Saints Alive Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 below are two pictures of both male and female missionary couples. Admittedly I have seen very few female missionaries and none were ever dressed as casual as theses two. The male missionaries are rather dressed up, salesman-ish, standard missionary attire. Is this a new thing for female missionaries? would a more causal dress code help reach more non-members?
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 I know a sister missionary here who wears this feather boa thing, but generally speaking I don't see a problem
Saints Alive Posted December 22, 2012 Author Posted December 22, 2012 I think a more causal look might help the missionaries with some people. I don't mean baggy jeans and tee-shirts or anything, but maybe some khaki pants and no tie, something that will keep people from confusing missionaries with police detectives or FBI agents. 3
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 I think a more causal look might help the missionaries with some people. I don't mean baggy jeans and tee-shirts or anything, but maybe some khaki pants and no tie, something that will keep people from confusing missionaries with police detectives or FBI agents.it could be worse then getting confused as police officers, In LA we got routinely confused as being Immigration officers-once I said yes so run and hide!
blackstrap Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 Church leadership have learned one thing. Never tell a woman what she should wear!
bluebell Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 The missionary dress code really depends on the mission president. My mission president, for example, was fairly lax. Elders didn't have to wear suit coats accept at specific times and sisters could wear pretty much whatever kind of skirt/dress they wanted as long as it was modest and wasn't a jean skirt. My MTC companion, on the other hand, went to a mission where sisters were expected to wear knee length dark colored skirts and button shirts.The sisters in our mission here tend to look pretty much just like the sisters in your picture above. 1
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 My Mission was BIG into dress code, to the extreme. The sisters had to wear suit jackets and I know most hated it 1
bluebell Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 My Mission was BIG into dress code, to the extreme. The sisters had to wear suit jackets and I know most hated itI know i would have hated it. Yuck! 1
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 I know i would have hated it. Yuck!I remember once going to the LA Temple and we got off the bus and we saw some CLAM missionaries and it was night and day difference between ours and theirs, it was like wow!
Calm Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 below are two pictures of both male and female missionary couples. Admittedly I have seen very few female missionaries and none were ever dressed as casual as theses two. The male missionaries are rather dressed up, salesman-ish, standard missionary attire. Is this a new thing for female missionaries? would a more causal dress code help reach more non-members?I don't see the white shirt as all that casual if one looks closely at it and with both, it will really depend on the skirt as to how casual the whole attire will look. Shirts like that can be very easily dressed up or dressed down by what they go with.
Calm Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 I think a more causal look might help the missionaries with some people. I don't mean baggy jeans and tee-shirts or anything, but maybe some khaki pants and no tie, something that will keep people from confusing missionaries with police detectives or FBI agents.On some missions, jeans and comfortable shirts with boots is standard missionary fare or at least was tenish years or so when a missionary who had gone to a Navajo reservation for his mission reported on his mission.
Calm Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 (edited) I remember once going to the LA Temple and we got off the bus and we saw some CLAM missionaries and it was night and day difference between ours and theirs, it was like wow!What are CLAM missionaries? Never mind, figured out Central LA Mission...thought you were talking about a special type of missionary, such as a service one. Edited December 22, 2012 by calmoriah
rpn Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 While I don't agree that the photo you reference is casual, I can tell you that it's been a little over a year since there was a major overhaul of the look expected for sisters. You can go to the lds.org website and read about the intent and suggestions --- it was intended to make the sisters look more like a well-dressed but not geeky or strange to the people they approach. 1
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 What are CLAM missionaries? Never mind, figured out Central LA Mission...thought you were talking about a special type of missionary, such as a service one.California Los Angeles Mission! (my brother is a CLAM alum) IIRC correctly BCspace served there-Los Angeles has a number of missions taking in parts of it-such as the Arcadia Mission (yours truly served there, the CAM Mission which is my first name incidentally!), Los Angeles, Long Beach, Ventura, San Fernando and San Bernardino where Freedom served
Calm Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 California Los Angeles Mission! (my brother is a CLAM alum) IIRC correctly BCspace served there-Los Angeles has a number of missions taking in parts of it-such as the Arcadia Mission (yours truly served there, the CAM Mission which is my first name incidentally!), Los Angeles, Long Beach, Ventura, San Fernando and San Bernardino where Freedom servedWell, I was close.
volgadon Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 The missionary dress code really depends on the mission president. My mission president, for example, was fairly lax. Elders didn't have to wear suit coats accept at specific times and sisters could wear pretty much whatever kind of skirt/dress they wanted as long as it was modest and wasn't a jean skirt.My MTC companion, on the other hand, went to a mission where sisters were expected to wear knee length dark colored skirts and button shirts.The sisters in our mission here tend to look pretty much just like the sisters in your picture above.My wife's mission had very strict rules, dark outfits only, with long sleeves and skirts down to the heels.Her and companions and she once mistook the mission president's wife (who came up with the dresscode) for a Greek Orthodox nun... 2
Hamba Tuhan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 (edited) It could be a consequence of where I served, but I noticed on my mission that wearing a tie and a namebadge automatically made us appear safe and trustworthy to people. We were complete strangers, and yet people would speak to us, allow us into their homes, etc. They simply would not have done this for ordinary male strangers, I assure you! But something about the look communicated, 'These guys are official and therefore not a threat'.I sometimes got annoyed being mistaken for a shop assistant whilst shopping on p-days, but even that came in handy on occasion. One day my companion and I were walking our pushbikes through a large car park when we saw a very pregnant woman struggling with two small children and an overflowing shopping trolley. It was obvious she needed assistance, so we walked over to her and asked if we could help in some way. Relieved, she immediately handed over to me her car keys and let us push the trolley to her car and unload everything into the boot. If we hadn't looked somewhat like 'police detectives or FBI agents', there's simply no way that she would have trusted us to help her.When the lady caught up to us with the toddlers, I noticed her staring at our namebadges. It had only then dawned on her that we didn't work for the supermarket. 'Who are you?' she asked. We told her. It had never crossed our minds to offer assistance because she might ask that question, but it had a good outcome. When I last heard from her, she was serving as the early morning seminary teacher in their ward, a calling she'd been given after her husband was released as bishop. Edited December 22, 2012 by Hamba Tuhan 2
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 My wife's mission had very strict rules, dark outfits only, with long sleeves and skirts down to the heels.Her and companions and she once mistook the mission president's wife (who came up with the dresscode) for a Greek Orthodox nun...where was this?!
DavidB Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 One of the most annoying things for me as a missionary was the members using their long past mission rules to tell me how I should be dressed.
volgadon Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 where was this?!St. Petersburg. Things aren't as strict any more.
Saints Alive Posted December 22, 2012 Author Posted December 22, 2012 I guess local culture is probably the biggest factor to consider regarding missionary dress. I was coming at it from a US perspective but I can see where in some parts of the world and even among some demographics in the US the standard dress is best.
bluebell Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 My wife's mission had very strict rules, dark outfits only, with long sleeves and skirts down to the heels.Her and companions and she once mistook the mission president's wife (who came up with the dresscode) for a Greek Orthodox nun...In my experience it really is the mission president's wife who leads the dress code for sister missionaries. My M.P.W. was a very fashionable sister from Utah, who always told us the hardest part about serving as a M.P.W. was having to leave Nordstrom's behind (there were none in our mission boundaries). She actual broke a closet rod in the mission home because of all of her clothes! She had a rule that if we saw her wearing it, then we could wear it (except for shoes, she was very big on open-toed shoes with 6 in. heels).When i served my mission, long skirts (those that went to our shoes) were against general missionary rules because they were extremely fashionable at the time and the MTC was always warning us that we couldn't look like 'polly on a picnic'. 2
volgadon Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 In my experience it really is the mission president's wife who leads the dress code for sister missionaries. My M.P.W. was a very fashionable sister from Utah, who always told us the hardest part about serving as a M.P.W. was having to leave Nordstrom's behind (there were none in our mission boundaries). She actual broke a closet rod in the mission home because of all of her clothes! She had a rule that if we saw her wearing it, then we could wear it (except for shoes, she was very big on open-toed shoes with 6 in. heels).When i served my mission, long skirts (those that went to our shoes) were against general missionary rules because they were extremely fashionable at the time and the MTC was always warning us that we couldn't look like 'polly on a picnic'.This MPW was actually from the US (though not from Utah), and the Eastern European sisters (such as my wife) suffered because they tend to dress very stylishly, and, truth be told, the locals weren't terribly impressed by the nunnish look. 1
Duncan Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 In my experience it really is the mission president's wife who leads the dress code for sister missionaries. My M.P.W. was a very fashionable sister from Utah, who always told us the hardest part about serving as a M.P.W. was having to leave Nordstrom's behind (there were none in our mission boundaries). She actual broke a closet rod in the mission home because of all of her clothes! She had a rule that if we saw her wearing it, then we could wear it (except for shoes, she was very big on open-toed shoes with 6 in. heels).When i served my mission, long skirts (those that went to our shoes) were against general missionary rules because they were extremely fashionable at the time and the MTC was always warning us that we couldn't look like 'polly on a picnic'."Polly on a picnic"? That's a funny!! we weren't allowed to have our suit jackets open, ever. This was because the MP's mother came to visit and told the missionaries you like sloppy all, so it was a rule. We had "The Walk" basically a rule about what you wore and how you wore it. It was extreme and the enforcement of it was nuts as well. 1
rongo Posted December 22, 2012 Posted December 22, 2012 it could be worse then getting confused as police officers, In LA we got routinely confused as being Immigration officers-once I said yes so run and hide!I served in an East German city for six months. It was the only East German city in the Hamburg Mission (mid 1990s, and my favorite area). Once, an elderly couple approaching us was obviously both interested and concerned about us. They monitored us from afar and whispered incessantly. As we passed them, I leaned towards the woman and whispered loudly, "Stasi" (shtah-zee --- the infamous East German secret police). The woman blanched and recoiled in shock, and her husband let out a good belly laugh. We chatted for a bit, and I apologized, but told them I couldn't resist, and that we sometimes got that reaction. 3
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