{"id":3118,"date":"2026-01-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=3118"},"modified":"2026-01-27T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:00:00","slug":"why-fashion-is-falling-back-in-love-with-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/?p=3118","title":{"rendered":"Why Fashion Is Falling Back in Love With White"},"content":{"rendered":"

From office dressing to the latest Dior and Chanel runways, white has re-emerged as fashion\u2019s quiet power move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dior's<\/div>\n

It was only when I arrived in the office for the first time after the festive break, and found my all-white ensemble being commented upon by everyone who saw me, that I took stock of why that was what I had put on that morning. I thought about it even more when I met another fashion professional later in the day, also in head-to-toe achromatics. How we laughed. But also felt rather pleased with ourselves.<\/p>\n

My undyed Balla crewneck in five-gauge lambswool from the wonderful Scottish knitwear operation & Daughter (\u00a3395 \/ approx. $530, anddaughter.com<\/a>); my ancient cream wool Joseph trousers with the outsize covered buttons that look more like Milkybar buttons; my remarkably still-snowy-looking ankle boots from another exceptional small British label, Dear Frances; my box-fresh small white Prada Arqu\u00e9 bag (\u00a32,150 \/ approx. $2,889, prada.com<\/a>) \u2026 Together, they added up to, for me, a cross between a clean slate, a pep talk and \u2013 if I am honest \u2013 a not-so-humble brag. That\u2019s the power of clothes, right there.<\/p>\n

\"chanel
White was the color of new beginnings for Chanel spring\/summer 26 \u00a9Spotlight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a day when it felt like a struggle to get up on time, never mind to go anywhere or do anything, and to look fabulous while doing so, what my garb successfully communicated was that kind of togetherness, effortlessness even, that makes the wearer look \u2013 and there is no other way to put this \u2013 superior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s largely because an outfit of white and\/or cream betokens a life that circumvents the quotidian; a life in which everything from commercial flights to coffee stains just don\u2019t (praise be) penetrate. Yet there may well be something more atavistic to it, something more profound. White is, after all, the (non) colour worn by a pretty remarkable and age-old line up, from brides to angels, nurses to the Pope. And then there are the famous individual white-wearers, including, and in no particular order, Gandhi, Mark Twain, and Elvis.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two most anticipated ready to wear collections in years, the debuts for spring\/summer 26 of Jonathan Anderson and Matthieu Blazy<\/a> at Dior and Chanel respectively, were full of white, the color of new beginnings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"chanel
Looks from the Chanel spring\/summer 26 debut \u00a9Spotlight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anderson, formerly of Loewe, opened and closed his catwalk show in October with two white dresses, and, in the mix of the 72 looks in between, offered up everything from capes to culottes in paler than pale hues. The Northern Irish designer\u2019s first in-store offerings have begun hitting the rails this month. What better way to see out January \u2013 and see it off, too, metaphorically speaking \u2013 than in his white cable knit cardigan with its speckling of tiny blooms and his all-white jeans (\u00a32,800 \/ approx. $3,762 and \u00a31,100 \/ approx. $1,478 respectively, dior.com<\/a>). These are clothes that are spring incarnate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ditto the lily-of-the-valley-strewn white silk jersey tee and matching skirt (\u00a31,050 \/ approx. $1,410 and \u00a32,150 \/ appprox. $2,889 respectively). And an on-point flourish to all of the above would be the white iteration of Anderson\u2019s new Bow arm candy that comes embroidered with white clovers (\u00a33,700 \/ approx $4,971).\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the heart of Blazy\u2019s vision for Chanel was a not-remotely-plain white shirt, conceived in conjunction with the Parisian specialists Charvet, which has been selling its crisp cotton wares on Place Vend\u00f4me since 1838. Coco Chanel\u2019s great \u2013 possibly greatest \u2013 love, Arthur \u201cBoy\u201d Capel, with whom she spent nine years until his death from a car accident in 1919, only wore shirts from Charvet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capel, an English-polo-player-cum-businessman-cum-man-about-town, didn\u2019t just finance Coco\u2019s first shops \u2013 not to mention, less laudably, marry someone else when they were supposedly together \u2013 he also served as something of a muse. So much of what fuelled the designer\u2019s remaking of women\u2019s fashion was co-opted from men\u2019s wardrobes and, to be more precise, in the early years at least, Capel\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"dior
The Dior spring\/summer 26 show featured a host of white ensembles \u00a9Spotlight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blazy, who is French-Belgian, and previously headed up Bottega Veneta, designed his white Charvet shirt oversized and bib-fronted, and paired it with a comparatively straightforward \u2013 yet still delicious \u2013 black fishtail skirt that swooped up at the front to reveal switcheroo bi-colour pumps, the toe white, the rest of the shoe black. It is available, like the rest of his line up, from March.<\/p>\n

This is how women want to look in 2026. Or how I do, anyway. Nonchalant yet polished and above all \u2014 that word again \u2014 effortless. It\u2019s a triumvirate that was delivered too by the drapey white co-ords, the black-trimmed white suits, the white satin tees, and a sublime fringe-hemmed white textured dress that somehow managed to appear \u2013 and this is something that Blazy is notably good at \u2013 both minimalist and maximalist at one and the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s another part of the appeal of white at the moment, I think. There\u2019s an apparently competing desire in luxury for simplicity and specialness. How do the two co-exist? White is one way to make it happen. It\u2019s a way of alchemizing those pared back staples that hang on the rails of even the most expensive women\u2019s wardrobes in the world these days \u2013 the blazers, slacks, shirts, and tees \u2013 into something that stands apart in the current sea of black, camel, and khaki. White is fresh; spotless; the opposite of tired or dull. Just a white bag or pair of shoes can be similarly transformative when worn with darker shades.<\/p>\n

White is also both an erasure and a statement at one, and thus serves as an apposite conductor for the AC\/DC electrics of the contemporary aesthetic.\u00a0 It signals clarity and confidence, too, in this complicated and at times overpowering world of ours. It\u2019s perfect for right now.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From office dressing to the latest Dior and Chanel runways, white has re-emerged as fashion\u2019s quiet power move.\u00a0 It was only when I arrived in the office for the first time after the festive break, and found my all-white ensemble being commented upon by everyone who saw me, that I took stock of why that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facesjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}