Man in White



"Wolfe has said that the outfit disarms the people he observes, making him, in their eyes, "a man from Mars, the man who didn't know anything and was eager to know.""

- Wikipedia on Tom Wolfe's white suit

In Real Life, white is usually the color for summer clothing, given the quality of the color that reflects all spectrums of visible light away and - as such - offers some relief from the merciless heat of the summer sun. It is not considered an ideal color for most other occasions, given how easy white cloth is to stain and how clothes that absorb heat are desirable in most other climates.

Of course, in the world of fiction, concerns of practicality can be (and generally are) sacrificed for those of symbolism. The Man in White is a character who goes around dressed entirely (or predominantly) in white wherever he is. The reasons for this are not important, but what it signifies to the audience is; and it just so happens that in most cases, it signifies that the character is up to no good.

There's just something about a man in white that weirds people out. One possible explanation for this is that since conservative men's attire has been black for the longest time, looking upon a man in white creates a sensation not unlike a color-inverted image. Another one is that since white is also the color of snow and bone, an all-white ensemble evokes sensations of coldness and death.

In America, white suits have also come to be associated with Southern plantation owners, leading to the birth of the Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit. As such, white clothing in American media can also be used to suggest pride, avarice, ambition, and questionable morality, which is why you can see so many mafiosos, drug lords, and corrupt corporate executives in such garb. For a more in-depth treatise on the subject, see this article.

As such, it isn't surprising to find that most men in white in fiction are unnerving at best and eldritch abominations at worst.

Of course, perhaps the reason it signifies that the character is up to no good is precisely because white is supposed to signify that a character is good, since that is the colour most associated - at least in the West - with an upstanding, honest, kind, or moral person; their clothing is as immaculate and pure as their soul. Having the Man in White be a villain turns this on its head and may evoke ideas of Most Definitely Not a Villain or Suspiciously Specific Denial. They pretend to be good either because they truly believe it or precisely because they are evil.

On occasion, the Man in White might actually be genuinely good, as Morgan Freeman in the pic demonstrates. Sometimes, its just Exactly What It Says on the Tin and you have a genuinely nice person who literally wears his goody-two-shoes-ness on his sleeve. Tropes Are Not Bad, and the Man In White need not be either.

Other times, the color white might simply come with the position: doctors and scientists have their pristine labcoats, priests and monks don long white robes, and some military officers get white dress uniforms. Since white clothing is expected of these characters, their appearance tends to impress (rather than unnerve) the audience and their fellow characters.

Compared to its Distaff Counterpart, the Woman in White, the Man in White is a much younger trope and not nearly as well established; as such, you'll find a broad range of characters and characterizations under the examples. All it really takes to be a Man in White is to wear white: all the added symbolism described above is just bonus.

Note that in Japan, men wear white tuxedos at their weddings because they think it looks Western (and it matches their bride's white wedding dress). The fact that Western grooms typically wear black is of no concern.

The chromatic counterpart of The Men in Black. For other uses of the color white, see Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress, White Shirt of Death, White-Haired Pretty Boy, White-Haired Pretty Girl, and the more explicit about significance Gold and White Are Divine.

Anime and Manga

 * Near in Death Note. Less extreme than the other examples, as his trousers aren't white (at least in the anime), but still noticeable. It has been suggested that he may be an albino.
 * "That Man", the Yakuza thug that threatens the ghost of Pedro, and his clones in Excel Saga.
 * Professor Yumi from Mazinger Z. Since he was a Married to the Job scientist spent the most part of the time working in his lab, he wore constantly his labcoat. Prof. Kabuto from Great Mazinger also played the trope, but Dr. Umon from UFO Robo Grendizer subverted it: despite of he was a scientist and were perfectly natural for him to wear a white labcoat when he was working, he used to wear light-blue clothes.
 * Ladd Russo in Baccano!. More often than not, his white suit ends up getting covered in red, which is precisely how he likes it.
 * and the Arrancar in Bleach.
 * Don't forget Ichigo's hollow personality, who is all in white (including skin and hair) and is definitely pivotal to the overall plot. He's also insane.
 * The Quincy in general and Uryuu Ishida in particular also dress in head-to-toe-white. Ryuuken, Uryuu's father, also appears in a white suit the first time he's shown in the manga: white suit, crosses all over his tie, bow in hand. Yes, he's definitely given up the quincy way.
 * Japan from Axis Powers Hetalia, who often wears a white military uniform.
 * Also, his "brother", Thailand.
 * Zolf J. Kimblee took to wearing a white suit after his release from prison in the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. The author has stated this is because she thinks people who wear white suits are weird. Kimblee also happens to be a example of light not being good.
 * Fans have also taken to calling the unnamed alchemist working for Father simply "the man in white".
 * Speaking of Father, his humanoid forms are outfitted in white…togas, I guess? Plus, he also happens to be an example of light not being good.
 * Koji Kagami of GetBackers. It's useful for his mirror-based fighting style.
 * Luke Valentine of Hellsing. He does have to deal with a bit of blood staining it in the OVA (then quite a bit more later on). Later, we have The Major.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima gives us both Fate Averruncus and Kurt Godel, the former of which is also a White-Haired Pretty Boy.
 * Handsome Lech Shuutaru Mendou from Urusei Yatsura wears a white school uniform, instead of the default blue one, just to show off how rich he is.
 * Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro ni wears a white suit, although he does also have a red shirt underneath the jacket. If there is any symbolism there, it probably falls closer to the combination of Bring My Red Jacket and White Shirt of Death. Either that, or it's to contrast Beatrice and show which pieces he's playing in the Human Chess game they're having.
 * It's a Fanon made rule that at one point in the series, The Rival of any of the Yu-Gi-Oh!! series must wear a white Badass Longcoat.
 * Kaiba's trademark white Trenchcoat, which he later trades out for a full white business suit and then trades back in.
 * Ryo/Zane's variation of the Blue Dorm boy's uniform is white with blue highlights.
 * Edo/Aster's white suit in later seasons, after Ryo's Freak-Out when he switched to black.
 * Also considered with the Society of Light in that sort of way...
 * And then, later on, Jack Atlas with his white Trenchcoat with light purple lining, white Riding Suit, white D-wheel, and white Pimp suit.
 * Ditto the Three Emperors and the human form of Z-one.
 * Zipang, the story of a 21st century JMSDF destroyer being stranded in the middle of WW 2, naturally gives us Good-Looking Privates in fancy white Japanese naval dress uniforms by the truckload. The Man in White of the series, however, is Lt. Commander Takumi Kusaka, whose dress whites are his only uniform.
 * Muraki Kazutaka from Yami no Matsuei. Comes complete with Badass Longcoat.
 * On Yu Yu Hakusho, even though a lot of times he is depicted wearing a a pink school uniform, every time Kurama drops the human disguise and changes into his demonic form, his clothes always change into a white martial arts toga-like get up. No reason is ever given for this.
 * When Kuwabara needs to kick really serious ass, he puts on his white Badass Longcoat.
 * The Angels in Tears to Tiara, who take it a step further with white hair and even glowingly pale china-white skin. In an interesting subversion, they are.
 * It is quite common to see Griffith, the resident White-Haired Pretty Boy of Berserk, in white, though he does dress in other colors on occasion.
 * Kilik of Air Gear is not only a Man in White but also a White-Haired Pretty Boy.
 * Douglas Rosenberg, the Big Bad of El Cazador de la Bruja, always wears white suits (even underneath an Mayincatec High Priest garb) in addition to being a White Haired Pretty, uh, Man.
 * Ditto his spritual predecessor, the Mad Artist Friday Monday from Madlax, though his costume is not a suit and is only mostly white/beige.
 * November 11 from Darker than Black is almost always seen wearing a very nice white suit. In this case, the "snow" symbolism is a little more literal than usual.
 * Mao from Code Geass not only wears a white Badass Longcoat, but is a White-Haired Pretty Boy to boot! Oh, and did I mention he's an Affable Evil Albino? Talk about Light Is Not Good...
 * Verossa Acous from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, while one of the good guys, definitely is one of the more mysterious and inscrutible supporting characters.
 * Zelgadiss Graywords' clothes are really more off-white verging on beige (probably stained from traveling so much; they're pure white in the novels), but given that when he first appears, they cover everything but his eyes, they certainly count. Even once he's no longer an enemy, they still make him stand out, emphasizing his separation from the rest of the world.
 * Invoked in Durarara!! when somebody finally asks Shinra Kishitani why he insists on wearing a lab coat everywhere. Turns out that he wants to play the Man in White to his roommate Celty Strulsen's Woman in Black.
 * Sagara Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin is always dressed in simple, white garments. He plays completely against the type, being a straightforward, Hot-Blooded hooligan and one of the good guys.
 * In Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny, ZAFT's high command are white clad, going with the whole "white as symbol of power" theme. Perhaps the best example of a Man in White, however, is Rau Le Creuset. He wears a white mask in addition to the uniform, is enigmatic and antagonistic to say the least, and is eventually revealed to a rather unpleasant fellow.
 * Solomon Goldsmith from Blood Plus dresses in a white suit. He's a Chriopteran
 * Inuyasha: Sesshoumaru wears a white furisode and matching hakama. There is a bit of purple (manga) or red (anime) on the left shoulder and the sleeve cuffs that are covered in white flowers. Possibly a deliberate choice as modern colour schemes (relevant for the readers) means white symbolises death and mediaeval colour schemes (the story's setting) means white symbolises the formality of very high social ranks. Sesshoumaru is both a born killer and a very highly ranked aristocrat.

Comic Books

 * Gideon Graves from Scott Pilgrim (both the movie and the comics) wears a pristine white suit. Considering that he is both the Big Bad and a Jerkass, this trope fits him perfectly.
 * Elijah Snow from Planetary.
 * Wilson Fisk (aka The Kingpin) from Spider-Man and other Marvel Universe comics usually appears in a white blazer or business suit. It's used to reinforce his Villain with Good Publicity status in-universe.
 * from The Sandman.
 * Also, the first Corinthian seems to wear all white a lot. Later, he mixes it up with blue jeans and other colours a bit more. It's still striking—as he, like, seems to have pure white hair, or at least extremely light blond hair. His own personal spinoff, Death In Venice, has him as white-haired and explicitly described with the name "the Man In White".
 * Nemesis, who was conceived to be Bruce Wayne...except that he grew up to become The Joker. He wears an all-white costume.

Film

 * The trope image comes from Bruce Almighty, where, in a slightly more straightforward Light Is Good example, God dons a pristine white suit.
 * Lucifer from Constantine wears old-fashioned white suit in the style of a Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit.
 * The Architect from The Matrix
 * Azrael in Dogma
 * The Man In The White Suit: The title character invents a new indestructible fabric and makes the eponymous white suit out of it. Its colour also reflects his moral innocence in the face of corrupt corporate executives and politicians who see his fabric as a threat to the textile industry. Curiously - symbolism-wise - this might make him more of a "male Woman in White".
 * John Preston wears a white ceremonial uniform during the final showdown in Equilibrium.
 * Most of John Woo's villains (Shing from A Better Tomorrow, Ko Ying Pui from A Better Tomorrow II, and Mr. James Wong from the game Stranglehold among others) wear white, the better to show off the blood from the bullets they receive. The main heroic John Woo example, of course, is Ah Jong from the final showdown of The Killer (though then again, .)
 * In Eat A Bowl Of Tea, the a Smug Snake who wears a white suit—probably to show how flashy he is.
 * The Great Leslie, from The Great Race. Although he isn't always in only white, he's always got something.
 * The villain in the 1987 New Old West action movie Extreme Prejudice wears a white suit, presumably an inversion of the "villains wear black hats" trope. Nick Nolte even lampshades this after he kills the Big Bad and The Dragon is threatening to return the favour. "I already did you the favour! You get to wear the white suit!" As the hero and his girl walk away, we see The Dragon already trying on the white hat for size.
 * El Mariachi and Desperado both feature men in white as their Big Bad, in contrast to the black-clad hero.
 * Played for laughs in Big, where the main character shows up to a cocktail party in a sparkling white tuxedo and stands out like a sore thumb.
 * John Hammond from the Jurassic Park film edges very close to being a Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit, but is redeemed by the fact that he's neither sweaty nor a Southerner. However, the white cane and sun hat are all there.
 * Juror #8 in 12 Angry Men wears a very light-colored suit that appears white in the black-and-white footage, which is easiest to see in the last scene, because he's sitting down most of the time.
 * Frank Nitti in The Untouchables.
 * In Lawrence of Arabia, when T.E. Lawrence starts Going Native, he begins wearing a white robe and turban in the Bedouin style.
 * The villain of The Grand Duel wears a white suit. There's a scene where someone he murders stains the suit with his bloody handprint as he dies.
 * Luke Skywalker's white robe in A New Hope.
 * The Nazi villain Maximilian Schnell and his supporters in the German TV-movie "Die Grenze" wear white suits.
 * Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird is a good guy in a white suit. Of course, he's a Southerner, although neither fat nor sweaty.
 * Montag the Magnificent, the titular magician in The Wizard of Gore, is most certainly not up to anything good. Combines well with Bloody Handprint and Rain of Blood.
 * One important character in Tampopo is credited solely as "Man in White Suit."
 * Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
 * In the final scene of Tokyo Drifter, the main character, Tetsu, wears an off-white suit, a white shirt, and a white tie, symbolizing his purity and honor, while all the other men wear black suits, symbolizing their corruption. Of course, since the message of the film is that it's bad to put Honor Before Reason, this is not necessarily a good thing.
 * Raiden in Mortal Kombat: The Movie wears white robes.
 * In Cotton Comes to Harlem, Deke Williams, the Malcolm Xerox preacher with a Scam Religion, is introduced wearing a black cape. When it's pulled off as he steps onstage to deliver a sermon, he is revealed to be wearing a white suit (with a pink shirt and tie).

Literature

 * The Illuminati in Duumvirate all wear white, and their servants wear black. The bioengineered title characters are white for the same reason.
 * In Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, six men pool their resources to buy a white three-piece suit; each man finds himself able to achieve his dreams (respect among the intellectuals, business success, falling in love) while wearing the apparently mystical suit.
 * In Tolkien's Middle-earth stories (The Lord of the Rings, etc), there is no shortage of men (and women) clad mostly or exclusively in white, although their creepiness-factor is mostly a matter of the respective observer, and most of the time, they are not. Examples are Saruman, Gandalf, Celeborn, and lots of other Elven men.
 * The Grand Admirals of the Star Wars Expanded Universe wear white uniforms. The most notable one is, of course, Grand Admiral Thrawn, whose uniform is iconic enough that he tends to be drawn in white in every illustration, even when he really shouldn't be. Interestingly, the Grand Admiral uniforms are otherwise a bit garish, with gold epaulets and rank patches, but Thrawn usually leaves those off.
 * Star Wars admirals in general seem to go for these. Ackbar has a white uniform. In Legacy of the Force, while serving as the head of the Corellian separatist military, Admiral Wedge Antilles wore white. Warlord Zsinj also wore a Grand Admiral uniform, though he hadn't earned the rank. Admiral Ar'alani also wore white - she's a woman, but as an Ascended Fangirl who had been cosplaying as Grand Admiral Thrawn, she deserves a mention.
 * Darken Rahl in The Sword of Truth always wears white robes. A case of Light Is Not Good, as he is an Evil Overlord.
 * The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay featured a chapter depicting the origin of Josef Kavalier and Sam Clay's comic book hero, The Escapist. When playboy Max Mayflower is kidnapped, a man in a white linen suit rescues him, sacrificing his life. Mayflower travels the world to learn this stranger's secret, ultimately discovering that he was a member of the League of the Golden Key, a secret organization that specializes in liberating people who were enslaved or wrongly imprisoned. Having become an accomplished escape artist, Max (and later, his nephew Tom, who would take over after his uncle's death and become The Escapist) worked for the Golden Key, whose agents all wore white linen suits.
 * In A Song of Ice and Fire, the Kingsguard wear all white, with blank white shields. This displays their office and also shows that they have renounced all ties to their former house.
 * In Heralds of Valdemar, the Heralds wear all white. This is a case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin because all the Heralds are paragons of fantastic goodness. Some of them—Herald-Mages especially—can be rather creepy when they're getting their magic on. Vanyel, especially, experiences some backlash of this.
 * In the second two books of the Mistborn trilogy, Elend wears white military uniforms to symbolize his authority and purity.

Live Action TV

 * Various Bad Future episodes of Smallville show President Evil future!Lex in a pure white suit. Combine this with the black-gloved right hand and the effect is really unsettling. On Clark's trip inside Lex's head, bad!Lex is shown dressed in the exact same way.
 * Doctor Who has, during the Key to Time Arc in Season 16 and Enlightenment in Season 20, the White Guardian who, naturally, appears as a man in a white suit.
 * Randall and Hopkirk Deceased: In both versions, the late lamented Marty Hopkirk manifests as a ghost in a white suit, which is apparently de rigeur for all the dear departed.
 * Mr. Roarke in the original Fantasy Island.
 * In the pilot of the new Fantasy Island, Roarke (Malcolm McDowell) is looking through his closet for a suit. He browses through a row of identical white suits, but chooses the only black one in there and orders the rest burnt.
 * Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was initially dressed in white.
 * Only his shirt; otherwise, he always wore black.
 * Sam in Supernatural. It really emphasizes his Uncanny Valleyness.
 * Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard.
 * Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III, aka Archangel, from Airwolf.
 * in Lost.
 * Number Two in the 2009 remake of The Prisoner.
 * In an episode of the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the prime minister of a colony who later kidnaps Riker and Dr. Pulaski wears white.
 * Though not a full white suit, Jamie Hyneman of Myth Busters fame has his iconic white shirt.
 * More so because it stays conspicuously clean regardless of what project he works on.
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Tommy Oliver during his tenure as the White Ranger, as well as his ancestor, the White Stranger.
 * On Merlin, Prince Arthur wears a white linen shirt when he is relaxing or in some other informal situation.
 * Toledo, the Big Bad of Shoebox Zoo.

Music

 * Simon Le-Bon from Duran Duran wears a white suit (and a spiffy black shirt) in the Save a Prayer video.
 * Cobra Starship's video for "The City Is At War" features the entire band dressed in white and Gabe in a white suit. And then they kill everybody with pies.
 * Andrew WK is rarely seen wearing anything but white - although in his case, it's usually a white t-shirt and jeans combo.
 * In this early TV presentation, the deceased Brian Jones plays the famous sitar from "Paint in Black" while dressed in white.
 * Jaga Jazzist's "Day" music video depicts all the band members dressed in white. According to the director, they're supposed to be cosmic agents, manipulating the controls of a vast machine to preserve universal equilibrium.

Tabletop Games

 * In Paranoia, white represents Ultraviolet security clearance, reserved for the High Programmers entrusted with maintaining The Computer.
 * These play on both aspects of the trope. They're considered by everyone to be beyond reproach and explicitly stated to be unspeakably corrupt and likely responsible for The Computer's insanity.
 * In Mage: The Ascension, the Operatives of the New World Order (a branch of the Technocracy) come in three ranks: Men in Black (shock troops), Men in Gray (spies, assassins, and otherwise people with more interesting jobs), and Men in White (the people in charge).

Theatre

 * In Cirque Du Soleil's Varekai, the main character, Icarus (who is more of a Boy In White), sticks out like a sore thumb by wearing all white amidst the colourful forest creatures. Here, as well as establishing him as an outsider, the colour represents his innocence and makes him seem mysterious and angelic. He even comes with snow-white wings!

Video Games

 * Mr. Garcian Smith from Killer7.
 * Fortinbras, the Big Bad of Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.
 * Rufus Shinra and his faaaaaaaabulous white suit.
 * Lieutenant Miller from Mirror's Edge.
 * The World Ends With You has the Composer portrayed this way (heck, he's more a Man Made of White than a Man Wearing White), but it seems the only people he really contacts  aren't weirded out by him. Admittedly, this could be due to those people's apparent natures anyway. The Conductor seems to maintain such utter composure just out of his respect for the Big C, and.
 * Zeus in God of War wears white robes. Even though actual mythology never refers to his clothes' colour, he is typically portrayed as wearing white, and in the game, it makes him more than creepy enough when combined with his actions.
 * Inspector Cabanela in Ghost Trick wears a clean white coat to represent his spotless record. The only part of his garb that isn't white is his red scarf.
 * The scarf may actually come with bonus symbolism.
 * Vladimir Lem from Max Payne 2, in direct homage to John Woo's use of this trope for his villains.
 * Nick in Left 4 Dead.
 * Michael Tillotson from Deadly Premonition.
 * Altair, Ezio, Connor, and Desmond all wear white in Assassin's Creed; a predominately white, hooded outfit with a bright scarlet sash seems to be the traditional Assassin's ensemble. Interestingly, this trope sees villainous usage as well; the first game's villain, Robert de Sable, wears a white cloak and tabard (because he's a Templar Knight in the Crusades) and the second game's villain, Rodrigo Borgia, dons a white robe once he (as in real-life history) becomes pope.
 * Fire Emblem has at least one per game:
 * Claude, Levin, and Corple (who can be fathered by either of them, depending on who you paired them up with) in Geneaology of the Holy War
 * Sleuf in Thracia 776
 * Saul and Yodel in The Sealed Sword
 * Lucius in The Blazing Blade
 * Artur in The Sacred Stones
 * Rhys in Path of Radiance
 * Graham Jones in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. And he's got the hair to match.
 * Soma's pure-white Badass Longcoat also fits the bill, and while he's the hero, he does have something of a darker side. And he's also got the hair to match.
 * In the reboot of Syndicate, enemy officers have white armour, unlike the black and dark grey of Sergeants or normal grunts. Some boss Agents wear white too.

Web Comics

 * The Zombie Hunters: The half-zombie is dressed in bright white - and manages to stay that way - despite his constant wading through blood and gore. He explains how this is possible during a "fan mail" strip: he uses Tide detergent between every panel.
 * Death in the Johnny Wander fiction shorts usually doesn't wear completely white outfits—the exception being a white suit at the end of Girl with the Skeleton Hand—but he does wear light colors that contrast with his dark skin, and all the shirts he's worn thus far have been white. It's quite striking.
 * Homestuck: Doc not only wears white, he is pure white himself (with a blank white face to match) and types with white text. Being that he's also an Eldritch Abomination Physical God, he falls neatly into the tendency for antagonists to wear white.
 * John Henry Hunter, the villain of Next Town Over. It's Awesome but Impractical as well, since the outfit, uncharacteristically pristine and fancy for the West, makes it easier for Vane Black to locate his whereabouts.
 * In Erstwhile, the little boy's ghost appears in white, surrounded by a glow.

Western Animation

 * Lex Luthor in Superman: Doomsday spends most of the movie in an all-white suit.
 * Samurai Jack subverts this trope by wearing a white robe (with grey trim) almost constantly throughout the series' run. This seems to be symbolic of his quest to destroy the Evil Aku has brought to the world. This is all but confirmed in the episodes "Mad Jack", where Jack's evil side is manifested and wears a black and red robe, and "Jack and the Ninja", where Jack...well, you're probably better off watching that one yourself, as it is one of the best episodes of the series.
 * The Guys in White from Danny Phantom, a government organization dedicated to dealing with ghosts. Confusingly enough, however, they're otherwise very blatant The Men in Black style agents.
 * An episode of Family Guy was about Stewie fearing the fact that the "man in white" (he was clearly referring to a doctor) is coming to put him back in the womb of his mother, Lois, and as a result, he want to kill said "man in white" as revenge. At the end of the episode, he kills a
 * The bird in white, Lord Shen, the Big Bad of Kung Fu Panda 2. Justified as white is the colour of death in Chinese culture and because Shen is also an Evil Albino.

Real Life

 * Josef Mengele. No wonder many people in this list are villains.
 * Mark Twain's iconic outfit was a white suit.
 * The same is true of Tom Wolfe.
 * And Colonel Sanders.
 * Steve Martin wore a white suit during his standup career.
 * White suits still linger as an old-fashioned tradition in the American South, probably due to the blazing hot temperatures.
 * Likewise, you can see them in Southern Europe for the same reason.
 * The Pope.
 * The Ishmaelian Muslims traditionally wear white, in contrast to the Sunni, whose traditional garb is black.
 * Many navies around the world still retain white summer uniforms. Useful, since the deck of a ship usually doesn't have much to offer in the way of shade.
 * Cab Calloway wore a LOT of white on stage and film.
 * Doctors and several health professionals as well as several medical/paramedical male students wear white.
 * Unless they're in the operation room, where they tend to wear green instead. (Green supposedly attracts less bacteria.)
 * Iosif Stalin would occasionally wear a white outfit bearing Bling of War, a look later copied by other dictators.
 * Chilean stand-up comedian Luis Fica, aka Bombo Fica.