the gospel, honoring the law of chastity, and serving others. The garment is meant to be a physical reminder of Christ and those covenants.

That is the intent. My experience has been a little more complicated than that.

My Honest Relationship With My Garment

I have always just worn mine because I said I would. I do not think about Christ when I put them on. They are just my underwear. The covenants I made are with me all the time through how I think and pray and study and serve, not through the fabric I am wearing.

When the sleeve change went viral and I started seeing videos of women finally able to wear tank tops, I realized I was frustrated. Not at the change, which I was genuinely glad about, but at how much mental and emotional bandwidth garments had taken up in my life without me even realizing it.

Why has clothing meant so much about a person's worth, lovability, and standing before God?

"I have always just worn my garments because I said I would. The covenants I made are with me through how I think and pray and serve, not through the fabric I am wearing."

What We Actually Give Power To

"Clothes are inanimate. When someone performs better because they dressed up, it was not the clothes. It was their thoughts. Which means we could just think those things regardless of what we are wearing."

Clothes are inanimate. They do not make us more or less worthy, more or less loved, more or less capable. When someone performs better in an interview because they dressed up, it was not the clothes. It was the thoughts they had about themselves while wearing them.

The clothes did not do anything.

Their thoughts did.

Which means we could just think those things regardless of what we are wearing. I am completely lovable in whatever I have on. That is a thought available to anyone at any moment. And yet we have spent decades judging each other over garment lines, sleeve lengths, and whether someone is wearing theirs correctly.

If the whole point is to remember Christ and the promises we made to love and serve, how much time are we spending doing the opposite in his name?

I Considered Just Stopping

I have genuinely thought about it. And when I walked through the practical reality of going back to regular underwear, it was not actually that appealing either. Fabric shopping, rises, lines, bras on skin that now chafe because I have worn a garment top underneath for so long. It is not the liberation it sounds like on paper.

What that process taught me is that my frustration was never really about the garment itself. It was about the judgment layered on top of it. The worthiness measuring. The way a piece of fabric became a tool for assessing other people's relationship with God.

That is what I am done with. Not necessarily the garment.

"If the whole point is to remember Christ and the promises we made to love and serve, how much time are we spending doing the opposite in his name?"

What Actually Matters

People throughout history have worn symbols of devotion. Headdresses, crosses, caps, markings, jewelry. We are meaning-making creatures and we always have been. I wear a small cross necklace now that I reach for constantly. I chose it. It means something to me.

But I also know I do not need it to remember who I want to be. That work happens through study, prayer, meditation, and the daily effort of deciding how I want to show up. It happens through my thoughts and my actions.

The symbol matters less than the life it is supposed to represent.

I am figuring out what this looks like for me. And I am giving myself full permission to keep evolving.

I give you the same permission in whatever you're figuring out too.

💗Brynne

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Hi, I’m Brynne. I share my journey of becoming through stories and reflection - guided by a higher power as I explore identity, faith, and everyday life, inviting you to grow alongside me.

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