10/08/2025
Fashion tells a story about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. Like most of Black American culture, we’ve used music, art, and fashion to communicate the routes to freedom, often without our enemies being any the wiser. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Black southern church had a major influence on fashion norms within the Black community. Black Floridians during this time often worked menial jobs with strict dress codes, so when Sunday came, church became their runway. By the mid-1900s, ladies’ church hats had become a symbol of both respect and style. Women wore wide-brimmed hats—sometimes fitted with ribbons, flowers, or sequins—like crowns. When you visit local Black churches throughout Central Florida today, you’ll likely still see church mothers proudly rocking their hats and deacon board members or pastors with polished dress shoes, three-piece suits, pocket squares, and sometimes a fedora hat — everyone is dressed to the nines, channeling fashion advice from the ancestors.
Read more on page 10 of our Summer 2025 issue of Radiantly Black by clicking on the following link: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/1036567712/
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