Labor Day: Why can’t you wear white for the next few months

Labor Day has come and gone and with it the last vestiges of summer, including wearing white clothing.

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But why shouldn’t we wear white after Labor Day?

There are a couple of theories as to why the fashion rule was adopted.

The Farmers’ Almanac said it was practical because of the weather. When it was hot in the summer, white clothing and lighter fabric helped people be cool. When the temperatures started to chill, heavier, darker clothing was used.

Then, the color of white became a status symbol. In the 1900s, rich people wore lightweight, light-colored clothing. Linen suits and light flowy dresses showed people you could afford an end-of-summer vacation, but wearing those clothes after the season ended was considered showing off, the Almanac said.

“White, while perfect for the country, it is, because it soils so easily, impossible for town wear,” Vogue wrote in 1925, according to Buzz Feed .

Not only were white clothes a way to keep cool, but they also kept the upper class visually separated from the lower class since white clothing was so difficult to keep clean. It was a representation that they had people to do the dirty work for them, Buzz Feed surmised.

But there are always people who will challenge the social norms.

This time it was Coco Chanel who introduced a line of white clothing in the 1920s, Time reported. American Vogue , which had said white should be for the country, also rolled out the idea of “winter whites” around the same time as Chanel.

While more and more people didn’t care what the calendar said when it came to wearing white, the social norm eventually evolved into a “no white shoes after Labor Day,” Buzz Feed reported.

So when can white clothing (and shoes) be dusted off once again?

If you really care about the old rules, then circle Memorial Day on the calendar. That’s when the old-time fashion rule says white can make a reemergence, USA Today reported.