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“Modesty is the color of virtue,” the philosopher Diogenes once averred. You remember Diogenes, famous for wandering the streets of ancient Greece carrying a lantern in broad daylight and crying out, “I am looking for an honest man!” Ever the fun guy, he also said, “What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.” This was more than two millennia ago, but his statements ring true even now: In these troubled times, who isn’t looking for an honest man? And who doesn’t like drinking other people’s booze? And, most importantly for our purposes here—who can doubt the virtue of a gorgeously modest, modestly gorgeous frock?
With the Met Ball coming up on Monday—could there be a more stellar excuse for dressing up in New York City?—we decided to take a serious look at modest evening dresses, and not just because of the relatively somber theme of this year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” Regardless of your religion—or lack thereof—there is something to be said for leaving almost everything to the imagination, draping your own heavenly body in layers of tulle and taffeta, having faith that people will raise their gaze and look right into your eyes.
This newfound restraint can perhaps be viewed as a reaction to the near nudity that has ruled red carpets in recent years—all those bouncing booties and boobies barely concealed under flimsy strips of fabric, leaving you teetering on the brink of a wardrobe malfunction, never a happy place to be. But of course, modest does not have to mean boring—the looks we have in mind hardly hide your light under a barrel. Who would argue that the wearer of a molten silver sequined pullover or a high-necked, long-sleeved floral fantasia or a pair of high-heeled glitter boots is a shy little mouse?
So go ahead, button up and sally forth, ready to drink other people’s wine.
