Yes or No to White After Labor Day

With the change of season comes more vibrant colors gracing the department stores. Although I wear white year round, for those that only wear white after Easter and before Labor Day, can now start back wearing white. If your wondering how this silly begin, I will enlighten you.

The wives of the super-rich ruled high society with an iron fist after the Civil War. As more and more people became millionaires, though, it was difficult to tell the difference between respectable old money families and those who only had vulgar new money (Kathy Benjamin).

In the 1880s, in order to tell who was acceptable and who wasn’t, the women who were already “in” felt it necessary to create dozens of fashion rules that everyone in the know had to follow. That way, if a woman showed up at the opera in a dress that cost more than most Americans made in a year, but it had the wrong sleeve length, other women would know not to give her the time of day.

Not wearing white outside the summer months was one of these silly rules. White was for weddings and resort wear, not dinner parties in the fall. Of course it could get extremely hot in September, and wearing white might make the most sense, but if you wanted to be appropriately attired you just did not do it. Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, and society eventually adopted it as the natural endpoint for summer fashion.

Ok so, a lot of the fashion industry does not follow that “rule” including Chanel and me. So for this look, I chose a pair of high waisted sailor pants and paired it with a beautiful yellow flowy bubbly sleeves polka dot blouse. The top is vibrant golden yellow with big white polkadots. This is a great look for the office. I completed the look with a pair of golden yellow sandals and an arc handbag.