The White Blouse
They’ve all mastered it - Bridget Bardot, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing (you know the scene…she crawls across the floor, wagging her finger at bad-boy-turned-good-guy Johnny while he strums his air guitar?). Each have redefined The White Blouse in fashion history, or certainly cemented its place.
Rumpled on the floor in a cheesy rom-com or pressed crisp and paired with a flipped collar in a high drama moment, The White Blouse is comfortable. It’s attainable. It’s seductive.
A plus one at a wedding, it’s a perfect pick for a quick trip to romantic Monaco, strolling the streets of Paris or a grab-and-go as you hit the highway to visit Aunt Daisy somewhere in the Rust Belt. Really, The White Blouse is the answer to…everything.
It’s history, though, is not so pretty. Marie Antoinette, wife to France’s King Louis XVI and the debateable source of ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ shockingly wore a simple white blouse for her regal portrait. In an era when clothing made man and woman...this was simply bad form. Silk was the flavor of the day, and anything less was the worst kind of faux pas.
The popularity of the portrait led to increased demand for The White Blouse, but lack of supply demanded an answer. While evolving technology helped address the popularity, it was the use of slave labour that fed demand, lowered costs and led to centuries of loss and tragedy.
In 2024, as the world focuses on the draining environmental hourglass, The White Blouse can play a tiny role in a growing problem. With landfills stuffed with fast fashion and out-of-date trendy clothes, we are geting smarter - we have left ourselves little choice. But we haven’t given up chasing fashion - we are simply choosing more sustainable options. Our closet is now home to Utility Players that - paired creatively - enjoy a symbiotic mix-and-match relationship - and there is no better in that role than The White Blouse. She rejects her reputation as wallflower…but considers herself the It Girl in the closet, waiting for her next partner.