I am the parent of three teenagers, and the matter of Church dress and grooming standards comes up continually. What can I tell them that will help them to understand why the Church places such importance on personal appearance?

Rita L. McMinn

Assistant professor of clothing and textiles, Brigham Young University

There are very few teenagers who are not conscious of personal appearance. They are perhaps more conscious of personal appearance than many adults. That is why it is so important that they understand why the Church and their parents feel strongly that their dress and grooming meet certain standards.

Dress and grooming have not always filled a greater purpose than simple warmth and modesty. In earlier times nearly everybody wore the same thing, not out of choice, but out of necessity. But for the kings and their courts, dress indicated rank, wealth, and position. What you wore told everyone who looked at you just where you fit into the social structure.

Today when we dress by choice and not out of necessity, the same rule holds true. We dress in order to tell others something about ourselves. Society tends to associate certain kinds of dress with identifiable social groups—policemen, brides, or rock musicians, a clear case of nonverbal communication. If we don’t want to be identified with the group, we shouldn’t wear the uniform. An easy example: if we want to be identified as missionaries, then we dress like missionaries.

The Church leaders have long recognized that dress and grooming are among the most effective ways of communication. That is why they desire Church members to be identified with some groups and not with others.

If dress communicates to others, it also communicates to ourselves. By the way we dress we are indicating what we think of ourselves. Our choice of dress even goes so far as to influence our behavior.

One simple example of behavior being influenced by dress is noted by the fact that you don’t dress the same way for a picnic as you do for a wedding reception. If you wore a suit or a fancy dress to a picnic, the opportunities for fun would be severely limited.

Another example is to watch the behavior of a Cub Scout the moment he puts on his uniform. The little boy grows to fill his uniform because he feels responsible to honor it.

In his book, A Quest for Excellence (Bookcraft, Inc., 1967), Elder Sterling W. Sill observes: “A letdown in personal appearance has far more than physical significance, for when ugliness gets its roots into one part of our lives, it may soon spread to every other part.”

It has been said that “we are what we eat,” but also true is the statement “we are what we wear”—not in terms of money, or having the latest attire, but in terms of radiating what we really are and how we really feel about ourselves.