{"id":421,"date":"2016-02-29T15:49:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T15:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/investigating-fashions-infamous-faux-pas-white-after-labour-day\/"},"modified":"2019-06-13T06:57:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T06:57:26","slug":"investigating-fashions-infamous-faux-pas-white-after-labour-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/investigating-fashions-infamous-faux-pas-white-after-labour-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating Fashion’s Infamous Faux-Pas: White After Labour Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, tradition; that wonderful list of rules we follow not for any particular reason, but simply because things have always been done that way. The \u2018no wearing white before Labour Day\u2019 rule is one of those traditions many of us follow blindly…though we\u2019re not quite sure why. At <\/span>Simply Laundry<\/span><\/a>, we\u2019re interested in everything clothes-related and just had to know – why is it a fashion faux-pas to wear white after Labour Day?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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If you thought this tradition was rooted in logical reasoning, such as white being a much more comfortable colour to wear in summer rather than winter as it repels sunlight, you think much like us; however, much like us, you would be wrong. While we weren\u2019t able to find one definitive answer on exactly how this fashion etiquette rule came to be, the suggested origins seem to be based more on popular opinion rather than any logical or practical reasoning.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The first, and most salacious, explanation we came across comes from <\/span>MentalFloss.com<\/span><\/a> and postulates that you can\u2019t wear white after Labour Day because a couple rich \u2018mean girls\u2019 decided that they didn\u2019t want to associate with \u2018new money\u2019 over 100 years ago. As the story goes, at the turn of the 20th century, social landscapes were changing. \u2018Old money\u2019 (families that passed on their wealth through inheritance) were being rapidly replaced by the relatively new phenomena of \u2018new money\u2019 (families that had only recently become wealthy, usually through successful business ventures). The \u2018old money\u2019 ladies of high society had no interest in including the \u2018new money\u2019 women in their social circles and so, to prevent infiltration, concocted a set of fashion rules that only those \u2018in the know\u2019 were aware of. As such, any woman who showed up to an event and broke one of these rules was immediately identified as \u2018new money\u2019 and cast aside by the \u2018old money\u2019 socialites. Rumour has it that the \u2018no white after Labour Day\u2019 rule was one such guideline meant to weed out unwanteds from high society functions. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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We thought that sounded a little far-fetched, as did Judith Martin (etiquette columnist Miss Manners), who told <\/span>Time Magazine<\/span><\/a> that \u201cThere are always people who want to attribute everything in etiquette to snobbery…There were many little rules that people did dream up in order to annoy those from whom they wished to disassociate themselves. But I do not believe this is one of them.\u201d So if it wasn\u2019t societal snobbery, what does Time attribute the etiquette rule to? <\/span>Time<\/span><\/a> supplies several possible origins for the fashion guideline with the most plausible tying in to Labour Day itself. In the early 20th century, there was a distinct contrast between workwear and leisure wear. While America\u2019s well-to-do would spend their summers in light-coloured, resort-type wear, once they returned back to work after Labour Day, the drab, dark wardrobe colours would once again return. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Whatever the true origin of the \u2018no white clothing after Labour Day\u2019 rule, the question remains – why is it still relevant today? In today\u2019s society, \u2018new money,\u2019 i.e. those who worked hard to earn it, is infinitely more respected than those who inherited their fortunes, so social snobbery really has no place in fashion etiquette anymore. Also, summer is no longer the only time North Americans can enjoy hot weather – a warm, sunny vacation at a southern locale is only a plane ride and a couple hours away – making winter one of the most sought-after vacation seasons. That means the turn of the century distinction between resort-time wear and work-time wear also no longer applies. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Here is our conclusion: The \u2018no white after Labour Day\u2019 rule is outdated and no longer applicable to modern fashion. We suggest you wear white all year round! To ensure your whites look their brightest no matter what the season, send them to <\/span>Simply Laundry<\/span><\/a> for <\/span>professional laundering and dry cleaning<\/span><\/a>. Whether it be a stunning white evening gown or simply your favourite white t-shirt, we\u2019ll take the utmost care of your garments and return them to you cleaned to the standards that only a professional touch can bring. To get your whites their whitest and brightest, <\/span>sign-up for Simply Laundry<\/span><\/a>\u2019s fast, convenient, and affordable laundry and dry cleaning delivery service right here in Toronto.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, tradition; that wonderful list of rules we follow not for any particular reason, but simply because things have always been done that way. The \u2018no wearing white before Labour Day\u2019 rule is one of those traditions many of us follow blindly…though we\u2019re not quite sure why. At Simply Laundry, we\u2019re interested in everything clothes-related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,61,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dry-cleaning-delivery-toronto","category-laundry-delivery-toronto","category-wash-and-fold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simply-laundry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}