I couldn’t find anything in the columns about this, even though it seems I should have. I would think it’s a very common question.
Why do house painters usually wear white clothes and hats?
Just a guess: white and light clothing reflect the sun’s rays rather than absorbing them so they would stay cooler in white or light clothing.
So they don’t leave dark fibres from wooly clothes, and dark smudges from dyes on freshly painted clean walls?
Painters wear white because they usually get paint all over thier uniforms. The paint is less obvious on a white uniform then it would be on a uniform of a different color. Assuming of course that they don’t paint many things in dark colors. Most houses/interiors are lighter colors.
There’s also the issue of cleaning. Anything that can bleach out paint would pretty much destroy any kind of dye the clothes could be colored with.
So why is this painter dressed in black? huh? huh?
That is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for posting it.
Because the majority of the time painters are working with white paint, and because other materials (primer, plaster, etc.) painters work with are also white. I didn’t find a column about this in the archives, so I must have gotten it from the Imponderables guy*.
[sup]*I swear I never bought any of his books. I read them at the library–I didn’t even check them out![/sup]
the cloths they use to protect the floors are also white 
Well, Because he is an ARTIST, not a PAINTER. (he’s also a painting himself, so he’s an artist’s model, chosen for his looks.)