Episode 469 - Let's Celebrate
Your Awesome Etiquette podcast episode for the week, bonus question, Monday joke and a Labor Day holiday extra
On today’s show we take your questions on graduation announcements, an out of state over-think for a bridal shower, talking sports at work, and adult children who just want to celebrate their parent’s 50th anniversary darn-it! For Awesome Etiquette Community members, our question of the week explores how hosts make decisions about sleeping arrangements for house-guests. Plus your most excellent feedback, etiquette salute and a postscript on Wearing White After Labor Day.
Etiquette Extra - Labor Day Transition
We hope that the long Labor Day weekend was a chance for you unwind in the ways you like best and begin a transition to fall. In case you only read the Monday post (and we know there are a few of you) here is a link and excerpt from the emilypost.com webpage on wearing white after Labor Day.
The Tradition from The Early 1900's
Back in Emily's day—the nineteen 00s, 10s and 20s—the summer season was bracketed by Memorial Day and Labor Day. Society flocked en masse from town house to seaside "cottage" or mountain "cabin" to escape the heat. City clothes were left behind in exchange for lighter, whiter, summer outfits. Come fall and the return to the city, summer clothes were put away and more formal city clothes donned once more. It was an age when there was a dress code for practically every occasion, and the signal to mark the change between summer resort clothes and clothing worn for the rest of the year was encapsulated in the dictum "No white after Labor Day." And it stuck.
How We Wear White Today
Of course you can wear white after Labor Day, and it makes perfect sense to do so in climates where September's temperatures are hardly fall-like. It's more about fabric choice today than color. Even in the dead of winter in northern New England the fashionable wear white wools, cashmeres, jeans, and down-filled parkas. The true interpretation is "wear what's appropriate—for the weather, the season, or the occasion."
As always, your questions, comments, feedback, and salutes fuel this show so please don’t hesitate to join in. This Monday podcast post comment thread is open to all! Next up is the Thursday Etiquette Throwback article.
All the best,
Dan and Lizzie
Help us reach 40,000 copies sold in our first year! Emily Post’s Etiquette - The Centennial Edition is available through Bridgeside Books in Waterbury, Vermont.
Happy Monday - Dad Joke from Dan
Q: "I like telling Dad jokes."
A: "Sometimes he laughs!"
Thank you I was just wondering what the current rules are for wearing white after Labor Day!