White heat: the ultimate power outfit

“A white dress is a blank canvas upon which you can then throw some colour — or perhaps some shade,” says Ryan Lobo of Tome, a New York-based womenswear brand favoured by the actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Emma Watson. “It is a woman’s secret weapon.”

Lobo is speaking about the summer’s standout trend: an outfit, usually a dress, in dazzling white. Recent weeks have seen a big spike in white dress-wearing. Kate Middleton wore a lacy white dress by Dolce & Gabbana to Ascot in June, and another, by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, to the Wimbledon tennis tournament finals a month later. Beyoncé cheered on her friend Serena Williams at the same event while wearing a frilly ivory dress from Self-Portrait. Her husband Jay Z sat next to her. Much has been said about tension in their relationship; perhaps the choice of that dress acted, consciously or not, as a sign of reassurance to onlookers.

Alicia Vikander has alternated black with white dresses to promote the new Jason Bourne film: she wore an especially flattering white Alex Eagle number in Berlin; Maggie Gyllenhaal wore a lo-fi tiered maxi dress in white to a screening in Los Angeles last week. At both the Republican and Democratic conventions last month, the white dress was the dress of choice; Lena Dunham spoke in an off-shoulder dress by Gabriela Hearst; Elizabeth Banks appeared in Elie Saab; Eva Longoria spoke in a pearly fitted dress from her eponymous collection for The Limited (a cool move, as it toned down her more usual bombshell-esque outfit choices).

Over at the Republican National Convention, Ivanka Trump wore a simple blush number from her own label, while Melania Trump wore a white puff-cuffed dress from Roksanda Ilincic — a dress that proved as popular as articles condemning her plagiarised speech. (In a neat twist, at the DNC, Ohio representative Joyce Beatty wore a “copy” of Melania’s gown to make her address. The white dress has spawned its own imitation game.)

Why is white so popular? It’s complicated. Consider the associations surrounding certain clothing colours. Red is understood as lively if not sexy, a proven heartbeat stimulator and perhaps the only hue assigned its own emoji. Charcoal or navy? The boardroom. Black is formal and funereal.

White, oxymoronically, is the most complex colour — or technically, shade — of all. It’s simplicity belies the fact that white clothes can symbolise a range of things: neutrality, capitulation, humility, celebration, religion, baptism, virginity, femininity, marriage, innocence, optimism, purgatory, nothingness and omniscience, often all at once. White clothes can be double-edged: seemingly faultless and gentle but often worn as a smokescreen to deliver a point more piercingly. White clothes can be incredibly sexy and also somehow incredibly conservative. They are a blank canvas on which anything can be projected, but which in turn stand as putative projectors themselves. Few outfits make a statement, or are capable of making multiple statements, quite like a white dress (or, if you’re Hillary Rodham Clinton, a white pantsuit).

Kim Kardashian is often seen wearing white (even as recently as this past week), and wearing it well. Maybe this is a subtle reflection of innocence, feigned or otherwise, given her current feud with Taylor Swift. Last year, Caitlyn Jenner had two major appearances in white: in a corset on the cover of Vanity Fair and at the ESPY Awards in a long-sleeved Atelier Versace gown. She was smart to go with the shade; white arguably offers the smallest margin for criticism, which is important when you’re breaking the mould. (White is also on-point for fighting battles, given it is the colour of surrender). More importantly, perhaps, when done right, it makes the wearer look younger.

Alexandra Lind Rose, who styles and creative directs for Armarium, the luxury fashion rental company she co-founded, has also noted an increase in demand for white dresses (granted, it is summer, a white dress-friendly season), with popular models including a lace capelet piece from Sophie Theallet and a sleeveless Mugler number with metal grommets. “The Mugler silhouette is popular overall,” she says, “because it is flattering on many body types, and the style is favoured because the short length with the high neckline make it an attractive choice for a tight-fitting dress.” Take note.

The white dress isn’t new, nor is the idea of celebrities wearing them; what is noteworthy is that the garment has seemingly taken on a fresh relevance and symbolism. When Hillary Clintonhit the stage to accept her nomination for president in an alabaster Ralph Lauren pantsuit, the hue surprised commentators and served to canonise the historical significance of the moment. It may have had precedent, too: the colour could have been a nod to the suffragettes, who wore white during their quest for the right to vote. It also made her appear accessible, so that she could woo her audience and underline the gravity of the words she then delivered. Imagine if the pantsuit had been grey or Kelly green? The impact would be different. The impact would be smaller.

“A white dress can function as a power statement because it becomes all about the form,” says the Uruguayan designer Gabriela Hearst, who designed Dunham’s polite, off-the-shoulder piece. “It has more personality; an essence is revealed.” A white dress can also complement the bigger picture; instead of being look-at-me, it suggests an effort towards humbleness. That the moment is not about oneself.

Jonathan Simkhai, who has dressed Kardashian-Jenners, model sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid and more, says: “I love the statement of a white dress — I think it embodies confidence and female strength.”

Robin Zendell, a highly regarded real-estate broker in New York City who specialises in fashion retail (past clients include Tomas Maier, Solange Azagury-Partridge, Berluti and Miu Miu), recalls wearing an ivory dress by Morgane Le Fay to close an important deal. “The meeting was the culmination of years of hard work,” she says. “I was bolstered by my dress — it felt like armour. I guess it made me feel somewhat invincible — this particular client and I have gone on to work on multiple deals since that day. It made me stand up for myself, and it meant I could be defined in a non-corporate way. There was a lightness about it. I felt totally in control.”

Not all, though, see virtue in the light. “It’s an outdated way of making a statement,” says Bryan Grey Yambao, the blogger and digital personality better known as BryanBoy. “Why do high-profile individuals, who are certainly aware that they are being judged by their appearance, choose to wear white whenever they want to appear pure or honest? White has the reverse effect on me . . . I always associate white as the colour of deliberate deception . . . like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Tanya Taylor, a Canadian fashion designer, says that instead a white dress offers the wearer inscrutability. “There is something mysterious about someone in white,” she says. “You see them but you can’t read them entirely. Wearing white says, ‘I know you notice me but now I want you to listen to me. I have more to reveal to you, but I won’t give it away by the colour I am wearing.’ ”Read more at:formal dresses canberra | cheap formal dresses