Are white pants OK before Easter — or Memorial Day? Have the rules of fashion changed?

White jeans hang in my closet, mocking me. I want to wear them, but I can't. Not yet.

I know it seems whiny to shiver through a 60-degree day while folks in the Northeast are digging out from beneath a catastrophic snow storm. But I don't live in the Northeast, and this winter seems like it's lasted forever. 

I'm ready for spring. 

Which brings me back to those white jeans.

I know, I know. This debate is nothing new. And I've gotten to white-before-Easter OK from some of my most fashion-forward friends. 

"To me, white means hot," said my pal Connie Harvey of Cocoa. "And it's pretty much always hot in Florida."

She looks put together even while tromping through the muck picking up trash on the riverbank, accessorizing with monogrammed rubber boots and a jaunty red bandanna.

It doesn't seem the least bit strange to see her wearing a white dress with black tights and boots in February.

Kim Hone of Merritt Island, another fashionable friend, agrees.

"I absolutely wear white before Easter," she said. "I wore all white for a Christmas party, because it was 85 degrees that day."

And this from Susie Wasdin of Cocoa: "I wear a lot of white all year long," she said. "My favorite is winter white."

I'm not ashamed of my age, but I'm not old yet

I've tried to make the switch myself. A couple of times in November, I slipped into white denim shorts. My closet didn't implode, and the spirits of my Southern female relatives didn't haunt my dreams.

Still, it didn't feel quite right.

My friend Rachel Barrial of Rockledge has the same problem.

"I usually wait until Memorial Day," she said, "which I think is silly, because we live in Florida. But I can't seem to break it and wear white.

"I might follow your Easter white rule," Rachel said. "I was thinking about my white pants the other day."

Memorial Day seems to be the norm in other parts of the country, but in the deep South, we always followed the Easter rule. It wouldn't be Easter Sunday without white patent leather shoes, lacy socks and maybe a touch of white eyelet. 

"I don't wear white before Easter," said Jo Ellen Gordon, my Alabama-raised cousin who has lived in Georgia for the past few decades. It's not an absolute rule. She'll wear white tops or sweaters. But no dresses or pants.

"My girls carry the tradition on," she said. 

The start of the rule against wearing white after Labor Day or before Memorial Day is a bit ambiguous, according to various fashion sites I found online. The prevailing theory is that wealthy women wore crisp, clean white in the warmer months, while the working class wore dark colors. 

Does noise aversion while eating mean I'm old?

It makes sense. It's hard to work and keep white clean and crisp. Heck, if you're as clumsy as I am, it's hard to do anything and keep white clean. 

But snobbery has long gone out of style, and it's a lot easier to get a stain out of that white blouse now than it was in 1923.

Maybe I should rethink my winter white jitters.

"If fashion has taught us one thing, it's there are no rules," said Rita Moreno of Suntree. "I wear winter white in the fall/winter season. There are so many versions of white these days, it really can work all year round if paired correctly. 

"Just this morning, Hoda Kotb of the 'Today Show' had on a pretty white dress."

I decided to give final say to Louisiana-based fashion blogger Karli Willis (karlialexandra.com).

She's young and gorgeous and posts pictures of the most amazing clothes. She's also super Southern, so she understands tradition.

White is "absolutely OK to wear before Easter," she said.

"Does your grandmother know you say that?" I asked.

"Precious McClung would not approve," she said. "But fashion rules aren't as strict anymore."

So there you have it. I'll go ahead and bust out my white jeans a full three weeks before Easter.

And Karli, I promise not to tell your grandmother.

Email Leonard at sleonard@floridatoday.com.

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