Let’s look at this verse from a few different translations:
1. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;” (KJV).
2. “In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment” (ASV).
3. “also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire” (RSV).
4. “likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,” (ESV).
5. I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, (NIV).
The American Standard changed “face” to “fast” meaning “bound.” For example, “bed-fast” is used to describe one who is bound in bed due to some physical condition. We are describing a woman with a sense of modesty that wound “bind” her and keep her from dressing shamefully or in a way unbecoming of a woman professing godliness. Therefore, a woman should be bound to a sense of shame.
Jeremiah 6:15 speaks of the people who are no longer able to blush. This happens when a thing becomes so prevalent, you get used to it. When we lose this sense of shame, the conscience is seared or branded as with a hot iron (1 Tim. 4:2). This condition creates a situation where we are past feeling or no longer sensitive. What used to bother us and cause us embarrassment is no longer an issue. To live in this environment When one loses this sense of shame, there is no restraint to appear in public improperly attired (cf. 1 Tim. 2:8-10). This appears to be the meaning given by the Revised Standard Version with the word, “sensibly in seemly apparel.”
The English Standard Version translates it as “modesty” and the NIV gives the word “decency,” both of which convey the same thought expressed in the text. This just happens to be a case where I prefer the American Standard translation because it better defines “decency” and “modesty.”