Labor Day is today! We not only honor laboring Americans and recommit to treating all our fellow citizens respectfully, but we also mark the official end of the summer season*. And etiquette aficionados seem to enjoy nothing more than to mark it with another annual discussion about White Shoes After Labor Day.
The Emily Post Institute**, descendants of the grandmother of all American etiquette writers Emily Post Herself, have declared that the old rule is over and done with. They suggest that the new rule better interprets the spirit of the original — dress for where you are and what happens there — and note sensibly that today clothing decisions are more about fabric than color.
But then here comes Judith Martin, the redoubtable Miss Manners*** Herself, stoutly defending the tradition while noting that it makes no sense, and even reminding us about other Rules of Proper Dress almost no one remembers. Now that Etiquetteer knows that drop earrings aren’t worn during the day, it’s rather tempting to find some chandelier earrings to wear with black tie . . .
So who is Etiquetteer going to side with on this Burning Issue of Perfect Propriety, Team Post or Team Martin? The sensibility of the Post position is unassailable, of course, and it would really be foolish to contradict it. And it’s what most people do anyway. But Etiquetteer has to side with Miss Manners on this one. Putting away the white shoes on Labor Day is as charming an anachronism to Etiquetteer as standing for the Hallelujah Chorus when Handel’s Messiah is performed at Christmas.
So this evening, after the white bucks have been treed, bagged, and shelved for the winter, Etiquetteer will season a gin and tonic with the salt of one little tear, shed happily over a Meaningful Tradition of Gracious Living. What you do with yours is your own affair, of course, but Etiquetteer will know just what to think if you’re caught in them after today.
Seriously, whatever you do with your white shoes today, have a Perfectly Proper Labor Day and a Perfectly Proper Equinox When It Arrives.
*The actual end of summer is, of course, the autumnal equinox, which in 2020 is on September 22.
**If you aren’t listening to their podcast Awesome Etiquette, you’re missing out.
***If you aren’t keeping up with Miss Manners online, you’re missing out.