There’s a certain confidence that comes with wearing white. After all, the non-color is famous for fattening up a figure and attracting red wine and tomato sauce. But if you’re not super stain-prone, the snowy hue adds a crispness to day and night ensembles.

The pale tone was popular on spring’s runways — at Brian Reyes, Bottega Veneta and Fendi, among others — busting the “no white after labor day” adage into smithereens (not that we’d been adhering to it since kindergarten.) Karl Lagerfeld showed a snow-white asymmetrical shoulder dress that balloons out at Fendi that had me instantly mind-styling the numerous outfits I could construct around it. With Havianas, I’m wearing it to a pool party; give me a leather jacket and over-the-knee boots and I’m yours for a swanky night cap.

My thinking is that every woman should have these basic, pure-white items in her closet: a silk blouse, a collared men’s shirt, Hanes v-neck tee, wide-legged trousers (nautical-inspired, of course), sandals, white jeans and (of course!) a white Balenciaga motorcycle bag.

Just imagine the mixing-and-matching possibilities.