The spring runways featured so much white an observer couldn’t help but wonder: Is fashion entering its fifth great white period? Springtime, with all of its new-beginning associations, naturally ups the white count. But anybody who has been shopping for their warm-weather wardrobe knows that one practically needs shades (Miu Miu’s chunky little Dolce Vita throwbacks, preferably) for all the blinding white light in stores at the moment.

Fashion loves when one of its trends happens to coincide with a similarly themed museum exhibition, and the validating force this time around is the luminous “White on White (and a Little Gray)” opening today at the American Folk Art Museum. Drawing from the museum’s own collection of whitework textiles, print-work embroideries, and marble-dust drawings, the show is a tribute to essentially female artforms from the Federal era through the 19th century.

“Because Neoclassicism was an aesthetic movement bound up with intellectualism and cerebral ideas of society, whiteworks became an expression of an elitist notion of enlightenment,” the senior curator at the museum, Stacy Hollander, said. She also pointed out that while white’s associations with purity, refinement, and economic status have been around for centuries, its ties to virginity only came along in the Victorian era.

Eyelet – the original air-conditioned fabric – dominates the current white revolution. It’s coming from not-so-surprising fashion precincts like Michael Kors, whose pretty floor-length shirt dress is probably the most photographed of the season, and Diane von Furstenberg, who showed an adorable T-shirt-and-shorts combo. But there are less likely examples, too, namely the ultra-modern shifts at Miu Miu.

Another popular manifestation on the spring runways were the ’60s-inspired A-line silhouettes best seen at Francisco Costa’s cool, strong showing for Calvin Klein and Phoebe Philo’s triumphant, albeit short-lived, return from maternity leave at Chloe. Mr. Costa silk-screened circles – that ’60s standby – onto his dresses, while Ms. Philo had intricate circular appliques sewn onto immaculate organza gems. Speaking of circles and the ’60s, Patrick Robinson at Paco Rabanne ingeniously pushed that futuristic house further into the future with a hot white pantsuit accentuated by a round, spacesuit-like collar.

Dolce & Gabbana, as one would expect, did naughty-white, with sheer, lacy corsets punctuated by black underthings and white platform wedges strung up – why not? – like a corset. Even Imitation of Christ’s new denim line went heavy on the bleach.

As it happens, where the Folk Art Museum exhibition begins – the late 18th century – marks fashion’s first all-out embrace of white. Although white neoclassical statuary may be the most obvious inspiration, the Empress Josephine, who was a Creole born in Santo Domingo, also bears responsibility for importing the bleached white sensibility of the Caribbean to Paris.

“In a way, the whole goddess look in fashion started with Josephine,” the director of the Museum at FIT, Valerie Steele, said.

The neoclassical revival of the early 20th century brought about the second white era, when so-called lingerie dresses of cotton, linen, lace, or crochet were in vogue. Hollywood’s golden age of the 1930s ushered in the next white moment. Costume designers of black-and-white movies quickly realized that white satin showed up best on-screen, especially when Jean Harlow was poured into it.

The last whitewash came in 1964, when Andre Courreges seized upon white (and silver) as the ultimate metaphors for youth and the Space Age, inspiring thousands of imitations of his mod A-line silhouette paired with go-go boots.

Since then, there have been two iconic incidents that failed to translate into mass appeal: Valentino’s all-white couture collection of 1967 and – cue “Exile on Main Street,” please – the white Yves Saint Laurent suit that Bianca Jagger wore to wed Mick Jagger.

All of this begs the question: Why white now? Ms. Steele offers a green explanation, and she doesn’t mean environmental. “The big push for color failed spectacularly. Don’t forget that black is also huge this season.” As fashion observers may remember, recent collections saw a lot of royal purples and emerald greens; women were having none of it.

Whether we’re in the throes of something that will last longer than spring 2006 remains to be seen. But for now, the rich, goddess-like glamour that only white can convey feels very right, right now.