Wear your ‘Sunday best’ to church

Yoliswa Dube

ON any given Sunday, we all have that one woman who likes to be fashionably late for church.

She will walk in when everybody else is seated and concentrating on the pastor and his sermon.

This woman will waltz into church from the back and strut her stuff to a seat somewhere in front.

As she does, it’s difficult to ignore her six inch high heels and body hugging outfit. She will shuffle past a few people, whispering, “excuse me”, as she gets to a seat, providing a perfect “view” of the pastor.

For a moment, everything comes to a standstill as people stare at her distracted.

She eventually takes her seat but because she’s late and a significant number of people are still looking at her, she will get her lipstick and pocket mirror out — just to freshen up.

When she’s done, then the Bible and notebook come out and finally, her eyes are fixed on the pulpit.

But before then she’ll ask, “What portion of scripture are we reading from?”

Of course you’ll respond politely and even share your Bible with her. But she better not be in the skimpy dress she wore to Alick Macheso’s show the week before — all glittery, with a low neckline showing enough cleavage to last a week!

The dress better not be riding up her thighs continuously with her trying to pull it down every now again.

Church is not the place to be wearing your party dresses and hoping no one will judge you for it. If anything, you’ll find strict fashion critics in church more than anywhere else. You can’t just swing over your night outlook to the church pews.

This is why there’s a “Sunday best”. Growing up, these were special clothes worn to church only. Because we were young, this was probably so that we didn’t soil our nice clothes.

But now, your Sunday best should be the clothes you don’t wear on any other day — something you feel clean and honourable in. Dressing appropriately for church doesn’t necessarily mean wearing long skirts and oversized dresses that drown your figure.

It means covering your body in a manner that is acceptable among a varied range of people. Your Sunday best can be “decent” but still fashionable.

Looking stylish is not all about showing off skin and “assets”. Don’t expose yourself. Ladies, measure those skirts. If they’re short enough to flash people when you sit, don’t wear them.

Don’t wear anything above the knee if you can avoid it. Generally, don’t wear anything see-through or transparent. This can be solved by using undershirts or tank tops.

Ladies — absolutely no cleavage! Wear appropriate bottoms for your church and gender — a dress or a nice skirt or pants will do. Some churches are quite specific when it comes to dressing and may sometimes require something somewhat longer — a maxi skirt will look decent and fashionable at the same time.

You’ll never go wrong with a shift, an A-line or a wrap dress. Add a cardigan, some pearls and you are set. Yes, miniskirts and above-the-knee clothing are popular, but save it for the rest of the week.

Guys, wear a nice pair of slacks, such as khaki pants or dark jeans. Both genders should avoid wearing shorts, please! Ladies, you can wear your jeans or pants to church with pretty much everything, just make sure you don’t wear crop tops, spaghetti straps or show too much cleavage. Leave the high stilettos at home. As much as I love my heels, I don’t wear the really high ones to church.

Instead, try heels that are lower than three inches. Pumps are a great choice to wear with a shift dress, a pencil skirt or pants. PS — stay away from leggings, sandals and flip flops!

Feedback from last week’s “Spunk, Consistency, Memorability”

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Until next week, flaunt your pattern and style and don’t forget to drop me an SMS/WhatsApp on +263738991355, send an email to [email protected] or follow me on Twitter handle @YoliswaStarr.