Sunday best
Churchgoers head into Easter with beautiful bonnets
The Berean Baptist Church brims with women wearing fabulous and flamboyant hats.
“The royal family would definitely fit right into our church,” declares Barbara Belgrave, sporting a rounded top hat sprinkled with rhinestones.
Her fellow congregants in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn, house of worship don headpieces ranging from elegant widebrimmed hats draped with pearls to over-the-top creations dazzling with fluorescent colors that brighten an otherwise overcast morning.
Many New Yorkers still dress their best every week in the city’s churches, where wearing hats and gloves remains the custom.
And come next Sunday, the already dapper devotees will pull out all the stops for Easter; one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.
While New Yorkers and tourists have strolled Fifth Ave. since the 1880s in their best bonnets for the annual Easter Parade, equally colorful processions of well-dressed worshipers will stream in and out of churches across the boroughs next weekend.
“I always wear a hat, but I'm looking for something special for Easter Sunday,” says Hyacinth Pelle, 84, who traveled by bus from the South Bronx to Harlem’s Heaven Hat Boutique on 2538 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. to buy a new Easter bonnet.
“She’s a hat fanatic,” says her granddaughter, Patreinnah Acosta-pelle, from Harlem. “She’s gone to Macy’s and Bloomingdale's, but ... I told her she had to come here.”
The Harlem haberdashery has been a neighborhood institution for more than 20 years.
“The church community and the locals have kept me in business,” says owner Evetta Petty, who designs most of the 500 hats decking the walls and counters in her boutique.
“It’s a very strong tradition going back to the very, very early days when Sunday was the only day you had to take pride in yourself and dress up,” she explains.
The custom is also drawn from Scripture.
“In the Bible it says a woman always covers her head in the presence of God,” says Terry Bonnett, 50, from Brooklyn.
“It also dates back to the days of slavery where everyone would wear their Sunday best to worship.”
“I want to wear my Sunday best for God,” agrees Sister Annie Jenkins, expressing a sentiment shared by many throughout her Crown Heights church.
She owns more than 50 hats, including the custom royal purple number she wore wreathed with flowers on a recent Snday.
“As a Christian woman it's important to look great,” she says.
Spring ushers in a perfect storm of business for hat shops.
“It’s Easter, and Mother’s
Day and the Kentucky Derby,” says Petty, who picked up hatmaking from her mother before getting a degree in fashion textiles and marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Her signature designs include oversized hat pins and Swarovski crystals — a favorite of the area pastors’ wives who adore Petty’s one-of-a-kind creations.
“You’re the first lady of the church, and they’re calling on you to set the fashion tone for the church,” says Petty.
“Pastors’ wives go in for very fashion-forward, very dramatic hats. We use a lot of rhinestones, things that sparkle and bling.”
Hats follow fashion trends like any other piece of apparel.
“Right now people are very much into large, big hats and color,” says Marcus Malchijah, 48, who has been making hats at Malchijah Hats at 942 Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn Heights for about 20 years.
His handcrafted hats can take anywhere from half an hour to an entire day to make, and run from $40 to $600 depending on the material and the detail that goes into a piece.
He gets some orders for hats a foot tall, or with brims a foot wide.
“They’re all one-of-a-kind, an individual effort,” he says.
The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last year spawned a craze in fascinator-styled hats among younger women.
The fancy headpieces, which consist of miniature hats, feathers and veils attached to headbands and worn at a jaunty angle, have become one of Petty’s most popular pieces.
“It’s a great introduction into a hat for people who are not used to wearing hats,” she says. “Then you can graduate onto the big, super-wide brims!”
The sky is the limit for custom toppers, which are bedazzled with crystals, feathers, veils, flowers and ribbon.
Looks from Roaring ’20s flapper hats to asymmetrical sun hats in vibrant stripes are popular for spring, but really, anything goes as long as the wearer takes pride in her appearance.
There is one major fashion faux pas that all church ladies try to avoid, however.
“You never want to have the same hat that someone else has. That’s a big no-no,” says Petty.
This is why women are willing to spend up to $300 for a custom-made hat rather than buying cheaper, mass-produced versions at department stores.
“My hat-maker, Mary, will never make this one again,” says Bonnett, showing off her golden cap covered in rhinestones, which she got made to match one of her golden suits.
The aptly-named Bonnett owns around 100 hats. Her most expensive one was $85.
“My customers are very particular about their look,” says Petty.
Case-in-point: Mrs. Pelle, who spends a good hour browsing the store before selecting a black summer straw hat with an upturned brim, silk flower and red crystal hat pin to wear with her white Sunday Easter suit.
“The hat is the icing on top of an outfit that really pulls a woman’s look together,” says Petty.