Skip to content
Million Whys
In Gilded Age cities, why did a clean white outfit mark the wearer as someone who did not do manual labor?
White stood for moral purity and cleanliness, not for whether the wearer did manual labor
White shows every speck of dirt and sweat, so keeping it clean required avoiding messy work
White cloth was cheap and easy to bleach, so it was practical workwear for laborers
