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Spot a good white jacket from the doorway. It sits clean against the shoulder, the white looks chalky and deliberate rather than bright and plasticky, and it hangs with a bit of weight. A poor one looks slightly see through under certain lights, puckers at the top button, and already has a faint grey tinge to the cuffs before you've worn it anywhere. That difference is visible across a room, before anyone gets close enough to touch the fabric.
White jackets are fussy about company. Anything that sheds, anything with loose dye, anything new denim that hasn't been washed a dozen times, keep it away. New jeans bleed indigo onto a pale cuff faster than you'd think, and a bag with unsealed leather edges will leave a brown smudge on the sleeve the first time you lean on a table. Dark coats underneath in cold weather are another one to watch, because a jumper that sheds navy fluff will leave it all over a white collar by lunchtime.
Fit matters more here than with almost any other colour, because white shows every pull and strain line that a darker jacket would hide. Go a size up if you're between sizes, since a tight white jacket gapes at the button and draws a line straight across the widest part of you, which nobody needs. Check the shoulder seam sits right at the edge of your shoulder, not sliding down your arm, and check the sleeve length with your arms bent, not hanging straight, because that's where a lot of jackets reveal they're actually too short.
A decent white jacket has proper weight to the fabric, lining that doesn't show through at the elbows, and buttons that feel solid rather than hollow and light. Seams should lie flat, not puckered, and the white should look the same colour in the lining as it does outside, which tells you they didn't cut corners on one side. A disappointing one is thin enough to see your bra strap through in daylight, and the white starts looking yellowish after two washes rather than staying clean.
It's the wrong choice for anything involving red wine, toddlers with sticky hands, or a long train journey where you'll be resting your arms on a grubby table for two hours. It's also not the jacket for commuting through heavy traffic on a bike, because city grime finds white in a way it doesn't bother with navy. For an indoor event, a daytime meeting, or anywhere you're not doing manual anything, it earns its spot easily.
A good white jacket looks more expensive than almost anything else in the same price bracket, which is exactly why the cheap ones are so disappointing by comparison.
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