Blank slate

Few people get a real fresh start in life, particularly after a grueling year at school (your teacher decided to channel her postpartum depression on you by piling on more homework and tests) or at home (your significant other decided to leave you for your best friend). Except for recent amnesiacs or religious converts, life tends to move on in a humdrum pace no matter what you do – throw yourself in front of a car to incur enough brain damage to lose all your memory or throw your lot in with the Mormons.

There are better options, of course. Self-help gurus recommend a cleansing of the spirit, like revisiting your past issues to find closure. Interior decorators suggest feng shui to get rid of the bad vibes in your life and allow luck to enter. Stylists have the best idea: revamp your wardrobe for a better-dressed, more attractive you. Forget your bad childhood and just over-indulge. There’s nothing like repressing those bad memories and replacing them with an entirely new outfit.

With summer in the middle of a death rattle, there’s nothing like fresh white separates to keep the spirits up. This season’s selection riffs on the best trends of the year: floaty romantic blouses lined with lace or ruffles, sturdy turtleneck sweaters in a cotton knit (making it ideal for the coming rainy season), breezy strappy tops that come in streamlined almost monastic cuts or pretty frilly accents.

There’s an outfit here for everyone, whether it’s the magazine-obsessed fashion slave, the sartorially indifferent or the funky do-it-yourselfer. Trust us, though these pieces come in crisp white – the better to go with everything in your sadly depleted wardrobe – when paired with the right bottom and shoes, they may just turn out to be more fun than your neon green tube top with melon stripes.

Naysayers can hee and haw about how white makes everyone look fatter or how the garment easily stains. The latter may be true, but the former is just style rhetoric. Unlike horizontal stripes or small floral prints, which make anyone larger than an elf look like a crosswalk or couch, white automatically makes the rest of your garments pop. For morenas or those who enjoy the occasional self-tanning bottle or two, white is the ideal shade to make skin glow and look golden. Granted it makes clothes a bit more high-maintenance – you can’t just park your ass at some random bench without checking first for bird doodie, which, if you think about it, is a good thing.

Just a few years ago, wearing white was kind of taboo, making the wearer the butt of post-labor day jokes. But with the likes of Chloe and Calvin Klein silencing all critics with their gorgeously filmy and pretty white frocks from their much-lauded summer collections, the only people not getting the joke are the kids clad in black sweating profusely in the corner.

White’s transformative powers can make any woman look like a goddess. That is if worn in moderation. Skinny girls can go the extra mile and do the head-to-toe thing: long white dresses reminiscent of Mary Kate Olsen post-rehab or flirty baby doll affairs in gauzy ruffles or crisp power suits in matching linen. Those of us in need of more forgiving silhouettes can juxtapose a white top with a pair of dark denim hip-huggers with a pair of ballet flats or a knee-skimming skirt with a festive print and pretty wedges.

Perhaps most people find themselves more vulnerable in white because it reminds them of their youth. Images of white garb bring up memories of first communion, sacrificial virgins about to be thrown into a burning pyre and brides in poof balls of purity. They find comfort in the jaded sophistication of black apparel, which hides flaws and, perhaps, some insecurities.

It’s time to throw out your gloomy wardrobe, along with your accompanying personal issues, and let some light in. Call it feng shui for your apparel or closet therapy – but trust us, it’ll feel better than an hour with a shrink.