Pazazz examines the complex meanings of white clothing through history. Delicate and impractical, white cloth in the past was difficult to obtain, as well as to keep clean. It is a symbol of purity but also of class superiority, privilege and the display of leisure. It represents both the menace of the Ku Klux Klan and the transition of a bride to the married state; it can be the appropriate dress for mourning and for shrouds. White lace is ethereal; straitjackets are tough. White clothing has been a marker of innocence and simplicity for women but also of calculated, high-maintenance fashion; for men, white can be evidence of power. White is a startling absence of colour, the epitome of elegance.