A fine old fabric, now in a variety of fresh patterns
In spain they say cierto tejido de lino. Persians of yesteryear dubbed it Shirushahar, while Hindustani chaps called it Sirsakar – literally "milk and sugar." To the British, it's Crimp. Fashionable American bucks latched onto it during the early part of this century and labeled it good old seersucker. It's been on the fashion scene – off and on – ever since. Trouble was, in the old days, after ten minutes or so on the body during a steamy summer's day, a seersucker suit or jacket made a guy look like he had slept in his duds all night. The general attitude toward seersucker by the well-attired man was that, if you were spending the summer in the deep South or in the tropics, you could forego the demands of looking well-pressed, but it had no place at posh resorts and certainly was not considered for business wear. No more. Seersucker's been resuscitated. Thanks to a touch of body-giving synthetics, the lightweight cotton fabric with the built-in pucker is as cool as it always was, and can now stand up to any sizzling situation and keep you looking crisp from sunup through the wee hours. To make the fabric even more appealing, this year's crop of seersucker breaks from the grandly traditional gray-and-white vertical stripe and is available in a whopping variety of fresh patterns: plaids, printed designs, brilliantly colored stripes and many solid colors. We're pleased to report, too, that most all of the new seersucker suits and jackets are cut along narrow, comfortable lines. Sure to be popular is the use of olive tones in a pin-stripe suit that includes a good-looking reversible vest. Trousers and jacket are slim-cut and the vest adds a special dressed-up look. Jackets can play a smart double-duty role, too: worn over a lightweight flannel, worsted blend or seersucker solid slack, they can impart that relaxed, air-conditioned feeling. As if that weren't enough to trumpet the return of seersucker, the noble fabric is also available in a whole new range of apparel items that had never felt the cool touch of seersucker before: sport shirts, swim trunks, hats, etc. Very new and nifty in the summer wardrobe is the seersucker shirt, which you can get in the classic button-down collar. It's available in a pullover model, fly-front, in long or short sleeves. With your necktie removed, it becomes an eye-catching sport shirt; for a more regal occasion, an ascot changes the whole look. (Neckwear worn with these shirts should be cottons of small neat patterns or solid knits. Silks, foulards, etc., are too rich and should not be combined with the casual simplicity of seersucker.) A straight sport shirt in brilliant Roman stripes shows there is no end to the color possibilities of the new seersucker. This one – worn with or without an ascot – is perfect for casual fun in the sun. By the sea, seersucker swim trunks – thanks to the addition of Dacron – are as fast-drying as any trunk on the market, are less bulky and cooler against the skin than most. In making your switch to seersucker, check out the items in the photo – every one is sensibly seersucker.
