The flood of immodest clothing available in stores has led to a growing number of designers and retailers specializing in modest clothing. From a variety of religious backgrounds, entrepreneurs are creating new options in the fashion marketplace.

Chelsea Rippy, founder of Shade Clothing, which specializes in covering clothes, noted her reasons for starting the company: 'Fashion took a sharp turn for the worse. Pants were crazy low, and shirts were crazy short. Modesty aside, I didn't feel cute in anything."

Even the mainstream fashion retailers have noted the need for more modest choices. 'The customer is starving for a fashionable, covered product. There's a real market out there," says Jeff Gennette, CEO of Macy's Department Stores, Northwest region.

Wendy Shalit, author of several books on the modest lifestyle, including the forthcoming Girls Gone Mild, and founder of a blog on modesty (http://blogs.
modestlyyours.net) says that women are 'tired of the expectation that they present themselves in a sexual way…Girls are discovering that showing their belly button to strangers is not as empowering as they have been led to expect" (Kimberly Palmer, 'Anti-Britney: The New Look," U.S. News & World Report, April 23, 2007).

This trend shows that looking stylish and being adequately covered don't have to conflict.