Buggy, Bonnet, and the Ordnung

That gray buggy clipping along the shoulder is not a costume for tourists. It is transportation, governed by a code as old as the community itself. At the center of Amish life is the Ordnung, an unwritten set of guidelines, passed down by word of mouth, that shapes nearly every choice, from the cut of a coat to the tools allowed on a farm.

Each church district keeps its own Ordnung, which is why practices can vary from valley to valley. Here in Lancaster County, Amish buggies are gray, while other settlements across the country use white, brown, or even yellow. Color and style are among the clearest markers of which community a family belongs to.

A Lancaster buggy typically stays fairly close to home, kept there by the pace of a horse. The plain dress follows the same logic of humility and belonging. Men wear dark suits with straight cut coats and no lapels, broadfall trousers, suspenders, and broad brimmed hats, and they grow a beard, but never a mustache, after they marry.

Women wear modest solid colored dresses with a cape and apron, often fastened with straight pins rather than buttons, and never cut their hair, wearing it pinned beneath a prayer covering. Patterns and bright decoration are avoided as too worldly. Every detail is a quiet statement that the group matters more than the individual.