Getting dressed this morning, I pulled out a pair of white shorts and was picking out a top to match them when I realized what I had done.
Yesterday was Labor Day. No one is supposed to wear white after labor day- white shorts, white jeans, white tops- anything. I knew I hadn’t worn the shorts to school in a few weeks and really wanted to wear them, but there was no way I was going to come to school in white shorts the day after Labor Day.
Then I began to wonder why white wasn’t allowed to be worn after Labor Day?
Common sense told that white was a summer color, and that it obviously shouldn’t be worn in September, but I wondered if there was a more historical reason to the trend.
Wealthy Americans in the early twentieth century would vacation to the south during the summer to escape their cold city climates. On these vacations, they wore white to symbolize their wealth but also to keep cool in the hotter states. They would return back home after Labor Day, and their white clothes would go back into their well adorned closets, hence, no one wore white after Labor Day.
So I decided to hibernate my white attire for the winter and follow the custom of no white after Labor Day, looking forward to the day when I can wear them again next year.