April 5, 2005
Fashion Alert: White Shoes?
Someone, somewhere, unbeknownst to DCist, issued a memo to the women of D.C. stating that now is the time to start wearing their white shoes. Please disregard this memo, it contains misleading and malicious information.
Yes, we know that this is the 21st century and most people think that fashion rules are antiquated. But really, some rules are there for our own good, and this rule helps make fashion a bit more fun. Like when you give up candy for Lent and the bunny then leaves you a basketful on Easter Day. Those pieces of candy are all the better since you have been away from them for a while. Such is the same with certain fashion ... like white shoes. Too much of a good thing you know.
But since we are discussing "good things" let look at this matter of white shoes. Wearing them in the spring generally means that it is too chilly to wear a sandal, which makes you resort to a pump. Have you seen a foot in a white pump? Tiny size sixes look like whaling ships. This is never good for a foot. White should be reserved for something less foot encompassing like a strappy sandal. Hints of white over the nude of your foot (please leave the stockings off with open toes). And never, we repeat, NEVER, wear a white flat. You might as well strap a snow board to each foot.(If you are a nurse, just go with a sneaker. A white flat dresses nothing up. Comfort is the key for you, not style.)
Now us being "modern" and all, we are willing to compromise. White shoes after May 1, OK? That's less than a month away! And if for some reason in the next few weeks you find someone taking a sly photo of your white-pump encased foot and then it just "happens" to show up here, don't say we didn't warn you.
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What about linen? Is it okay after Easter, or do I have to wait until Memorial day?
I recommend keeping your light-colored linens for after Memorial Day. Simply to help summer be summer. Haul out your darker colored linens (blacks, browns, blues, etc.) for the warmer spring days in May.
The whole concept of seasonal appropriate clothing is more to enhance the season. I am not sure what the people who were wandering around in shorts and tank tops are going to do when it hits 95 degrees with 100% humidity. They better not go naked, that's just scary.
this advice is wrong wrong wrong! the only fashion rule is: there are no rules.
Yup, Yup, Yup! I busted out the cute mules and such last week....70-80 degree weather defies any calendar date, indeed! But white pumps are hideous, that much I do agree with...:)
A wardrobe consultant was interviewed in an Examiner article last Wednesday on the disappearing rules in fashion (no more do we worry about no white before Labor Day or purse matching your shoes) Her take:
"Anything goes these days," said Suzanne Libraind, of Wardrobe Consulting, a personal shopping business in Raleigh. "People are more tolerant and accepting, I think because of the war, people are trying to be less judgmental and more supportive."
The war?! Wha...
I shudder to think at the "I have two tissue boxes on my feet" effect one would get by wearing white super pointy-toed shoes.
DC, in spite of being the political center of the world, remains a southern town, and it's a southern tradition, like in my hometown of Charleston SC, to start wearing your whites after Easter. By then the lighting is perfect and the weather appropriate to start sporting your whites! This includes linens, shoes, purses, etc.
Now if you are in the NE, the weather remains much to cool thru April and much of May for you to wear your lighter wardrobe so the rule of not wearing your whites until after Memorial Day is more appropriate there.
I know we live in a modern age wherein fashion's rules are broken but sometimes the rules are there because they make perfectly good sense!
There aren't really any hard and fast rules. The white shoe rule is for your general health and well being, like wearing horizontal stripes on your rear end. Most fashion rules that should actually stick around involve not displaying of ones butt cheeks in public, dressing according to your shape and size, and knowing that such things as white shoes are better left for the hotter months when less on the foot is better.
ooooh i completely disagree. and i'm going wear WHITE FLATS at the next dcist happy hour just to prove it!
Seriously, don't wear white. Don't you all realize that we have troops in harm's way? Support the troops! Wear your ribbons, not white shoes.