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"\n\nFacebookPinterestOBRIEN_RUBRIC.gif\n\nWayne is a spectacular dresser, if a bit eccentric. No one has better suits except perhaps his bosom buddy Lapo Elkann (who inherited half of his). Eccentric, like the bakery twist-'ems he uses as cufflinks. (He buys a particular kind of cake that has gold ones.) Or the no-socks-under-the-unbuckled-monk-strap shoes. Or the tight white henley under the white dress shirt instead of a T-shirt. So I thought it was funny that Wayne was asking me for advice. When he&amp;amp;#x2019;s improper it&amp;amp;#x2019;s usually spectacular enough to justify any breach of convention.\n\nObviously white is a summer color because it reflects light and heat (somebody tell the desert nomads). Therefore as the industrial revolution gentrified society, some rules were decreed to keep the middle classes in line sartorially, and naturally some of them concerned the wearing of white, and naturally these rules have been enforced through snigger and moan by snobs everywhere.\n\nI don&amp;amp;#x2019;t know when the rule or convention came to be that a gentleman shouldn&amp;amp;#x2019;t wear white until Memorial Day and then not after Labor Day, two relatively recent holidays (1866 and 1882) in the scheme of things. Alternatively Easter has sometimes been cited as the appropriate beginning of white-shoe season instead of Memorial Day, and Easter is a moveable feast celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, meaning that theoretically the white shoe season could begin as early as March 22. Memorial Day is the last Monday of May and Labor Day is the first Monday in September, meaning that a strict white-shoe season could be as many as 138 days or as few as 63 days.\n\nThis seems rather silly, and given the common-sense evidence for global warming, I think if we&amp;amp;#x2019;re going to have a rule about it, it should be that white is to be worn only in baseball season, meaning from early April until the beginning of October. Or if you don&amp;amp;#x2019;t follow baseball, from All Fool&amp;amp;#x2019;s Day (April 1st) until Columbus Day.\n\nOf course, in a resort town like Cannes who wants to observe such rules? In the tropics white is always right. You can wear your white bucks or saddle shoes year round. The South of France is a great place to wear white. White shoes, white shirts, white suits\u2026Wayne and I have been discussing bringing back white flannels, the chic resort and country dress trousers of the last roaring twenties.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nNow, old habits die hard and I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve been trying to get my white shoes on before May 31, just for the principle of not following an arbitrary and meaningless rule. I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve got them ready. I freshened up my dirtier pairs using the Lincoln white buck and suede dressing that I finally managed to find on the web here.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n(Everytime I invoke President Obama the haters be hatin', so here's another natty ec in saddle shoes.)\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nAnd I have a good selection of white hose. Please note that while many people, particularly ladies, I find, believe that white sox are strictly for the Fonz and other diehard leather-clad pompadour wearers, they are irreplaceable for the white-shoe wearer; but they must be fine dress hose. There is no excuse, ever, for substituting athletic socks with their hideous logos, or for wearing tube socks under any circumstances.\n\nThis white-shoe season I&amp;amp;#x2019;ll be premiering two new pairs\u2014a pair of blue-and-white saddle shoes that I picked up during the off-season at Barneys and a great pair of Peale spectators I got for half-price at Brooks Brothers. The winter solstice is definitely the time to buy white shoes.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nWhen seasonal codes were cooked up by ladies with nothing better to do, the populace wasn&amp;amp;#x2019;t equipped with thermometers and Doppler radar, but now that we have a pretty good idea of what the weather will be into next week, we can adjust what we wear based on the actual weather.\n\nSo as of Apollon Day, May 18th, a day sacred to Apollo, the handsome god of the sun, music, poetry and divination, I divine that the temperature will hit 80&amp;amp;#xB0; on Friday and, having already moved into khaki, I can proceed on to seersucker and saddle shoes.\n\nIf anyone says anything I can simply tell them that it&amp;amp;#x2019;s the Age of Aquarius, there are no rules, and it&amp;amp;#x2019;s going to be a hot one."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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