Today is Labor Day after which, according to long established custom, women do not wear white. White shoes, purses, dresses and hats are put away until Memorial Day. I have read two theories about how this fashion rule came about. It may have begun as an elitist fashion statement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries established by people who could afford to buy a variety of clothing, or it may simply have evolved from the natural practice of wearing darker heavier clothes as the weather gets cooler. I suspect that the first reason is the more accurate one.
These days, of course, no one feels obligated to follow such silly outdated fashion guidelines. Interestingly, yesterday during coffee hour after church several of us ladies of a certain age got into a discussion about not wearing white after Labor Day. We all agreed that it was a silly rule that doesn't need to be followed.
But old habits are hard to break. I know it's silly, but I also know that next Sunday I won't be wearing white to church. I will be curious to see how many others in my age group are not wearing white.
But, while some habits are hard to break, many things have changed in my church wardrobe since my youth. I almost always wear pants to church instead of a skirt, I do not wear gloves or a hat except in cold weather and I don't carry a lace edged handkerchief in my purse.
What I do carry in my purse is my phone. Wow, how times have changed.
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