White After Labor Day?

It’s Labor Day and a lot of women will be packing away their summer clothes and pulling out their fall/winter clothes…and some will even include (in packing away) anything white, still thinking it’s a “no-no” to wear it after Labor Day. But wait, you CAN still wear white!

Have you ever wondered how or why that fashion “rule” came about?

According to a Time 2009 article, there are several theories as to why this became a fashion standard:

• Women not wanting white clothes to get dirty in the rain/snow/mud of the fall and winter months?
• Upper class snobbery?
• The fact that wearing white in the summer was a way to stay cool, and then darker clothing was a way to stay warm in the cooler temperatures (white reflects heat, black absorbs heat)?
• Because Labor Day has come to be celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of summer, Labor Day came to be the fashion cut-off date for wearing white?

In recent years, fashion magazines, designers and stylists have come out and said, “Yes, you CAN wear white“, (it seems silly to me now, thinking about the years I didn’t wear white because it was some “rule”). “They” do suggest you wear it in the “proper” materials though, which I think applies to any color actually. If it’s cold and snowing outside, you’re not going to wear a white, thin-cotton sleeveless top by itself, but then again, you wouldn’t wear that same thin tank in purple or green either. It just makes sense that linens and light cottons are worn more in the summer and heavy cottons, wool, corduroy and cashmere are better suited for the colder months. And white denim and leather can be worn year round.

Now I personally wouldn’t wear white pumps in the winter but then again, I wouldn’t wear them in the summer either…I just don’t like most white pumps or how they look on me. But that’s just me. And even my white tanks or camisoles or sleeveless blouses don’t get packed away because I wear them layered in the winter.

I think Jackie Kennedy Onassis was one of the most fashionably dressed woman ever and I’ve seen pictures of her wearing (in the winter), white jeans paired with a black turtleneck, animal-print ballet flats with a cuff bracelet or pendant necklace and she looks fabulous!

So as you contemplate your fall/winter wardrobe, remember….you don’t HAVE to pack away those whites!