Pastor, community leader, college dean is also fashion expert

Dr. Richard Price designs his suits, waistcoats and hats, as part of his ministry

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A Tupelo pastor known for his involvement in the community, advocacy for civil rights, and work in higher education is also known for his personal style.

Whether he’s in the pulpit, or in the chapel at Virginia Union University, Dr. Richard Price is always stylish.

Dr. Price came to the North Green Street Church of Christ seven years ago as Senior Minister and he was recently named Dean of Chapel at VUU, an HBCU in Richmond, Virginia.

He has had an interest in fashion since his graduate school days when he worked for a made-to-tailor suit business in New York. That interest never wavered and several years ago he re-connected with the factory for the custom suit business.

Now, he designs his suits, waistcoats, shirts, and hats, and has them custom-made.

“People look at what you wear and when the factory said you can continue to do it became my passion and my therapy, a lot of people who work in the human services field, with people, they find something to do, some people golf, and for me its textiles, putting my hands on some fabric, switching up something, and it was important to me,” Dr. Price said.

Dr. Price can also help others get a custom shirt or suit, but he doesn’t view the “Richard Price Collection” as a business. Instead, he sees it as a way to remember a season of his life.

“When you see the clothes I wear, it personifies a journey, and to me, it was a way to celebrate that time period, where God allowed me to go into suiting and my New York day, and young days before I was married, really a celebration of the journey of life,” he said.

And while Minister Price said fashion allows people to express their individualism, he also said there are boundaries, and often uses those boundaries as teaching tools for young people.

“One of my favorite ethics of the Bible is, I don’t belong to myself. This is the temple of God and I ought to present myself as a living sacrifice. That means sometimes I want to wear something like this but it’s not the appropriate thing for the occasion. If I’m going to glorify God, represent the congregation, the students, I want to make sure I’m in compliance, our young people hear that a lot. It agitates them because it means you can’t do what you want to do,” Dr. Price said.

Wherever his travels take him, Dr. Price said he looks forward to preaching, teaching, and showing how a person’s sense of fashion can point others to the God who made it all possible.

And Dr. Price is on all social media platforms and is always ready to help other men with their fashion needs.

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