fldsdress.com

From the Arizona Republic:

Polygamy's pop-culture moment now extends to the closet. FLDS women are offering their handmade, old-fashioned children's clothing for sale online - long underwear, slips and all.

At FLDSDress.com, pastel-pink dresses and denim overalls mirror the clothing that intrigued the nation when authorities raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas in April, taking children into custody while investigating charges of underage marriage and child abuse.

There are $65 "teen princess" dresses that stretch from ankle to wrist, long pajamas and matching robes, all sewn by the mothers themselves, even some in Arizona's own polygamist enclave of Colorado City.

Sales of the clothing will help the Texas FLDS women pay rent and support their families. Now displaced from their homes at the ranch, most of them are still in the midst of a child-abuse investigation, and lawyers have advised them to establish their own households.

Mothers originally created the site so Texas officials could get FLDS-approved clothing for the children while they were in state custody. Turns out other people were interested, too.

"We're used to our clothing not being popular," said Maggie Jessop, 44, an FLDS member who helps coordinate the sewing efforts. "(But) we've had many, many people say that they would like to have their children be more modest and have expressed interest in our modest lifestyle."

"There were a lot of people that asked, 'Where can I purchase those clothes?' " said Cynthia Martinez, spokeswoman for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represents 48 of the mothers.

Paul Murphy, spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, finds the FLDS women's fashion offerings quite smart.

"It's very clever," he said. "With all the issues that are going on, most of the media attention has been about the way they dress and the way they wear their hair.

"I give them credit for going where the interest is."

FLDSDress.com has dispatched packages to California, Iowa, New York, Washington, and even Arizona, Maggie Jessop said, and not just the FLDS-heavy Colorado City area, either.

The FLDS wardrobe puzzled and captivated America as events unfolded in Texas. The poufed hairstyles, long dresses and buttoned-up shirts are mandated by jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who disallows patterned fabric and the color red. The FLDS members wear the clothing as a symbol of their faith.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is part of a group that split from the Mormon Church in 1890 over the practice of polygamy. Those who have fled the polygamist sect have long accused it of conducting underage marriages and other abuse.

Jeffs was convicted in September of being an accomplice to rape, charges stemming from his role in marrying a girl to her first cousin. In April, reports of pregnant teenagers and underage marriages sent Texas authorities swarming the YFZ Ranch. They pulled 449 children away from the arms of their parents, and mournful mothers appeared on morning talk shows, pleading for their children. Their efforts turned public sympathy in favor of the polygamists, and the FLDS capitalized on that with many fundraising Web sites.

Just three days after the children were separated from their mothers, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office logged 449 comments that opposed the separation and just 32 in support, according to a report in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Polygamy itself is a hot talking topic across the nation these days. The HBO series Big Love provides a fictionalized version of life as a plural wife. Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl is set to star in the movie version of former FLDS member Carolyn Jessop's memoir, Escape, and Carolyn is working on the script with screenwriters now. She fled the sect and her plural marriage in 2003. Her story about leaving Colorado City topped bestseller lists during the Texas raid.

Carolyn sewed costumes for Big Love, and since the Texas raids, has been approached by others who want such clothes to wear as costumes on Halloween.

"They even want me to help them comb a wig up (in the FLDS style), Carolyn said. "That's the other thing those guys ought to be doing, selling wigs with the face frame (hairstyle) already done."

The FLDS women don't mind if their wardrobe inspires a Halloween trend.

"If some people want to act weird, that's their problem, not ours," Maggie said. And a beauty lesson could be arranged, she added.

FLDS women have a long history behind the sewing machine. For years, they staffed a clothing factory in Colorado City and sewed things like uniforms in addition to handcrafting all the clothing worn by their families.

Clothing sold on their Web site is cut out at the sewing factory on the ranch in Texas and then sent in pieces to the mothers across the state for completion.

Carolyn Jessop applauds the women for finding a way to support themselves and tiptoe toward independence.

"When 100 percent of their (financial) support is coming from the (FLDS) church, that makes them 100 percent dependent on the church," she said. "If they realize they have a skill that is marketable ... they might realize they could do it outside of the church."

Familiar with FLDS financial practices, Carolyn is concerned that the funds the women earn with their clothing sales won't end up in the mothers' pockets.

According to an FLDS spokesman, the women are paid per item sewn, and if they draw in more revenue than is needed to cover expenses, it is shared with other families.

"If people who purchase (the clothing) would at least request that they make the check out to the woman who made the garment," Carolyn said, "then this could be a really positive thing."

*I think if the money really went to people trying to build a new life for themselves that would be great. I just hope it isn't slave labor. The clothing isn't all that bad. I know some homeschooling families that aren't FLDS or LDS and dress like that. There is a market out there.

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Edited by barbsteam at 07/02/2008 6:45 AM PDT