Shirt Color

After the hats post, someone asked me “address” shirt color. I initially hesitated because what is there to “address” exactly? It seems to me axiomatic that the folks who don’t carry their hats around with them perpetually are generally the same ones who wear colored shirts. But eventually I figured that what she wanted was a sort of well-researched exposition of the white-shirt phenomenon.

So I looked into it. We all know that the yeshivish community seems to have something against non-white shirts, with a few obvious exceptions, like Chofetz Chaim. There are also other levels, like the “just blue shirt” crowd, the “any color oxford” crowd, the “anything with a collar” bunch, and the “what’s wrong with a t-shirt?” type. But among the yeshivish, anything not white or white-on-white simply won’t do. Granted, we often see things in black and white terms, but this is ridiculous.

At first I assumed it was because of a line of thinking explained by one Touro professor: he says that black and white are two colors that, no matter the shade, time of year, or circumstances, always, without fail, match. And they’re never out of season. And so on. Well, if you’re going to let a guy dorm from the age of 14, you can’t expect him to know that black and brown don’t “go,” so you tell him not to even try, just wear black and white.

To test my theory, I asked my father, who was wearing a nice brown plaid shirt, why yeshiva guys only wear black and white. “Because most sheep are either black or white?” he hazarded. Heh heh. Clearly it’s time for a family trip to the petting zoo. Instead, I pulled a picture of a great-great-grandfather off the bookcase and pointed to his white shirt. “Is he a sheep?”

“He’s a rav. Rabbeim have always worn white and black.”

Unsatisfied, I flipped through the album of my father’s pictures from his Israeli yeshiva days. All white shirts, but goodness, you should see the ties they wore!

“You’re only wearing white button-down shirts,” I point out.

“I was a yeshiva bochur in Israel,” he says, like it’s duh. Granted, Israel has always been way ahead of us in frumkeit mishigasim, but it’s still not duh.

“And they’re all yeshiva bochurim in Lakewood, so?” I didn’t ask. Instead I called a friend whose husband is a yeshiva yungerman in Lakewood. “Why does he wear white shirts?” I asked.

“Because his rabbeim do,” she answered promptly.

“Does he make fun of reggae fans who wear borsolinos?” I didn’t ask. Her husband wouldn’t know Matisyahu from a king without a crown, and certainly not about the new lucrative niche market for black fedoras. But it makes sense, after all. If you admire someone and want to be like them, you imitate them. That’s why young journalists copy the interrogation methods of seasoned veterans, and hundreds of teenaged boys who have never chewed tobacco in their lives spit when they step up to the plate, and hold the bat just like Derek Jeter.

But not all bochurim are wearing what their rabbeim wear. As part of the prep for this, I fired off an email to a brother in Israel who wears colored shirts and asked him to pass the questions along to the brother who doesn’t. Brother in colored shirts answered the following:

White or blue shirts. Nice button-down blue shirts. Why? Because I like them and I think they make me look good.

Pants: various shades of purples, pink, or yellow usually on the odd days of the week. On the even days, black.

Brother in white answered this:

“Colored shirts: no. Other clothing is generally dark blue or black, ties excepted. Three most common tie colors are probably black, blue, or gold.

A lot of different reasons. Mostly, the same reason everyone else has for clothing – because that is what everyone else is doing and that is what makes people happy. If I was on my own and no on e else was around? I would probably wear the cheapest and easiest to get clothing I could find.”

Which basically means he’s wearing white shirts for the same reason he doesn’t wear a doublet, a kilt, or a studded leather jacket. No need to schedule a visit to the petting zoo; it comes to us bein hazmanim. (Ooh, that was mean. I’m not much of a rock-the-boat person myself, to be fair. So maybe we’ve got a petting zoo all year ‘round.)

Anyway, my conclusion is that it’s just one of those things. Guys who are in yeshiva all day wear white, some because they want to be like rabbeim and some because everyone else is, and people started judging based on it, and there you go. Welcome to modern urban Jewish society. Hope you enjoy your stay.