Easter Fashion History Lesson

As with  every fashionista out there, we don’t necessarily need a holiday to dress up but it seems like  with most holidays there is always a fashion component. I will even go so far as to say, that most holidays even have a color component to them.  If you think about Christmas and Valentine’s Day, red is often our go-to color.  St. Patrick’s Day, we all searched for the perfect green. And as Easter approaches, we often receive catalogs with models wearing lots of pastels and white.

We were told growing up that Easter was the day to wear one’s Sunday best as a way to  give glory to God. The expectation of the ensemble worn on Easter was far greater than other Sundays throughout the year. It is also a breaking away from the heavy winter garb that we have been wearing for months.

In the south, many women used to wear hats to church on Easter Sunday, even little girls would often wear hats to  church on Easter Sunday—a tradition that seems to have gone to the wayside with the exception of Steeplechase and the Derby.

As more and more churches have become informal making all feel welcome, have we lost our old fashioned approach to fashion? Have we lost that out of respect and honor or have we left that just to royalty?  I would like to think that dressing up on Easter Sunday is more about rebirth, a celebration of new life shown through our dress.  Whether we like it or not, what we wear makes an impression on those around us.  If you choose to wear flip flops to church on Sunday (which will probably be my daughter by the way), it is certainly your right to do so. However, I hope that we can hold on to a little more tradition for just a while longer.  And no, I don’t see it as commercialism, as most retailers don’t bombard us with ads about wearing your Sunday best on Easter.  Actually, it is one of the few days out of the year where the mall is actually closed for the day.  It is merely a day in which fashion does have a purpose—to remind us of something powerful and redemptive.  Tell us how you feel about wearing your Sunday best on Easter.

 

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