Weinberg sophomore Maura Ross models a modest outfit. Photo by Julie Beck / North by Northwestern.

Urban Outfitters’ Early Spring 2009 catalog features about eight photos with topless girls – either completely nude or wearing “underwear as outerwear.” The only thing missing in these photos is the “come-hither” look.

Topless, bottomless, nude – it’s something that American Apparel has been doing forever.

This “trend” of wearing bras as tops has also popped up on the Spring ‘09 runways of Alexander Wang, Thakoon, and Prada.

“No one’s noticing the clothes,” said Weinberg sophomore Jasmin Avila of the ads and runways. “We’ve already taken everything off. What is it going to be next – we’re walking around naked? I don’t see where else we can go.”

Avila is part of a current “modesty movement” – women and girls who reject overly revealing clothing, but not fashion altogether. This means no cleavage, no short skirts, and definitely no “underwear as outerwear.” As a proud, self-proclaimed modest dresser, Avila said that people sometimes look down on dressing modestly.

“People think like, ‘Oh my gosh, puritanical conservatives, people that want to wear turtlenecks all the time, people that wear potato sack nightgowns,’” she said. “When you say, ‘Oh, I like to dress modestly,’ people think you’re a prude, you know? It’s such a terrible perspective to have about it. I just think that, essentially, modesty is a form of self-respect.”

Avila said she’s not a fan of cleavage or of uncomfortable tight dresses, but she’s still a fan of stylish clothing.

“Fashion is a form of expression. I totally agree with that,” Avila said. “But there are many ways you can express yourself, and I don’t think that dressing like a slut is one of them.”

Organizations and clothing companies that advertise balancing fashion and modesty have grown in the past few years. Pure Fashion, a Catholic-based organization, teaches 14- to 18-year-old girls how to wear trends respectfully and put on fashion shows yearly. Pure Fashion has grown from nine shows and 240 participants in 2005 to 25 shows and about 800 participants this year, according to national director Brenda Sharman.

“Our world kind of preaches the message of, ‘It’s all about being hot and sexy and that should be our life’s mission,’” Sharman said. “I think a woman has a lot more to offer to the world than just being hot and sexy.”

Sharman is a former Vanity Fair lingerie model with a modeling career of 25 years and counting. After becoming pregnant with her first child, Sharman began researching religions, converted to Catholicism, and became more conscious of the clothing she wore and advertised.

“My conscience was resensitized, I should say,” Sharman said. “I started feeling more of an accountability to live and dress and act in accordance to my dignity as a woman of God. I wanted to represent Christ by not only with what I say and or how I live, but by what I wear.”

Modesty organizations aren’t always religious. Chelsea Rippy, a 34-year-old mother, founded Shade Clothing because she wanted fashionable, comfortable and modest clothing for women and girls. It has grown by double digits each year for the past four years, is carried in Costco and Macy’s and has six stores in Arizona and Utah.

“I think now sexy is kind of dying out,” said Chi Nguyen, 17, who, when interviewed, served as a team member of “girl marketing” research group 3iying. “Girls are starting to wear what they feel comfortable in. Instead of going out and showing what they have, they actually just say, ‘Oh you know, I’m just going to be myself and whoever likes it will stick around.’”

To Nguyen, modestly-dressed women empower themselves. “We are able to just respect ourselves and be who we are,” she said. “That superficial girl stereotype – I don’t think it affects girls anymore.”

Nguyen’s “superficial girl stereotype” refers to the media’s portrayals of femininity. Pure Fashion’s Sharman said the modesty movement is a backlash against oversexualized images of womanhood in the media.

There’s the idea that girls and women are moving towards a state where they dress to feel comfortable, not wanting to be objectified. Avila defines this tendency as dressing attractively, rather than dressing seductively.

“One is more of ‘I have a purpose [to] attract people to me and get to know me because I’m a cool person,’ whereas dressing seductively is like [wanting to hear] ‘Wow, she is like, oozing sex,’ and I just don’t think that’s a healthy thing,” Avila said. “If that’s the only thing they think of when they are getting ready to go out, in the end they’re just going to see themselves like objects – sex objects.”

Consequently, controversial author Wendy Shalit, who has written books on this subject such as “The Good Girl Revolution”, derails the feminists revolution of sexual empowerment by examining the effects of such sexual flippancy on young girls. A major advocate of the modesty movement, Shalit claims that such sexual “empowerment” is ironically oppressive. She calls modesty the fourth feminists revolution, a sentiment echoed by others.

“I think that we are taking two steps forward,” said Weinberg sophomore Maura Ross, the fundraising co-chair of Northwestern University’s College Feminists. “Realizing that we don’t need to impress men with our bodies to get things, and [also] that we are powerful in who we are and we can step forward from the whole idea of the housewife.”

Critics of the modesty movement call it a return to male dominance, a fall back from the sexual liberation of the 1960s. Currently, there are two contradictory messages in the feminism world.

“So this girly movement is saying, ‘I’m female. I’m different. I have this body that looks different from men. I have these talents, this ability to create power from my body,’” said Weinberg senior Elizabeth Porth, Take Back the Night co-chair of College Feminists. “Then there’s this other side that’s centered on proving sameness. … I think what the feminist movement can do as a group is to say that this is a choice. Women can do either thing and still be able to be considered equal.”

It’s important to differentiate between those who dress provocatively because they are comfortable with themselves and those who dress for attention, said Porth. Empowerment comes with the former. Porth mentioned writer and journalist Elizabeth Wurtzel as a hard-to-find, empowered, sexy woman.

“She is, I think, a very empowering and confident person,” Porth said. “But when she was younger she was kind of a sexualized person at the same time. Her book covers had her basically half-naked on them. But it was kind of like ‘Ha, ha, I’m hot and I’m a really freakin’ good writer, so read my book.’”

Once again, there’s a difference between dressing confidently and dressing for others. And Avila, among other modesty advocates, finds that dressing modestly does not always mean dressing like a prude.

“One of my friends said this awesome quote,” Avila said. “‘Wear a dress that’s tight enough to show that you’re a woman, but loose enough to show that you’re a lady.’”