Word: denim
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When Huck Finn put on his patched, faded blue denim overalls to go catfishing on the Mississippi, he never dreamed that he was anticipating a fashion trend for 1953. But last week, in shops and stores across the land, no cloth was selling faster, or in more colorful varieties, than once drab, once humble denim. For the U.S. textile industry, it is the Cinderella cloth that became queen of the ball...
...Denim's revolution is a product of the two-day weekend, the trek to the suburbs, and the increasing informality and casualness of U.S. living. Schoolboys started it, in the 19305, with a penchant for the copper-riveted "levis" which San Francisco's famed Levi Strauss began making for gold miners and cowhands back in 1850 (TIME, Feb. 27, 1950). High school girls quickly copied the craze. Spare-time yachtsmen found that salt water gave the deep blue levis a faded look, which became so fashionable that youngsters dumped bleach into the family wash to fade their...
...makers of denim cloth decided that if people preferred light blue denim, they had better start making it. The new material went into men's slacks, women's play clothes, shorts, golf skirts, windbreakers and children's play clothes. Companies like Erwin Mills, Inc. started experimenting with the idea of denim in new weights and bright colors...
...course, for pure comfort, the bathing suit and a broad expanse of ocean will never be superceded. For a more practical substitute, bermuda shorts--for male or female--will always do. They come in cool materials like denim or cotton khaki...
...present, however, we must consider what is presently correct. In the Spring, seersucker and cord jackets are both practical and eminently proper. Of late, the inexpensive blue denim jackets have become quite popular. There are also sober tan or grey gabardine suits, and for more formal occasions or chilly evenings, the ever-dependable grey flannel is unspeakably proper...