The fashion world would like to introduce America's new top model -- Miss Modesty. With her grace and elegance, she glides down the runway with an appearance that silently screams "skin is no longer in!"

But who is this Miss Modesty, so named by a fashion editor at Seventeen magazine? According to Atoosa Rubenstein, editor-in-chief of Seventeen -- "America's most-read young women's magazine" -- consumers can expect to see a definite change in the 2004 fall fashions.

"Basically, it's really interesting because for the past few years what has constituted trendy and edgy has been either very punk or very sexy," Rubenstein explained. "I think there is a new trendy and that trendy is modesty."

However, "... I don't want to send the signal that these girls want to dress in potato sacks. They want to be stylish," Rubenstein explained.

The expected shift to a more conservative style is evident in this season's lower hemlines and higher waistlines found on clothing sewn from materials such as tweed, corduroy, plaid, argyle and knit accented with demure details such as bows. In addition, the blazer is expected to be a staple.

"... Maybe a girl's skirt is short but she will be wearing a blazer on top of it and flats. So there is a little more balance [of modesty]," Rubenstein added.

God's Standard

While the secular world's move toward modesty is a step in the right direction, it is important for Christians to measure such balance against God's standard of modesty as set forth in Ephesians 5:3 that states: "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people."

"I was reciting that verse because I was working on memorizing it and that phrase, 'not even a hint,' really jumped out at me," said Joshua Harris, executive pastor of Covenant Life Church near Washington, DC. "It's a statement of how high God's standard is for us." (Read a review of Harris's book Not Even a Hint: Guarding Your Heart Against Lust .)

"I'm grateful if there [really] is a modesty trend. I would encourage it .... But the root problem in people's lives is that they're cut off from God. They don't have a relationship with Him," Harris said. "When I put myself in the shoes of secular people, how long lasting could a modesty trend really be?"

Rubenstein believes the modesty movement is not just a fashion trend but a cultural shift that is showing it's face in fashion.

"If it weren't for Britney Spears, if it weren't for that culture of very sexualized fashion and music videos, I don't know that we would be here right now in terms of the modesty trend," she explained.

"If our culture shifts towards modesty because there is kind of a backlash from the whole Britney/Janet [Jackson] kind of reaction, that's great," Harris said. "... but I think that the cultural shift apart from heart change through the Gospel will be short lived," he added.

A Heart Condition

"We can't let the culture war become more important than the Gospel going forward, or to think that just because modesty is real popular right now that real heart change has taken place," Harris said.