Fitting Debate: White Before Memorial Day?

By: LL
If you are like me, you were ingrained with the notion that to wear white, it had to be between Memorial Day and Labor Day...unless, of course, your wedding falls outside that time frame! However, one of my proper Southern belle friends told me that she had always been told that the rule was no white prior to Easter - and no patent leather until after Easter (had never heard that one before). She also grew up adhering to the age-old rule that your shoe color also had to match your handbag.

With multiple rules and different perspectives about when to wear white, it shows just how arbitrary these rules are.

As the climate becomes warmer, and we are hitting the 70s and 80s weeks before the Easter or Memorial Day holidays, why can't we wear white earlier? And, I don't feel that I am alone on this feeling.

As I perused my normal list of style blogs and fashion magazines (including Glamour, InStyle), I picked up a few tips about wearing white prior to the arbitrarily set date.

1. Make sure that the white piece is weather appropriate - white jeans over white shorts.
2. Pick white fabrics that are not summer fabrics. In other words, avoid linens or gauzy fabrics that should be saved for July and August.
3. Pair the whites with darker pieces - not too many pastels. A white blazer would look good with a pair of dark denim and a black blouse.
4. Don't wear multiple white pieces together. If you are wearing white pants, do not wear your white shoes.

This is definitely a fitting debate...as is when to wear seer-sucker. But, does fashion ever really follow rules? Aren't rules meant to be broken?

Here are a few celebrities that rock white pieces year -round (note: most of these photos were taken of the celebs outside of the Memorial Day to Labor Day window.

{White Blazers}

{White Skinny Jeans}