Playboy's Spring and Summer Fashion Forecast

Spring will be a little light this year -- and a lot brighter. A burst of color -- in whitened versions of the bold tints which set the tone in leisure wear last year -- will infuse the vernal wardrobe from lids to loafers with a fresh new look of colorful coolness.

Classic simplicity in solid-and near-solid tones will dominate the picture: tastefully subdued in dress shirts and suits, more intense in sweaters, slacks and blazers. Stripes will be holding their own in modest pin-and pencil-stripes for neckwear, slacks and dress shirts; but also, happily, in awning-striped blazers, sport shirts and cabaña tops. In the season's biggest and boldest new design for leisure living, knit shirts, swim suits and yachting jackets will be getting the color message loud and clear from see-worthy signal-flag motifs block-paneled across pockets, shorts, sleeves and waistbands in high-visibility shades both frosted and feral. Classic checks, plaids and herringbones in smaller treatments can be expected to make a twofold fashion statement: quietly in suitwear, outspokenly in sports coats. Paisleys will again be popular in traditional ascot wear, but will be retreating from jacket linings and moving into the trim new line of fabric belts along with tropic tones of madras--which will be (text continued on page 84)accenting casual attire in such departments as hatbands and summer parkas. Batik, meanwhile, has been abandoned by blazers and will be offering an unhurried view of exotica in dusky-patterned leisure slacks designed for coordination with solid-color jackets. The newest wrinkle in summer headgear: a rakish sport straw limned from brim to crown in polychrome abstract-impressionist motifs.

From a material point of view, spring and summer styles will be rich with variety. Fabrics for both dress and sportswear will be hardy and handsome lightweights keyed to the kinetic pastimes of today's work-hard, playhard man on the go. Airy cottons and cotton mixtures, mostly in frosted citrus shades, will be cooling it in everything from dress shirts to walk shorts. Bantamweight denims and chambrays -- many with rough-stitched seams outlined in contrasting threads (continued on page 86) or work-shirt detailing -- will be endowing poolside pullovers and sailing surcoats with a brawn-new look of rugged masculinity. Nifty for early-season wear, wool and mohair with their respective compound mixtures will be sharing the sartorial spotlight in springweight dinner jackets, sports coats, suits and sweaters. Ventilated knits will be spinning a lively new yarn in summer sweaters, beach and boating attire, even in semidress wear. Weightless versions of the new woven stretch fabrics -- adapted from trim-limbed ski pants -- will be striding briskly into form-fitting summer slacks, swim trunks, walk shorts and outdoor action shirts of twill-, gab- and silk-textured cotton mixtures and durable synthetics in stripes and solids.

The shape of things to come will be perceptibly and, in some cases, dramatically recast. Double-breasted suit styles (Doubling Up, March 1962), recently reanimated in slimmed-down, updated versions, will be joined by double-cousins of the cloth in elegant blazers, sports coats, and even shirts. In another innovation, the clean-lined one-button suit is expected to find favor among Jims slim enough to do it justice. And the new slacks will approach the ultimate in tailored trimness.

As a tastefully understated counterpoint, suit styles will be cleaving to classic lines and conservative coloration. The familiar outline of the natural-shoulder suit -- with three-button jacket, center vent, flap pockets, notched or cloverleaf lapels in medium widths, and pleatless trousers with conventional cuffs, belt loops and eighth- or quarter-top pockets -- will be swinging into spring. So will Continental styles -- cuffless, pleat-less and some without breast pocket. Dark-toned tweeds in lightweight wool and wool blends will be most right for the still-chill early season; and, for later on, the perennial pick of muted plaids, checks and solid patterns in weightless gabs, mohair blends and tropical worsteds -- dominated by olives, blues and grays in dusky compound-color permutations of blue-olive, blue-gray and olive-gray. Even these subdued suit styles, however, won't escape infusion with the vigor of the new leisure wear. The above-mentioned one-button suit -- with cloverleaf lapels, slanted pockets, ventless jacket and pleatless belt-loop trousers -- will be available in the same soft-sell tones, patterns and fabrics as traditional three-button styles, looking best, we feel, in imported mohair of gray or blue.

The word in formal wear is black, as always -- summer or winter. Classic models will retain their peaked lapels, satin facing and slim-lined silhouette, unimpeachable for casino or cotillion. To the venturesome, however, we commend an impeccable new variation: a short matador-style jacket trimmed in knotted black braid; detailed with peaked lapels, buttonless front and ventless back; and matched with braid-seamed trousers featuring contour waistband and top-seam change pockets.

At the other end of the sartorial spectrum, sports jackets will be going like '62 in emancipated shades and styles. Bold plaids and stripes of green, gold, cobalt and crimson will be coming on strong not only in standard three-button models (with lapped seams and patch or flap pockets), but in novel sports coat versions of the resurgent double-breasted style in suitwear, complete with rounded front, slanted pockets, peaked and semi-peaked lapels. Whites -- a leisure-wear basic back in the Twenties -- and whitened treatments of hot-hued yellows, oranges and fire-engine reds will be moving in with styles both updated and innovated in a variety of solids, stripes, plaids and checks. The new line of dark-toned jackets, meanwhile, will provide welcome accents of black-brown and deep blues in compound mixtures of gray and black to offset the dazzle of these light, bright shades. Solid-color themes will be getting equally big play in the new double-knit jersey jacket; really a lightweight sweater detailed like a sports coat with three-button front, side pockets and lapels, this upcoming style will be showing up in muted tints of olive, blue and gray.

The boom in blazers will continue unabated in solid tints ranging from soft heathers and denim blues to bright scarlets and blue-olives. The classic Navy blues and blacks are always in good taste. The prevailing hopsacks and flannels of past blazer styles will be augmented by bantamweight poplins, denims, oxfords, chambrays and soft-textured silk- and linenlike fabrics. Three-button models will remain in charge, but the revived double-breasted blazer will be entering its second flaming youth in jazzy new solid tones and contemporized detailing: slim peaked lapels, flap pockets, natural shoulders and relatively unsuppressed body lines.

The look of the new trousers will be one of trailblazing departures in style, tone and fabric. Most models will be stripped of cuffs, some of belt loops, a few even of back pockets. Many will sport lean-lined pants legs measuring a scant 15 to 13 inches; narrower fronts and extension waistbands; and even hidden pocket treatments neatly closed by side zippers. The resulting profile -- a tailored silhouette as reed-slim as any yet seen in American or Continental trouser-wear -- will be following the straight and narrow in bold denims and ducks, permanent-press tropicals, lightweight cottons of miniature herringbone design, and formfitting stretch weaves. Both patterned and solid colors will be showing up in shades ranging from subdued blues, bone whites and standard black to banana yellows and frosted oranges.

The new belts will be making the scene in colors and textures as venturesome as the slacks they'll be complementing. Designed for dress as well as sportswear, fabric belts -- in rustic hemps, hopsackings, cords and elastics of madras, batik, paisley, striped and blanket-plaid designs -- promise to be close runners to leather as the sine qua non of the dress-belt wardrobe. Leathers will remain basic, of course, but in sumptuous grades of earth-toned brown and olive as well as black. Cloth or hide, all the new belts will be buckled with classically unadorned simplicity.

Dress shirts will retain their traditional balance between conservatism and experimentation. Colors will soften to sedate pinks, olives and tobaccos; low-key blues will lead the field in tones of powder, sky, French and pale blue-green. Stripes hold sway in patterned shirt styles, with widths ranging from hairlines to broad Bengals in quiet hues. White shirts, meanwhile, will acquire subtle surface interest with a variety of wide-mesh and nubby weaves in lightweight fibers. In detailing, the barrel cuff retains its substantial edge over the French; and the tapered look continues to prevail in body styles. In some sections of the country, snap-tab collars are running close to buttondowns in preference; modified spreads will run a close third, and the new snap-tab rounded collar, a fast-rising fourth in both long-and short-sleeved styles. Available in every pattern, color and collar, the new compound-fiber shirts will make the wash-and-wear scene into an expedient both practical and pleasurable for business travel needs, country weekends, and vacation resort wear; try them on for size -- and style.

The harvest of spring and summer ties should enable you to achieve correctness and distinction with ease and elegance. Color, as elsewhere on the vernal style scene, will be making the biggest stir in solid or red-accented blues, ultramarines, tigers and black. Stripes will be abundantly in evidence with vivid combinations of blue with crimson, green and yellow. Challis and foulards will be on tap, too, in summery new shades; even silk shantung will be putting up a bold front in lively compound-color treatments of gold, aqua, olive and maroon. But if you're not feeling fit to be tied, the new ascots -- we hailed their return last month -- available in a choice selection of classic paisleys and geometries, can provide the correct finishing touch for your informal wardrobe.

On the April-shower front, rainwear has happily ceased to serve as a single-purpose garment. Without exception, the versatile new line of lightweight (concluded on page 94) Fashion Forecast (continued from page 86) spring outerwear will be designed for occasions inclement and otherwise. In classic solids, plaids and checks the raincoat--topcoat--spectator-sports-coat silhouette will retain the free flair of raglan sleeves, bal collars and Continental styling in lengths just below the knee. Among styles designed for the active sportsman -- and for the guy who simply wants to look the part -- the square-end tab and neat spread collars vie equally with the bal for fashion favor; and the welted Alpine shoulder, with its ribbed shoulder seam and set-in sleeves, creates a squared-off look that merits attention. In coats equally suitable for an early-morning trek through the woods or a cool afternoon at an exhibition ball game, the weightless warmth of laminates -- sponge-rubber Scottfoam bonded to fabric -- have banished bulk.

Sweaterwear for spring will be no less lightly bright. Classic V-neck pullovers and cardigan styles will be seasoned for colorful comfort with shirting-weight fabrics, warming or ventilating as needed, in a polychromatic variety of subtle self-patterns: midget herring-bones, springy bouclés, alpaca ski prints and classic cable knits. The new seven-button cardigan will be going six-button models one better in fashion preference; but the new cardigan-sweater--pullover-shirt sets in matching yarns, weights and textures are expected to earn an even bigger nod from the knowledgeable. Side buttons on some sweaters add a distinctive fashion highlight.

Bedecked with every seafaring motif from anchors to signal flags, summerized versions of winter sportswear will run rampant: hoods atop deck jackets; draw-string-bottomed summer parkas in every fabric from madras to party-striped slicker cloths; flag-designed windbreakers in water-repellent poplins; knitted pullovers with crew-neck collars; button-front surcoats with oversize pockets; collarless cardigans of heavy-duty denim, corduroy and Dacron-cotton in tones ranging from solids in frosted blue, green and yellow to tricolors in red, white and blue. Zip-and button-front deck jackets will be paneled with broad blocks of equally forceful color in complementary tones and textures: vertical-striped burnt oranges, diagonally crisscrossed saffrons, cobalt-blues V-shaped to outline yokes. Even winter stretch fabrics in lightweight counterparts will be sighted in ultra-casual beach-warmer coats with matching pants. Still other coats will employ the rough-stitched outline of work-shirt detailing to achieve a ruggedly masculine look for deck or boardwalk.

Elsewhere on the casual scene: sport-shirt styles, liberated last season from conservative Ivy conventions, will again be sparked by refreshing revivals and innovations, and splashed with primary pigments. Featherweight versions of wide-weave denim and chambray -- with sleeves, yokes, collars and pockets outlined in rough-stitched seams -- will be infusing leisure wear as well with the work-shirt look in frosted shades of ocher and umber, citron and vermilion. Key-nothing a contrasting trend to tailored lines are the double-breasted shirt, inspired by the resurgence of the elegant Thirties' silhouette in suits; and the smart new shirt-jacket, cut along the clean lines of the Ivy sports coat (complete with vents, lapels, flap pockets, rounded front and three-button front) in high-key solids and tricolor stripes -- an eminently suitable style for patio dining, beachside barbecues, or just about anything else under the summer sun. Even traditionally tailored shirts will be cutting a wide swath in bold solids, circus stripes, flashy plaids and brightly accented classic checks, with the trim snap tab and a shorter, neater but-tondown running neck and neck in collar preference.

In knit shirts, nautical flag patterns are the order of the day, with collars, sleeves and pockets illuminated by panels of sunburst color. The revived one-piece collar will be seen on Continentally detailed pullovers. Cardigans will appear with and without collars, the latter getting our nod for its clean-lined simplicity. And action knits -- especially the new line of sweater shirts in luxurious alpaca textures, stretch terrys and supersoft velours -- will be swinging handsomely with raglan sleeves, ribbed bottoms and underarm inserts for unlimited freedom of movement.

Emulating the lean lines and lively tones of spring and summer slackwear, the new walk shorts will be stepping out in styles tailor-made for the slim physique and active pastimes. With slimmed-down leg and seat dimensions, these sport-keyed shorts -- some side-vented -- will be showing up in plain-front Alpine lengths, shipshape boating styles with wide-web belts, traditional Bermuda models, and in striped and solid shades ranging from classic white and navy to supercharged reds and oranges.

Color will be making its biggest splash in swimwear -- as the plaids, checks, tweeds, stripes, batiks and geometrics of last season are met with a new wave of nautical flag motifs in pennant-paneled trunks of cardinal red, chrome yellow, electric blue and Kelly green. The classic boxer-style brief, revamped with legs, pockets and/or waistbands in contrasting shades, will be taking on a nautical new look. Flag-patterned stretch styles will be cutting no less fine a figure on beach and boardwalk, but only, we advise, among the flat of stomach and lean of hip. Conventional knits, too, will have their season with a variety of styles, mostly in boxer and Jamaican lengths; and in undiluted solid tones ranging from cool whites and black to jungle shades of salmon and scarlet, tangerine and lime. But the standard square-leg brief remains indisputably basic to any wet-wear wardrobe.

Cabaña sets will blend tradition and innovation with tasteful abandon in free-styled tops keyed to the tints and patterns of coordinated trunks and walk shorts. These two-piece beachside warmers will be making their presence comfortably felt with knit pullovers, cardigan-style tops and tapered outside shirts in unabashed plaids, flag-bright maritime motifs, tropical stripes and the new line of work-shirt denims and chambrays sleekly urbanized for leisure wear.

Crowning the warm-weather silhouette is an array of jaunty headgear for workday and weekend wear. The heavy-lidded feel of cloth hats has been moth-balled by lightweight straws, slimly brimmed and trimly tapered for both strand and thoroughfare. Headlining the urban straw-hat circuit is the pinch-front model in an airy assortment of supersoft weaves and tradition-breaking tones of olive, bronze and blue. Even the classic panama, updated with trim shapes and equatorial shades, will be pushing for a comeback. But our straw vote goes to the immaculate Milan hat, first featured by us in last year's Spring and Summer Fashion Forecast. This is a close-woven, shape-holding style most effective in spotless ivory-white banded with black -- though most of the new dress hatbands, in a reversal of sartorial convention, will be lighter-hued than the lids they complement. Colorwise and otherwise, the bumper crop of straws for leisure wear will go to the heads of the daring -- or exhibitionist -- in a prismatic assortment of weaves, textures, tones and trims. Some will be ablaze with abstract-impressionist motifs painted on the straw; others ventilated with decorative rows of quarter-inch brass grommets. Most will sport narrow bands patterned with madras prints, bold plaids, batiks or contrasting woven straws.

Proceeding from head to toe, we find the lighter, brighter look of the vernal wardrobe stepping lively in shoe styles ranging from the classic loafer to the canvas deck shoe. Toeing the mark in featherweight leathers and ventilated fabrics, the new line of spring and summer footgear spans the spectrum smartly from black to white, with rich earth tones of tan, olive and honey most actively afoot. Thus shod, you'll be ready to put your best foot forward and set a brisk fashion pace indeed.