a different stripe
Would you ever have imagined that the staple of the summertime Southern wardrobe not only had humble beginnings but also originates from a Hindi/Urdu phrase? Alexandria Stylebook takes you deep into the history of seersucker – a fabric that has ties to the US Senate, the Marine Corps, and India.
My earliest memories of seersucker are from the grey and white jacket that my Father wore to work and to church. Although not intentional, my Mother later purchased a grey and white seersucker suit. She remembers the local Sheriff calling them “The Twins” if they wore their seersucker at the same time. (I grew up in a small town – it’s not that unusual for the Sheriff to have fashion opinions). And I’ll never forget my first job in DC and the seersucker suit a co-worker from Louisiana broke out immediately following Memorial Day. But I didn’t think a great deal about the fabric until two pieces that I ordered in January arrived at Zoe this month. Where did it come from? And how did it become so popular?
Seersucker is a thin, puckered, all cotton fabric. The English translation comes from the Hindustani (a combination of Hindi and Urdu language spoken in Northern India and Pakistan) means “rice pudding and sugar,” likely due to the resemblance of the smooth/bumpy stripes to the smooth texture of milk and the bumpy texture of sugar. It typically doesn’t require ironing (unlike its summertime cousin, linen) and tends to breathe lightly on the skin.
You’ve probably seen movies or film clips from the former British colonies like India or North Africa with men dressed in seersucker. According to David Colman’s New York Times article in 2006, seersucker was originally worn by the workingman as a cheap American cotton version of the finer Indian silks. In the 1920s, Ivy Leaguers adopted the fabric as their preferred summer-wear. And a form of “reverse snobbery” was born.
But what does seersucker have to do with the US Marine Corps? For the first female US Marines, it was the fabric of choice for their summer uniforms due to its comfort factor and easy laundering. And until June 2012, the US Senate observed Seersucker Thursday (typically the second or third Thursday in June). Started by Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi in 2006, his goal was to show that “the Senate isn’t just a bunch of dour folks wearing dark suits.” Although discontinued, many Senate staffers still don seersucker on Summer Thursdays (my former co-worker would be right at home!)
With our Washington DC summer on the horizon, it’s time to bring out the seersucker!
