Conservative Clothes

I've been doing lots of reading and talking on what clothes are and are not culturally appropriate.

This post (Put Some Damn Clothes On!) starting my thinking. One friend told me that when she went to Ghana, she was wearing pants but felt like she stood out so much that she went and bought a whole bunch of dresses her very first day there.

I don't care at all about standing out but I do care about being respectful. I emailed a girl who used to live in Kikima (but now lives in Canada for university) and she said this:

Its good to dress in a conservative manner (skirts/dresses not above the knee), unfortunately no shorts, and no low-neck clothing. Especially since you are a foreigner you will be under more scrutiny so its good to keep a low profile in terms of clothing so the culture is not offended. If there is a gathering or church service or you're teaching, you need to be dressed appropriately (formal - nice dress/skirt). No jeans. You can get away with wearing trousers in the town (Machakos - its a bigger town) but not in Kikima. Even when you're travelling there, you can wear pants. Its just during the day, in the marketplace and in the school thats a bit hard to do.

Okay. So what kind of skirt fits the bill? I own 3 business-y skirts, that need ironing and I wear when I work in an office. I also own a few jean skirts and mini skirts that I wear when I've recently shaved my legs and want to show case that fact. I own a few semi formal dresses, and one halter top sun dress.

Suffice it to say I'll need to go shopping.

I guess I can wear shorts under the skirt so I don't feel uncomfortable. I have plenty of little bike shorts that will do nicely. But where does one go to buy low maintenance, conservative dresses and skirts? I don't even know what I'm looking for!