The Virginian Pilot
August 31, 2009
My (Jamesetta M. Walker) hair had been falling out and my spirit was down as I dealt with a wrenching, life-changing event. Still, I was faithfully attending worship services. One evening, an elder came to me to discuss his disdain of my newly braided upsweep. The style was not embellished in any way. It was just my modest attempt to give my tresses a break and remain looking like I still had it together.
He asked me to read 1 Peter 3:3-4:
And do not let your adornment be that of the external braiding of the hair and of the putting on of gold ornaments or the wearing of outer garments, but let it be the secret person of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of the quiet and mild spirit, which is of great value in the eyes of God.
He then reread the passage about braiding. I wanted to snatch the Bible out of his hand because of the misapplication for his personal taste. Instead, I told him that if he took that scripture so literally, he should also take off his gold watch.
I was livid and in a spiritual tailspin. That was 14 years ago.
Now comes Peggy Scott of Franklin.
A person would have every reason not to suspect she’s a minister and conversely, every reason to accept that she is one.
Scott, on a Friday a couple of weeks ago, was immaculately primped in a goldenrod three-piece linen pantsuit with cutout detail on the jacket. Her jewelry – gold hoop earrings, a gold chain-link necklace and a birthstone band worn on the ring finger of her left hand – was sparse but striking. Her golden brown metallic lipstick radiated from a face framed by close-cropped honey brown locks in an asymmetrical cut, spiced with a fall skimming her right eye. Coral-colored polish adorned her fingernails, and a neat French manicure peeked from her dainty, medium-heel slides.
She was fierce, authentic and classy.
“I’m somewhat of a maverick. I want to maintain my personal style but maintain my identity with Christ,” Scott said.
“God is a god of beauty,” she said, “and we can look at the beauty within creation and then we can appreciate the uniqueness that each individual has.”
Such wisdom comes from a woman who’s blazed a path of inspiration for decades.
Scott is the founding senior pastor of Fellowship Around the Word Church in Franklin and the president of Peggy Scott Ministries. She was the subject of the June cover story for Coverings, a magazine that melds faith and fashion, and she does not cloak her femininity.
“I wear robes… but I’m female and I’m not trying to preach as a man,” she said.
It’s about balance, the Norfolk State and Temple University graduate said. “I love the Lord first, and my family. I love to shop, and I love sports.”
Paulette Black, the magazine’s founder and editor, said Scott is Coverings personified.
“I chose Peggy because she has a very distinctive style,” Black said. “She’s mastered ‘retro’ and ‘contemporary’ and found the perfect balance to make her own signature style, which I like to call ‘retro-temporary.’ Her look is her own and no one else’s, and she carries that into her ministry. … She understands fashion in a way that most Christian women don’t. Her outfit makes a complete statement from head to toe, and that’s what real fashion is.”
Coverings hit the market in February and is based out of St. Louis, San Antonio and Los Angeles. The magazine is published monthly and is distributed free through churches and select women’s conferences. Subscriptions are available.
“I came up with the name Coverings because it covers everything from hair to pedicures to the heart,” said Black, who spoke to me by phone.
The multicultural magazine spotlights Christian women trailblazers from various backgrounds. The print version largely reflects baby-boomer women. “They’re settled, but no one has ever asked them about fashion,” Black said.
The mag is packed with style and beauty trends. The online version is decidedly hip, practical and inspirational, with blogs on everything from the pitfalls of being a wannabe to nailing the Christian rocker look to being a fashionable mom. “We’re all given a God-given style,” Black said.
Black has a background in fashion illustration and fashion advertising. She wanted her work in fashion to be more uplifting, and she toyed with the idea of a faith-focused fashion publication for more than two decades.
“This is not something I just jumped up and did. I am the prime person for this magazine,” she said. “Church and fashion – I love both.”
Black’s style is edgy. She loves her hair wild and always has to have lipstick. An outreach of her company involves advising women and pastors on acceptance of individuality.
But she’s careful not to step on others’ beliefs, especially when attending houses of worship that have more conservative views.
“I don’t flaunt it if I know it’s something extremely offensive” to that faith, Black said. “I am not a slave to being free. Salvation is the
No. 1 thing.
“I want women to relax. Fashion is supposed to be fun.”
The latter assertion made me reflect yet again on those women at the Yearn for Zion polygamist ranch in Texas where more than 400 kids had been removed last year following allegations of underage marriage.
It’s baffling and saddening every time I see images of those women and girls uniformly dressed in puffy long dresses and their hair styled in that waved puff on the top and ponytailed updo in the back. Where’s the individual expression, the celebration of uniqueness?
When the women were allowed to speak to Oprah Winfrey earlier this year, the talk-show hostess asked them about those dresses and the hairstyle. The women said they took great pains to be different, whether it was in the colors of the dresses (all in a chaste, pastel palette) or small differences in the dresses’ detailing.
In some small way, they’d found a way to assert some creativity, they felt.
Ditto for the burqa-covered woman my husband and I observed at a mall. Her feet were exposed in strappy sandals and her toes were polished.
Black classified the aforementioned expressions as “the feminine factor.” “No matter what we’ve been given to work with, we find something.”
Scott agreed.
“We’re beautiful and we’re wonderfully made,” she said. “If we see ourselves the way God sees us, then we can love God, ourselves and others. And I don’t think that’s misplaced affection but an extension of how God made us and the aesthetic.
“I refuse to let the slanting of the opinions of a few cause us to diminish or to play down who we are.”
Amen. And it’s time for me to get my braids back, too.
Jamesetta M. Walker,
(757) 446-2211, jamesetta.walker@
pilotonline.com
