NYFW has resolved my obtuse commitment to wearing white from head to toe

Even when it doesn't exactly suit my life stage (or maybe especially when). 

Even when it doesn't exactly suit my life stage (or maybe especially when).

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I don’t know how you do it, a friend said to me recently. Alas, it was not in reference to my ability to seamlessly balance parenting two small children and working (here’s the truth, nobody has it figured out!). Instead she meant the way I insist on wearing a wardrobe palette of mostly white. Crisp white shirts, oatmeal trousers, an array of what might appear to be identical shirt dresses but are actually extremely different. My style icons include Diane Keaton walking along the sand wearing layers of off-white in the genre of movie where older women find a new lease on life, Lee Radziwill in a specific pair of white jeans and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy wearing anything. But especially the times she wore a white shirt and changed the way we think about black tie dressing.

Diane Keaton, sweater icon, in Something's Gotta Give. Image credit: Colombia Pictures

Obviously this preferred colour palette is not particularly well suited to the stage of motherhood when your children consider you to be their human napkin/tissue/receptacle of everything they no longer feel like holding. I’m in the rocks in all pockets of my blazers phase thanks to my three-year-old son. My five year-old has no concept of personal space. “I want to put glue on you so you have to stick next to me and come to school with me,” she said to me, really quite poignantly, on the weekend. Someone is always on me, wrinkling my shirts, leaving a smear of jam (I think?).

But what price is feeling like yourself when your identity has been rearranged and put back together again? Who wouldn’t want to wear a crisp white shirt when it feels like everything else is patched together with sticky tape and the faint trace of the village we were promised?

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Image credit: Getty Images

Yes, sometimes it is a Gladiator style obstacle challenge to get out of the door before work. Definitely, I spend too much time hand washing. I have an emotional support Tide pen. But call it selective sartorialism, or maybe it’s the equivalent of hanging onto elements of my pre-children life that don’t quite fit like eating dinner at 8pm or ‘spontaneity’, it feels essential. 

Anyway, the shows at this year’s New York Fashion Week have proven my point that white (including after Labor Day in the US, once the ultimate non no!) is the (non) colour of the season. 

Tory Burch spring/summer '24. Image credit: Go Runway

High on my wish list are the sharp blazers at Proenza Schouler, which looked as perfect with relaxed black trousers as they did stonewash jeans. Ukrainian label Bevza had a slew of white shirting and I loved the polish of this blazer in the Tory Burch show. Wouldn't you just have the best summer of your life in this gauzy shell dress from FForme?

Proenza Schouler spring/summer '24. Image credit: courtesy Proenza Schouler

Here’s the thing about wearing white, it’s more a feeling than anything. Of being a little more polished than perhaps you feel, or a little more carefree and holiday than your stress levels would suggest. Yes, it’s laced with the fraught sense that you could be undone by a misfired cherry tomato but living life on the edge comes with its rewards too.

For me, a pale colour palette is the equivalent of armour —protection against the vagaries of life, if not the associated smears of my children.

Below, four pieces to add to cart if you too like living life on the edge. Approach red wine at your own peril!

I own a pair of jeans from Matches Fashion's in-house brand Raey and I always get compliments. 

SHOP NOW: Raey white drop baggy jeans, $370 from Matches Fashion

The shape of these shirts is super flattering. 

SHOP NOW: LMND The Chiara Shirt, $159 from LMND

The chic easy breeziness of this dress from Elka Collective!

SHOP NOW: Elka Collective Mariana dress, $289 from Elka Collective

A sharp blazer that still has some slouch is a wardrobe essential and will work with just about everything. 

SHOP NOW: Sir. Clemence blazer, $560 from Sir.

Originally published as NYFW has resolved my obtuse commitment to wearing white from head to toe