Seer Sucker details

[Mr. Lucky]

I have a contemporary (since I'm a 50 reg) seersucker in grey stripe and I love it. Great summer suit for both the dry heat of L.A. and the tepid humidity of Upstate NY.

I don't know if anyone is interested, but Jos. Bank is having a sale on them - http://www.josbank.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=&pcount=&Product_Id=266297

Great deal!

 

[Orgetorix]

I don't know if anyone is interested, but Jos. Bank is having a sale on them - http://www.josbank.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=&pcount=&Product_Id=266297

Great deal!

Man, if the double-breasted one were as cheap, or if they had any other colors than blue, I'd definitely go for it.

 

[Happy Stroller]

The Jos. A. Bank sales offer looks extremely attractive, particularly since suits in large sizes are available. But I notice that the SS offered have normal lounge suit designs, e.g., the standard pockets with flaps. Shouldn't the SS jackets as part of a leisure suit sport patch (both chest and waist) pockets?

Can normal broadcloth cotton suits with similar candy stripes qualify as SS? I had a quick glance at some cotton fabrics with candy stripes which had a crinkly look (at least for the white background stripes). In Shanghai, they're called Pop-Pop cloth. Are they the SS material we are talking about?

 

[Happy Stroller]

I'm also from the northeast and can attest to the fact that seersucker suits are worn by very conservative gentlemen - mostly bankers and such - during summer months.
:
I think seersuckers are great and would love to get a matching boater. Maybe next summer.

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It's still warm (22-28 degrees C.) in Shanghai, but just nice for wearing a SS suit plus boater and loafers. Shanghai has been upgrading its public amenities continually and substantially for more than a decade. There are wonderful clean roadside benches located in quite a few locations with wide pavements and it would great to sit with a SS suit reading the latest financial news or watching various people going by.

But I need to know exactly what it is that makes a proper and perhaps perfect SS suit. For example, would peak lapels be prefered, or how many buttons should a classical SS jacket have?

 

[Orgetorix]

Can normal broadcloth cotton suits with similar candy stripes qualify as SS? I had a quick glance at some cotton fabrics with candy stripes which had a crinkly look (at least for the white background stripes). In Shanghai, they're called Pop-Pop cloth. Are they the SS material we are talking about?

Seersucker isn't a pattern, it's a type of cloth defined by the weave. Normal broadcloth isn't seersucker; they're different materials woven differently. Broadcloth is usually just a simple, even over/under weave. Seersucker is woven with the warp (vertical) threads in alternating bands of normal and slack tension. Where the threads are left with some slack (usually the white stripe in a candy-striped fabric), it results in a "crinkly" look. Not all seersuckers are woven in color-striped patterns, though--there are solid-color seersuckers, windowpane and checked seersuckers, etc. These are pretty rare nowadays, but were much more common in the '20s and '30s. Old Apparel Arts issues sometimes have illustrations of them. I've seen some striped cotton pincord fabrics sold as seersucker, but they aren't.

 

[Orgetorix]

From a Cigar Aficionado article by G. Bruce Boyer:

The Seersucker Suit
American seersucker is a cotton version of the silk seersucker worn in the nineteenth century by the British in India. The word itself seems to be a Hindi corruption of a Persian phrase, shir shakkar, which translates as "milk and sugar." This etymology refers to the alternating smooth and rough textures of the stripes, the distinctive feature of the cloth, which is achieved by what is called slack-tension weaving: alternating fibers are held under normal tension, while intervening ones are kept slack to create a pattern of puckered and flat stripes. Seersucker's most distinguishing characteristic is its greatest stylistic virtue as well: it flaunts its rumpled state with aplomb.

It became popular as the perfect cloth for hot, humid climes. In the South, men began to wear seersucker suits in the summer around the turn of the century as a more comfortable alternative to flannel and linen, but they were considered a rather cheap approach to dressing and had little fashion allure until university men began wearing them after the First World War. They were seen at tony country clubs in the '30s and '40s but didn't really catch on with businessmen in the North until the end of the Second World War, as witnessed in a newspaper column written by that great writer and dandy Damon Runyon in July 1945:

I have been wearing coats of the material known as seersucker around New York lately, thereby causing much confusion among my friends. They know that seersucker is very cheap and they cannot reconcile its lowly status in the textile world with the character of Runyon, King of the Dudes. They cannot decide whether I am broke or just setting a new vogue.

Now considered a classic of the warm-weather wardrobe, the only thing about the seersucker suit that's changed--apart from its cachet, of course--is the price. In the '30s, the all-cotton beauty could be had for around $15. Today, the renowned American tailoring firm of Southwick still makes the original--the three-button, soft-shouldered model, with patch-and-flap pockets--for a cool $775.

 

[Happy Stroller]

Starting with $15 in 1930 and with an inflation rate of 2 1/2 % per year for 75 years compounded, we get a present day equivalent price of about $95. That Jos. A. Bank SS suit on special offer for $99 looks pretty fine.

Quoting Orgetorix:

"Now considered a classic of the warm-weather wardrobe, the only thing about the seersucker suit that's changed--apart from its cachet, of course--is the price. In the '30s, the all-cotton beauty could be had for around $15. Today, the renowned American tailoring firm of Southwick still makes the original--the three-button, soft-shouldered model, with patch-and-flap pockets--for a cool $775."
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[cookie]

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Thank you all, for the various images. They all show how smart a SS can be. Thanks, Flitcraft, James TI and Hemingway Jones.

I didn't know a SS could look so great with a matching waistcoat and a long tie, too. I really love your red candy SS, Tomasso.

My fault in overlooking Seersucker refers more to the material rather than the striking typical blue or red candy Seersucker and white cotton stripes pattern. I had the blue and white stripes pattern more in mind when I asked with what the SS should be worn.

I can see the question of suitable hats could be touched on. I imagine there's some kind of straw hat or something similar to what Uncle Sam typically wears with the Stars And Stripes pattern replaced by blue or red candy and white stripes on the vertical sides of the hat which, not as tall as a Top Hat, could be worn.

Maybe I could add a suitable cane to stroll around with in the park or along an esplanade on a nice cool morning. Should it be a formal cane, such as a black one with a gold or silver ball top?

BTW, would such an outfit qualify as a sports suit, or a leisure suit? If so, would wearing such a suit downgrade the image of a respectable conservative gentleman?

Paul Frederick had nice red stripe seersucker this year.

 

[slicedbread]

Just thought I'd add this for anyone who was interested...Hopefully someone from the lounge grabbed this... 1930's double breasted seersucker...if i knew it was so rare perhaps i would've bid on it myself...

http://cgi.ebay.com/BROOKS-BROTHERS...ryZ52388QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Orgetorix]

Just thought I'd add this for anyone who was interested...Hopefully someone from the lounge grabbed this... 1930's double breasted seersucker...if i knew it was so rare perhaps i would've bid on it myself...

http://cgi.ebay.com/BROOKS-BROTHERS...ryZ52388QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Man, I wish I'd seen it. Vintage seersucker is indeed vanishingly rare today, as it was such a fragile fabric it didn't last like wool did.

 

[Fletch]

I like seersucker an awful lot, altho I only keep one around at a time. Right now it's a cheap*ss Cricketeer that cost me about $97 at Men's Wearhouse.

They do have an awfully narrow niche they fit into stylistically, though. Sloppy-dandy-conservative? I know from my male relatives that they were never worn in the Midwest back in the day, despite our blistering summers and humidity. A Midwestern gentleman couldn't risk looking sloppy or effete, let alone both at once.

 

[undertaker]

I love SS suits. I have a blue and white and a tan and white Haspel. Hope to add the gray and white to them this year as well. They are the only reason I look foward to the hot humid summers in Tennessee. Since the SS are not suitable for work they are my Sunday suits for the summer. They are the most comfortable suits I've ever worn. I have even bought SS pajamas and sport shirts, Yep, I've got it badlol lol .

Regards,
J.S.

 

[Mr. Rover]

The Jos. A. Bank sales offer looks extremely attractive, particularly since suits in large sizes are available. But I notice that the SS offered have normal lounge suit designs, e.g., the standard pockets with flaps. Shouldn't the SS jackets as part of a leisure suit sport patch (both chest and waist) pockets?

Can normal broadcloth cotton suits with similar candy stripes qualify as SS? I had a quick glance at some cotton fabrics with candy stripes which had a crinkly look (at least for the white background stripes). In Shanghai, they're called Pop-Pop cloth. Are they the SS material we are talking about?

Yes- the translation of seersucker to Chinese is Pao Pao Bu...aka pop pop cloth. Go for it! I'm going to get a seersucker shirt made here in Taiwan before summer in the US.

 

[bingolittle]

i wear an olive and tan ss 3 button suit....usually with a white button-down and a blue,yellow striped bowtie....it was this suit that caught my wife's eye before we started dating!....i have a thin-wale blue-white 3 -button sportcoat that i wear with khakis and a polo...

 

[SamReu]

Spokes Man

Brooks Brothers made its name as a purveyor of seersucker suits, and to this day stocks them. They should be arriving pretty soon, in time for the spring and summer season.
I have a blue-and-white two-piece suit from Brooks -- two-button, pleated -- which I usually wear with a crisp white or light-blue button-down shirt. I have, on occasion, worn a bowtie with the suit, but be forewarned: Combine a bowtie with seersucker and someone will make jokes about ice-cream men.
A pair of dirty bucks sets off the ensemble nicely. Oh, and a straw Panama. But that didn't need mentioning, did it?
A related thought: I also have a Corbin seersucker sport coat. It has a half-lining, and goes really well with jeans, khakis or lightweight cloth pants. Women, I've noticed, like it.

 

[cookie]

SS Suits

Is the Brooks Brothers SS a generous fit?

 

[Fletch]

If it's typical Brooks fit these days, it's generous thru the jacket midsection, but rather spare in the pants waist.

 

[JamesT1]

Is the Brooks Brothers SS a generous fit?

I would imagine that the fit of their SS is similiar to that of their other garments.

So yes, rather generous or "Sack-esque" as some might say

 

[Mr. Rover]

Could they take it in for you?

 

[Orgetorix]

Could they take it in for you?

Yes, they could, though any suit can only be taken in so much before its balance and fit are thrown out of whack.