Although the forecast for the first day of spring in southern New England is two to five more inches of snow, turning the calendar page has never felt this good after we have been faced with this year’s snowfall record breaking winter. Soon it will be time to store away the winter hats, gloves and fur lined parkas. Stores are ready for the season change with their spring and summer collections in full bloom. Given the proximity of Connecticut to the sea as well as the haute couture of many of its towns, the trendy seersucker fabric will once again rear its wrinkled stripes at a beach town near you. Although associated today with a preppy look, the fabric has an interesting backstory.
Commonly, the wearing of a seersucker suit, shirt, pants or shorts happens during the summer months. The lightweight, thin cotton fabric remains away from the skin and is not restrictive like other materials. The wrinkled appearance is due to its design caused by threads which clump together. The word ‘seersucker’ is certainly unique, it is actually derived from the Persian term ‘kheer aur shakar’ which translates into milk and sugar. Typically the design includes a colored stripe, most commonly blue, side by side with a white one. The milk and sugar references the smooth and rough complementary elements of the fabric. The fabric has always been popular in warmer temperatures due to its relative resistance to heat and humidity for instance in India when it was a colony of Britain.
Seersucker is generally associated with the leisure class and is appropriate attire at events like the Kentucky Derby. Popular at yacht clubs or and with gentlemen sipping mint juleps on the porch of a southern plantation. The fabric’s early connotations were not synonymous with high fashion. Originally the material was viewed as a fabric for the underprivileged or destitute. In the early to mid-1900s, wealthy college students wore ironically, as a form of minor rebellion.
Historically, the Senate and the House of Representatives were popular scenes for the fabric. It became popular with southern males as a cooler alternative to hot-as-hell wool suits in the summer. Before the days of air conditioning, Washington politicians were often clad in seersucker as they deliberated the events of the country. In a precursor to the ever-present ‘throwback Thursday’, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott threw way back in 1996 when “Seersucker Thursdays” were declared as an annual event for Congress each June. This lasted until 2012. No matter the party affiliation, the regional representation, the gender or the background, seersucker was the great equalizer in Congress. Although in rebuttal, a Missouri Senator proposed a ban on seersucker suits for anyone over the age of eight, which he later revoked as it was presented in jest.
Today seersucker clothing is manufactured by world-renowned designers like Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren. Connecticut has many stores to pick up a seersucker suit, pants, shorts ora jacket. Among them Tailor Vintage in Norwalk, and J Crew, which has stores in Greenwich, Westport and Canton. The Martha’s Vineyard based brand Vineyard Vines, proprietors of prep, has its headquarters in Stamford as well as stores in New Canaan, Westport and Greenwich. Seersucker is a lightweight, cooler alternative when having to pick formalwear for an event taking place on a warm summer afternoon. Its shows its versatility though, as a suit jacket can be paired with jeans and a t-shirt to add some flare to a typical outfit. So now that spring is almost upon us, time to rush out to a local store and buy something seersucker!! (although you may want to wait until after tomorrow’s storm, in case the roads are too snowy….)
For more information visit: http://www.tailorvintage.com,
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/04/30/how-to-wear-a-seersucker-suit
