In 1948 Mother Teresa changed her Sisters of Loreto habit to a simple cotton white sari with one blue stripe. Blue is the color of the Virgin Mary. The sari covered an all white habit. She (and later, her sisters of charity) wore the habit for over ten years. But parents of several Bengali sisters pointed out that the sari with one blue stripe was also worn by poor women who swept the streets of Calcutta. Mother Teresa and her sisters officially adopted the three blue stripes in 1960.