The white gi stay white longer,the black gi on the other hand turn into grey gi rather quick. However I must confess that I know a guy that trains in a yellowish gi that used to be white. (And I don't think that it had to do with washing with something yellow, rather than old sweat turning it yellow.)
Or you could buy a gi which is unbleached cotton. It doesn't show the sweat as much. Personally I always wanted a hemp gi. I've only ever met one person who had one and once they're worn in they're really soft.
We're wearing the 'classical' white gi, nothing on it, except for the factory tag. It's a shotokan studio and we're pretty 'traditional' with this in my country.
Officially we wear white (Shorin Ryu, Aikido). I've been known to wear an unbleached Judo gi without issue, and sometimes for non-school functions (such as padded weapons battle at my friends HKD school) I've worn other colors (black, although I did want a red top with the college logo on it (ask me later)).
I used to wear white, but my new school wears black. I feel a certain attachment to my Black Gi because as I train with it (and wash it) it fades more - like it's showing my experience. Gradually it's going to turn light grey and that will show that I've got experience and that I've stuck in. Y'know, a bit like okinawan students in the old days not washing their belts and eventuallyl they turned black (tell me if I'm wrong, I've heard several different stories like that).
Wasn't it the availability of the material on Okinawa? I believe I read somewhere (?) that the canvas of rice sacks from the military bases were converted into DoGis after the war. Can't rate the credibility though. can someone confirm that? Osu!
I thought it was because the samurai used to wear a Gi as underclothes to stop their armour from rubbing. White was the colour associated with death or burial clothes. Hence they wore a white Gi symbolising they are ready to die.
3 white, 1 blue, 1 dark blue. hardly ever use them anymore. except maybe the pants. and the gi shorts.
OK. In case you wanted to know; Upon my many martial art/Samurai Books; “Secrets of the Samurai” Oscar Ratti/Adele Westbrook “Arms and Armor of the Samurai: The History of Weaponry in Ancient Japan” Ian Bottomley “Samurai: An Illustrated History” Mitsuo Kure “Samurai: The World of the Warrior “ Stephen Turnbull “The Book of the Samurai, The Warrior Class of Japan” Stephen R. Turnbull “Art of the Samurai Selections from the Tokyo National Museum” Harada, Kazutoshi “Art of the Samurai Japanese Arms and Armor, 1156-1868” Ogawa, Morihiro; Et Al “Samurai! “ Saburo Sakai/Martin Caidin/Fred Saito “Bushido, The Way of the Samurai” Yamamoto Tsunetomo “Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai “ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, William Scott Wilson With this in mind, the garment under the Samurai armour-Gusoku ****a The Gi, also known as the Keikogi, is credited to Judo's Founder: Jigoro Kano That all said, training attire is usually less expensive clothing, loomed from a simple pattern without the idea of fancy dress. Simply, it could be old clothes just to sweat in. It really was not supposed to be any garment of germane .
Classical JMA wear for demos etc was indigo. for day to day training the forerunner to the dogi was essentially light under clothes, (vest and pants almost) hence the short like nature of old gi in photograph.