Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?


A Tribute To Seersucker

by Chris Sullivan
11 August 2014 3 Comments

With panache and "as much balls as those who wear it", Seersucker is the cloth favoured by such legends as Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Dean Martin.

a-seersucker-suit-hat-men-ralph-style-fashion-stro1-650x637

“Every stylish man should invest in a nice bit of seersucker,” stresses tailor Mark Powell. “It’s got as much balls as those who wear it.” Indeed gone are the days when a fellow might be accused of wearing his mum’s kitchen curtains while sporting seersucker - the bumpy striped pastel and white  cloth once favoured by mega nerds and Yankee golfers. “Classic seersucker is a cotton polyester mix,” explains tailor Charlie Allen. “That is why you can bung it in a washing machine, tumble dry it, pull it out and put it on.”

The fabric, as we now know it, first made an appearance in 1907 when New Orleanian Joseph Haspel used it to create a totally wash and wear suit. Seized upon by the sweaty south the cloth soon became the stock in trade for Mississippi gamblers, lawyers, and politicians.  “Don’t forget almost every stylish American male star has worn it in the past,’ attests Powell who has long fielded the cloth in his collections.“Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Dean Martin, Sinatra and, James Dean.” Yet, even though considered quintessentially American the cloth was  originally an expensive silk and linen concoction from India that, heftily favoured in the 19th Century by the British Raj, owed its curious moniker to a Hindi corruption of a Persian phrase, shyroshakar- that refers to the alternating rough and smooth textures of the stripes - and literally means, ‘milk and sugar.’ Not a lot of people know that.

www.markpowellbespoke.co.uk
www.charlieallen.co.uk

More…

Selvedge Denim: What Every Man Needs To Know

A Tribute To The Loake Burford Boot

If you like it, Pass it on

image descriptionCOMMENTS

Howard 9:25 am, 5-Jan-2014

Totally agree. For years my friend and I have been looking at the ones in Harvie & Hudson and thinking "if not now, when"?

mike 12:43 pm, 20-Jan-2014

there are certain things that no man should ever be without , and the seersucker is one of them.

Acton_Baby 11:50 am, 9-Sep-2014

"“Classic seersucker is a cotton polyester mix,” explains tailor Charlie Allen" As the availability seersucker as a fabric pre-dates the invention of polyester this definition is a bit dubious, 'true seersucker' is traditionally a 100% cotton fabric. It's origins are actually North African via France and then onto the USA. The name has it routes in the Persian language 'sheer-shakar' or 'milk and sugar' a description of the white/off white stripes of the original North African fabric. French fabric manufacturers copied/appropriated the 'loose weave' technique of the original material into their industrial weaving methods and it's this that produces the texture of the cloth we know today (they also added the contrast colours to the stripe). Initially used for making summer shirts and dresses, enterprising tailors in the South of France started making more formal clothes in the fabric for the well-heeled locals to wear in the summer months. It's route into the USA was very much via this French influence on The South. The Haspel company bought weaving machines in the early 1900's from the French, initially to duplicate the fabric in the US to meet local demand in the southern states. The arrival of Haspel's cotton/Orlon mix in the early 1940s (which is what Mr Allen may have been referring to) and then there's the story of Joe Haspel Sr. in 1946... Haspel was attending a convention in Boca Raton, Florida, when he took his a dip into the sea in his seersucker suit. Afterwards he hung his suit over his hotel room tub to drip dry. Later that evening, those who had seen him in his unrthodox bathing attire were equally surprised to see him wearing the same suit, and his act was the hit of the Middle South Utilities Inc. banquet. There are great photos of it here... http://www.ivy-style.com/bathing-suit-joseph-haspel-goes-swimming-in-seersucker-1946.html

Leave a comment

Fashion & Style image description SABOTAGE

1