The Unwritten Rule

The last thing I did before leaving for a chiropractor appointment this morning was to grab a pair of comfortable white sandals and put them on. In the treatment room the doctor noticed the color of my shoes and asked if I was trying to get extra use out of them before the unofficial end of summer this weekend.

That led to a conversation about the fashion rule about not wearing white after Labor Day in the United States and where it started. By this time his assistant had entered the room, but none of us had an answer to the question. I decided to come home and ask my friend Google if it did. I learned that there was no definitive answer, but several sources provided parts of one.

The Farmer's Almanac had a couple of thoughts. The first was that lightweight fabrics like cotton and linen are neutral-colored in their natural state, and reflect light, so they were cooler in summer heat. Another was that wealthy people were able to vacation in places were light, breezy clothes were appropriate (and have the means to have a second wardrobe when things cooled off). The ability to box up white clothes turned into a sign of sophistication.

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Vogue added that those wealthy people had the means to leave the city for ocean or lakeside locations in the summer. In the early 19th century "uniforms" for popular sports like tennis were always white because it hid sweat. It also did not hide dirt, so wearing white was a way of showing you didn't need to do manual labor. When the weather cooled off and the privileged returned to their cities the dirt streets they had to walk on would quickly soil white clothes, and by the time the streets were paved the habit of putting the white away was ingrained.

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The folks at Southern Living pointed out that if white clothes are a sign of summer, and Labor Day signaled the end of the season it made sense to put them away and start wearing something more practical.