Buy Amish Clothes Online
Web Site Caters To Plainly Dressed
POSTED: 4:06 pm EDT June 7, 2005
PARADISE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A Web business based in the Susquehanna Valley is catering to the Amish and other church groups that practice modest dress.
The Amish may not have Internet access at home, but they will use it.
Kimberly Hamme is using the Internet to sell a simple product, handmade clothing.
"We wanted to be a plain people's Wal-Mart online," Hamme said.
Hamme, who is a Seventh Day Adventist, runs Plainly Dressed from her home in Paradise Township, York County.
"People had a need for modest clothing many people around the world, almost every continent," Hamme said.
Amish and Mennonite seamstresses, like Deb Sensenig, of Lancaster County, sew the custom-made garments for men, women and children.
Much of the modest clothing is traditional Amish garb, but Mennonites, Quakers, Orthodox Jews and even members of a rock band "The Amish Outlaws" are also customers.
Among the groups there are different rules for dress. Some allow prints, while others stay strictly with solids. Some permit zippers, while others allow only buttons.
Plainly Dressed will make whatever the customer wants.
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Web site helps those seeking 'plain' and simple dress
T.W. BURGER - Patriot News, Harrisburg, PA
Associated Press
Posted on Wed, Jun. 01, 2005
ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. - Kimberly Hamme sells what most people would call Amish clothing. She does most of the selling over the Internet.
How does that work? The Amish don't use computers, right?
Wrong.
"We do sell to the Amish, that's true," said Hamme, 31. "But not just to the Amish."
Hamme said the surprise some people register when they find her Web site - www.plainlydressed.bravepages.com - arises from misconceptions about the Amish and people who dress plainly.
In her plain, ankle-length dresses and white hair covering, Hamme is often mistaken for an Amish woman. In fact, she is a Seventh Day Adventist.
"The clothing worn by plain people in many of the various faiths signifies that God calls us to set an example through modesty," Hamme said." 'Plain' is to be set aside from the world and its fashions."
The theory behind plain dress is firmly rooted in the Bible, said Steve Scott, writer and researcher at Elizabethtown College and author of the book "Why Do They Dress That Way?"
"There are scriptural reasons for wearing distinctive garb and being modestly covered," said Scott, 57, a member of the Old Order River Brethren, a conservative denomination with roots in the Mennonite Church.
"It is about nonconformity to the world, as described in Romans VII, which said to 'be not conformed to this world.' The plain people believe a Christian should not follow the fads and fashions of the world," he said.
The definition of modest and fancy varies. Some religions and sects avoid buttons and zippers; others shun fabrics that bear patterns or colors.
"It is clothing that does not elevate you above others, to make you popular and give you status in society," Scott said.
Hamme, who runs her Internet business out of her Paradise Township, Adams County, home, writes in her Web site that she launched her enterprise, "to meet the needs of Christian families in need of hard-to-find Modest, Christian items for the entire family."
Hamme said many religions have conservative branches that believe dressing modestly fits God's will, including Pentecostal, Southern Baptists, orthodox Catholic and Jewish.
"Most people don't realize how much diversity there is among the plain people," she said. "There are plain Adventists, just like there are plain Quakers. Most people see a bonnet and a buggy and they think Amish or Mennonite, but there are many churches and groups within churches that practice plain or modest ways."
Hamme said the Amish are varied within their own tradition. The Swartzentruber Amish, the most conservative tradition, wear only clothing made from cotton. Other groups make allowances for man-made fabrics.
"They're easier. You don't have to iron them," she said.
She said most of the clothing she sells is made by Amish and Mennonites around the country, and many of her customers are Amish.
Hamme said it is mostly a myth that the Amish shy away from all technology.
"Their rules are designed to keep the outside world from affecting them. But they are aware of technology and use it when it suits. They might not have computers and Internet access, but they have Mennonite or 'English' friends who do," she said.
"English," she noted, is the traditional way the Amish and some Mennonites refer to everybody else.
Not all of Hamme's clients are bound to plain dress because of a religious affiliation.
Among her clientele are Civil War re-enactors and the Amish Outlaws, a hard-rock band from Stony Point, N.Y. The half-dozen men in the group dress in Amish get-ups for their energetic performances.
"Of course, to us, that's sacrilegious," Hamme said. "But it's a free country."
