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CHARLOTTE, N.C.
— Done right, the seersucker suit is the
quintessential model of Southern sophistication.
Done
wrong, or in the wrong setting, and you look like a
displaced member of a barbershop quartet.
Preppy,
ivy-league looks are hot this summer. The lean
seersucker suit and well-tailored seersucker separates
fit in perfectly with the iconic American sportswear
look.
Women's
sportswear designers have turned a spot-light on
seersucker this season, even down to the seersucker one-
and two-piece bathing suits offered by J.Crew.
"It's
a hugely important fabric for summer wear," said
Bruce Julian
of Bruce Julian Clothiers in
Charlotte, N.C.'s
Arboretum shopping center.
"One
of the best things about it is that it's got an inherent
wrinkle to it. As long as you've got a crease in the
trousers — even an OK one — you're good,"
Julian says. "That's why it's always been such a
popular suit in the South, because it doesn't show
wrinkles."
Seersucker
is a good wardrobe investment piece because it makes an
appearance every year, says
Sarah Collins
, associate chairwoman of fashion for the
Atlanta
campus of the
Savannah College of Art and Design
.
"It's
something you'll see every spring and summer, and it
won't date itself," Collins says. "A nice
pencil skirt in seersucker or a somewhat-fitted jacket
will probably last a long time."
Seersucker
is woven with a combination of slack and tight threads,
giving it a puckered, rippled effect that holds it away
from the body, allowing air to circulate and the body to
cool.
The
fabric has origins in 18th-century
India
. The name was derived from the Persian compound "shirushakar,"
which translates to "milk and sugar,"
presumably to describe the fabric's texture.
Larry Hayes
of
Weddington, N.C.
, says he'll never forget catching his first glimpse of
a man wearing a seersucker suit when he moved from
New York
to
Maryland
about 20 years ago.
Now, he
has two suits and a jacket — all in blue and white
stripe — and the comments he gets when wearing them
with his bow tie and white buckskin shoes are so
complimentary, his 17-year-old son, Tyler, asked for a
suit last year.
"When
I put that suit on, I feel like a Southern
gentleman," Hayes says.
———
The
seersucker suit was born in the early 1900s when a
New Orleans
tailor,
Joseph Haspel
, took the cloth normally used for laborers' overalls
and used it for high-end business wear.
"He
knew it was going to be functional as well as
fashionable," said Haspel's great granddaughter,
Laurie Haspel Aronson
, president of the 100-year-old Haspel clothing line in
Baton Rouge, La.
To
popularize the suits, Haspel began selling them to
young, up-and-coming
Ivy League
students, Aronson says. They loved the suits' look and
comfort, and when they took them back to campus, the
look caught on.
In 1946,
Haspel created a media buzz during a fashion trade show
by wading into the
Atlantic Ocean
wearing one of his trademark blue and white seersucker
suits. As reporters watched, he hung the suit up to dry,
then put it on for a cocktail party that evening.
The
"wash and wear" suit was born.
———
Chockey Kassem
, owner of Chockey's Men's Designer Fashions in
Raleigh
, says it's OK not to go full dandy if you're wary of
the head-to-toe seersucker look.
"It
becomes less attorney-looking when you break it down and
wear the pants by themselves with a nice linen
shirt," Kassem says. Seersucker pieces in
nontraditional colors like green or pink also change the
look, he says.
Lawyer
Geoff Simmons
, a longtime Chockey's shopper, strives to distinguish
himself from the other seersucker-wearing lawyers. The
natty dresser, who will only pull out seersucker when
it's hotter than 90 degrees, says he moved from wearing
his light blue seersucker when the color became too
prevalent among his peers, then did the same when the
gray became popular. On this day, he has on a tan
seersucker suit, paired with
Cole Haan
bucks with a pointed rather than a rounded toe, and a
straw-hat.
"I
believe a lawyer should wear a dark suit whenever
possible, but when it's hot and you have to have a
jacket on, it's the most comfortable suit you can
have," he says.
This
season, clothiers are offering tea-stained seersucker
pieces that soften the look. For women, there are even
more choices with labels like Spiegel offering stretch,
body-conforming seersucker in everything from walking
shorts to duster jackets.
Charlotte
lawyer
Turner Herbert
says seersucker has gone so mainstream across the
country that he no longer turns heads when wearing it on
business trips to cities such as
Chicago
or
New York
.
"When
I traveled to other offices ... I used to feel I was
being stereotyped as a Southern lawyer," says
Herbert, 34. "Now you're just as likely to see it
in
New York
as Birmingham."
Some
fashion experts, however, disagree.
"You
won't be perceived as a legitimate businessman going
into a
New York
office with your navy blazer and cotton khaki
pants," says
Richard Pattison
of the
Charlotte
men's clothier Taylor, Richards & Conger.
"Seersucker is lumped in the same category. ...
(But) it's phenomenal for an informal business event at
the lake, or if you're going to
Charleston
for the weekend and you have to dress up for a
wedding."
Let
others debate that.
Raleigh
lobbyist
Mark Ezzell
, once a reluctant suit wearer, bought his first
seersucker suit two months ago. He is now fully on
board, saying seersucker should be in every Southern
man's wardrobe.
"It's
the fabric of the gods," he says.
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