The Ministry of Health and Healing

Avoid Slavery to Fashion

What a contrast is this to the weariness, the unrest, the disease and wretchedness, that result from the rule of fashion! How contrary to the principles given in the Scriptures are many of the modes of dress that fashion prescribes! Think of the styles that have prevailed for the last few hundred years, or even for the last few decades. Many of them when not in style would be declared immodest. Many would be pronounced inappropriate for a refined, God-fearing, self-respecting woman. MHH 162.8

Making changes in apparel merely for the sake of fashion is not sanctioned by the Word of God. Changing styles and adding elaborate, costly ornamentation not only squander the time and means of the rich, they lay waste the energies of mind and soul. They impose a heavy burden on the middle and poorer classes. Many who can hardly earn a livelihood, and who with simple patterns might make their own clothing, are compelled to resort to the dressmaker in order to be in fashion. Many a poor woman, for the sake of a stylish gown, has deprived herself of warm undergarments and paid the penalty with her life. Many another, coveting the display and elegance of the rich, has been enticed into paths of dishonesty and shame. Many a home is deprived of comforts, many a man is driven to embezzlement or bankruptcy, to satisfy the extravagant demands of his wife or children. MHH 163.1

Many a woman forced to prepare for herself or her children the stylish costumes demanded by fashion is doomed to ceaseless drudgery. For the sake of fashion she sacrifices health and that calmness of spirit so essential to the right guidance of her children. Improvement of mind and heart is neglected. The soul is dwarfed. MHH 163.2

The mother has no time to study the principles of physical development, that she may know how to care for the health of her children. She has no time for ministering to their mental or spiritual needs, no time to sympathize with them in their little disappointments and trials, or to share in their interests and pursuits. MHH 163.3

Almost as soon as they come into the world, children are subjected to fashion’s influence. They hear more of dress than of their Savior. They see their mothers consulting the fashion magazines more earnestly than the Bible. The display of dress is treated as of greater importance than the development of character. Parents and children are robbed of that which is best and sweetest and truest in life. For fashion’s sake they are cheated out of a preparation for the life to come. MHH 163.4

It was the adversary of all good who instigated the invention of the ever-changing fashions. He desires nothing so much as to bring grief and dishonor to God by making human beings miserable and ruining them. One of the means by which he most effectively accomplishes this is through the devices of fashion that weaken the body, enfeeble the mind, and belittle the soul. MHH 163.5

Many women are subject to serious maladies, and their sufferings are greatly increased by their manner of dress. Instead of preserving their health for the trying emergencies that are sure to come, too often by their wrong habits they sacrifice not only health but life, and leave to their children a legacy of woe in poor health, perverted habits, and false ideas of life. MHH 163.6

Any style of dress that cramps the lungs, making correct breathing difficult, should be avoided. It is essential to health that the chest have room to expand to its fullest extent in order that the lungs may be enabled to take full inspiration. When the lungs are restricted, the amount of oxygen received into them is lessened, and the waste, poisonous matter that should be thrown off through the lungs is retained. MHH 164.1