Counsels on Health - Ellen G. White

[Testimonies for the Church 1:424-426 (1864).]
We as a people do not believe it our duty to go out
of the world to be out of the fashion. If we have a
neat, plain, modest, and comfortable plan of dress,
and worldlings choose to dress as we do, shall we
change this mode of dress in order to be different
from the world? No, we should not be odd or
singular in our dress for the sake of differing from
the world, lest they despise us for so doing.
Christians are the light of the world, the salt of the
earth. Their dress should be neat and modest, their
conversation chaste and heavenly, and their
deportment blameless.
How shall we dress? If any wore heavy quilts
before the introduction of hoops, merely for show
and not for comfort, they sinned against themselves
by injuring their health, which it is their duty to
preserve. If any wear them now merely to look like
hoops, they commit sin; for they are seeking to
imitate a fashion which is disgraceful. Corded
skirts were worn before hoops were introduced. I
have worn a light corded skirt since I was fourteen
years of age, not for show but for comfort and
981