Sunday’s Best - The History of the Black Church and Easter Fashion
By: Christian Hopley
Easter Sunday for Christians and non-believers is a time many Black Americans can recall a memory from. While it was a time for celebration and may even be the one time a year you saw someone come to church, it was also a live fashion expo. Walking through the church sanctuary during morning service on a Sunday, especially Easter Sunday, was like walking down multiple fashion show runways. Pews were lined with dignified ladies who smelled of White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor and Red Door by Elizabeth Arden. Hats were high and pointed to heaven and the legs were crossed at the ankle. Men in pointed shoes that tapped melodically on the floors of the church sat up right in their tailored suits. Every Sunday the Black church was and still is a sight to behold.
During Reconstruction and later with the Great Migration, America saw an influx of Black churches being erected across the nation. Most of them being concentrated in the South, known as The Bible Belt. American Christendom has largely had a deleterious effect on the Black people of this country, as it was weaponized against them to justify their enslavement, dehumanization, and inferiority. Nevertheless, enslaved people found ways to manipulate Christianity to their own benefit. Many of the first Black churches were just smokescreens for Black people to practice their native religions because punishment for practicing any religion other than Christianity, especially West African religions/spirituality, was severe. Black people would quietly practice their native religions in the basements of churches under the guise of practicing catholicism. Paintings of Jesus would cover offering shrines, and prayers would be said to their own Gods and Deities instead of the Pope and the Christian God.
Some scholars claim that these enslaved people needed christianity- they had to believe in something, anything, that there was a life better than this one, that there would be a deliverance. The Black church did in fact usher in a deliverance for Black people as it was the one place they were safely able to congregate and organize. Most of the planning for the Civil Rights Movement was conducted in Black churches. There, mass amounts of Black people were taught to read and write so they could pass the literacy test when attempting to register to vote, Civil rights leaders were planning and preparing people for protests, the church even acted as a soup kitchen- providing meals to hundreds of people in the communities.In addendum to planning for the movement, protesters were able to use their Sunday’s Best as a strategy to play into respectability politics and go against racist stereotypes about their appearance. Within those buildings, entire genres of music and musicians were fostered. Most of the early Black performers of the 20th century were vocally trained in church choirs, and went on to evolve soulful melodies into genres such as Jazz, R&B, Rock and Roll, Blues, and of course Gospel which was a derivative of the edifying negro spirituals.
Beyond the grand, gallant historical impact the Black church had, what the church also continually offers is its contributions to fashion. Sunday's Best fashion was a scheduled event that allowed Black people, no matter their positions in societal rank, to feel sophisticated. The late André Leon Talley had quite the affinity for fashion in the Black church which was seen throughout his entire career, even recently when the funds from the Christie’s auction of his archives were donated to both of the churches he frequented. His lifelong muse was his grandmother who was a homemaker for over 50 years but according to him, she “rose to her regality every Sunday when she put on that hat.” Black people looked forward to attending church because it allowed them to have a day to feel absolutely opulent outside of the work uniforms they wore tirelessly throughout the week that made them feel like second class citizens.
Black fashion designer Willi Smith, famously said, “Most of these designers who have to run to Paris for color and fabric combinations should go to church on Sunday in Harlem. It’s all right there.” The canon of Black church fashion revolved around extravagant design, precise tailoring, experimental patterns and silhouettes and mastery of coordination. The women of the church donned ornately decorated large hats with heels and a handbag to match, opaque stockings, gloves, and a dress or even skirt suit that reflected the era. For some decades, the dress of choice mirrored The New Look by Dior which has a fitted top, cinched waist and full knee length skirt. Later, the style moved into more skirt suits with fitted yet still feminine blazers that were coupled with an ankle length straight skirt. This style was made more contemporary by replacing the blazer with a larger, sometimes whimsical peplum top.
Little girls were wearing socks with little pom poms on the back to compliment their low patent white heels and fluffy tulle dressed with a cardigan to match. And the boys followed the timeless yet innovative suit styles of the men in the church. Three piece suits that also changed with the era, from zoot suits to slim fit suits, even traditional straight leg tailored suits came in a variety of bold colors and patterns. Much like the women, it was good practice for the men to have a hat that perfectly matches their dress shoes whether it be a wingtip, monkstrap, or even a square toe snake skin shoe.
Every year we look forward to the fashion statements that walk out the doors of the Black Church on Easter. Happy Easter to all those who celebrate and keep up the tradition of donning your Sunday’s Best in honor of all those before you.