Danielle White and Robes of Faith
Danielle White has announced she wishes to retire from Robes of Faith. She has been designing robes for the AME Church and organizations for over 30 years. Along the way, she has acquired many friends and traveled over 900,000 miles across the country and seas with her late husband Henri.
The Whites received their big break in the “church clothes” industry in 1992. Having presented their unique robe designs at several AME Church conventions, Bishop Richard Allen Chappelle, the then-president of the Council of Bishops, called on the couple to design and produce a robe for the bishops.
After Danielle drew up several designs, the bishops picked the one that would become known as the “Unity Robe,” now one of the most iconic AME Church robes befit for a spiritual leader. “When I put on that robe, it was made clear to me at that moment the responsibility that comes with wearing the robe,” said Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry, who was voted in and consecrated as a bishop in 2004. “It’s not just your little congregation. Now you have an impact on the much wider area of the church. That was my first realization,” she added. More than 20 years after its debut, the Unity Robe is still one of the official robes for the church’s bishops.
Upon procuring his Unity Robe following his election in 2012, Bishop Clement Fugh reflected, “As a demonstration of how intricately Mrs. White is woven into the fabric of African Methodism, when I was aspiring to Episcopal Service, she informed me that she didn’t take orders for bishop’s robes. She had a ‘feeling’ about who would be elected so she brought the appropriate sizes with her when she came to the General Conference. Sure enough, after my election, I went to Mrs. White’s booth. She handed me a robe, told me to try it on—and that it only needed minor alterations.”
That successful design helped the Whites launch Robes of Faith—an official designer of AME Church robes, apparel, and paraments. Over the years, the company has designed and produced robes for bishops and other clergy, stoles, paraments sets, and even fabric, helping the AME Church become one of the first protestant denominations to have a uniform look across the church.
Robes of Faith has been a constant presence at AME Church conferences for almost 30 years. Danielle is ready to step down and sell the operation to someone who wants to continue this “divine” business.
“One of the most important things is that the church makes you feel good,” White said. “There has never been a situation that I did not feel good about coming to a conference because I knew I was coming to see friends. It was more than a business situation.”
The story of Robes of Faith began when the Whites were married in 1988. At the time, he was a retired gemologist and she was a Fashion Institute of Technology-trained clothes designer working out of her home in New Rochelle, New York. She had been making clothes since she was eight-years-old, having been initially taught by her mother and grandmother. So when it came to the business of designing and selling robes, White says it was a match made in heaven. “He was the person who made the business go and I was the one who did the designing,” White said. “So it was a perfect match in terms of who did what and how did we get along,” she commented.
The match was so perfect that the Whites started traveling around the country displaying robes. In 1996, when the AME Church celebrated 100 years of its presence in South Africa, several districts sent delegations there to celebrate. Danielle saw an opportunity to design an African-influenced clergy robe. “I wanted a robe that reflected the African sense of design, the boubou and the grand boubou and the dashikis and all of that,” White said. “So I created a robe that was loose and it gave you plenty of air because the robe was not tight anywhere, and it gave a feeling of praise when you wore the robe,” she explained.
That robe, eventually worn by hundreds or thousands of clergy members, became known as the “AME Robe.” “So now whenever anybody saw somebody in that robe, they knew that was an AME robe and other denominations would ask for the AME Robe,” she said.
Danielle returned from Africa inspired to design fabrics that told the story of black people. From that time in 1996, she started designing fabrics for the Women’s Missionary Society, YPD, and Lay Organization.
She endured her biggest heartbreak and challenge in 2006, when she lost her husband in a car accident. She had so many premonitions that her husband would die by being hurt in the chest that she asked her pastor to renew their vows that year. On the first Sunday of that year, she and her husband renewed their vows in South Carolina in front of a full church.
Robes of Faith has survived for the last 14 years through White’s determination. “Yes, it survived, but it was a challenge,” she said. “No matter what I do, when I turn around, those two weeks are coming up and the rent has to be paid, and the payroll has to be paid, and the people that print the fabric have to be paid. We still continue to be successful with the Lord’s help,” she continued.
Danielle also has to manage the new expectations of younger ministers, many of them women, who prefer a slimmer look, as opposed to the flowing robes. A new stylist for Robes of Faith would consider that.
As White prepares to retire, she says, “I have met amazing people in this journey, and I hope to meet many more. I am proud to be an AME.”
