Anyone know the whole story about why you’re not supposed to wear white (I always heard shoes or pants) after Labor Day?
Thanks,
Piesh
The Maytag Monster celebrates the passing of summer by leaving a new red sock in every washing machine on Labor Day. Wear (and then wash) whites at your peril.
Just kidding…
As far as anyone seems to know, it’s just because white is considered a “summer” color, and Labor Day is the traditional end of summer. It’s much like “Don’t wear red and green together except at Christmastime, or people will think you’re an elf.”
Happily, fashions change, and white belts and shoes are pretty much completely out of fashion at any time of year around here.
I always wondered how long white was banned for at that point. Less than 364 days, presumably? There’s no folksy saying how it’s fine to wear white again after Easter or anything.
Easter is exactly when I’ve always heard it’s okay to wear white again.
Hence all the white shoes and hats and stuff.
Back in the day . . .
. . . the post WWII fashion police used to dictate how long hair should be, how long sleeves should be and most important, hemlines. A change of 1/2 inch was front page news.
Thankfully, after the Beatles showed up in the US with hair over their ears and the cultural revolution of the Vietnam era, the general populace sort of started to think, “Who are these Nazis that are dictating every thing about how we dress.”
So, in a few words, white after Labor Day don’t mean shit to anybody with a functioning mind. There are much more significant issues to deal with.
The “white after Labor Day” originally referred to men’s pants (white shirts were wore by men all year around) and shoes (men’s and women’s). It was considered a summer color, with summer was defined as between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
It later was somewhat generalized to all clothes.
Chuck’s correct about the time frame being Memorial day to Labor day.
But, Chuck, I’d love to see a cite(historic) that it originally referred to men’s pants.
I can find a Google books hit for 1943, Max Schulman. It was shoes in that hit.
I found a reference to the naval “summer uniform” (whites) established in 1817 by the first-ever uniform regulations issued by then-Secretary of the Navy Benjamin W. Crowninshield. This seems a plausible origin for the tradition because the sailors who wore the uniform would treat the wear dates as dogma. If civilians were emulating the military men of the day, they would look foolish if they showed up wearing summer white the day after everyone switched over.
Around here it’s so the motorists don’t hit pedestrians in the freak snow storms of September.
Together, known as the “full Cleveland.”
White pants on guys? I remember wearing white belts…much to my shame. Ok, THE 70s sucked in fashion, I admit it.
Whatever its origin, the Labor Day rule has perennially met with resistance from high-fashion quarters. As far back as the 1920s, Coco Chanel made white a year-round staple. “It was a permanent part of her wardrobe,” says Bronwyn Cosgrave, author of The Complete History of Costume & Fashion: From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. The trend is embraced with equal vigor by today’s fashion élites, Cosgrave notes — from Marion Cotillard accepting her 2008 Academy Award in a mermaid-inspired cream dress to Michelle Obama dancing the inaugural balls away in a snowy floor-length gown. Fashion rules are meant to be broken by those who can pull it off, notes Cosgrave, and white “looks really fresh when people aren’t expecting it.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1920684,00.html#ixzz2aLlKZoB9