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Despite a history stretching back centuries, the seersucker is your perfect suit for this summer. Read our guide to this artfully crumpled sartorial titan.
“Create myself down south / Impress all the women / Pretend I'm Samuel Clemens / Wear seersucker and white linens.”
These lines, sung by the great American songwriter and chronicler Tom Petty in his song ‘Deep South’, consecrated the immortal seersucker suit in verse. Summer is the season when this centuries-old fabric comes to the fore: when the limpid stripes of a seersucker jacket twined with seersucker pants are the talk of every garden party, outdoors opera, or yachting voyage.
The benefits of the seersucker are as storied as its origins – so let’s take a peek at the suit’s history and fabric detailing, then the finest ways to make this summer staple sing.
Seersucker: Origin story
Originating in India, the cotton seersucker suit became popular with 19th-century British settlers due to its airy disposition for those working in stifling climes. It migrated to the United States where it assumed popularity amongst blue collar workers – particularly those in the sweltering Deep South – until a haberdasher from New Orleans names Joseph Haspel repurposed it as a businessmen’s essential in 1909. By the 1920s, students from Princeton and other Ivy League institutions had popularized the seersucker design – most famously its pale blue striped suit.
Some famous patrons then amplified it to the masses. Notably the Duke of Windsor during the 1940s, then Gregory Peck – the latter of whom donned a three-piece seersucker in his portrayal of Atticus Finch for 1962’s To Kill A Mockingbird. The rest? Put simply, is sartorial history.
Seersucker: What’s in a name?
Seersucker itself is an anglicised version of the Persian words ‘shiroshaker’: meaning ‘milk and sugar’. This is in recognition of the suit’s cotton composition: soft like milk, but crumpled like mounds of sugar. This not only makes it an airier option for broiling days, but also the simplest choice when travelling to a summer nuptials or beachside bolthole. Simply pop a seersucker jacket and seersucker pants into your travelling attaché and they will emerge virtually ready-to-wear. Those rushed calls to a hotel valet or housekeeper can thus become burdens of the past.
Seersucker jackets and pants: Two ‘rights’ do not make a ‘wrong’
You don’t necessarily have to wear the seersucker trousers and jackets in partnership. Either the beige or the blue would pair admirably with some navy lightweight tropical chinos. Nevertheless, they scale the sartorial heights when working in lockstep.
You could opt for the vintage blue striped suit and know that you are in a distinguished lineage of seersucker habitués. Prefer something that’s a little more subtle – yet reassuringly eye-catching? The natural striped seersucker suit will traverse all the grandest summer commitments. Just be mindful to not spill a post-dinner Americano down your breeches…
Suit up with seersucker pants and seersucker jackets
Seersucker suits: accessories and accoutrements
The Superfine luxury Panama hat, weaved from the most coveted Toquilla straw from Ecuador, is the last word in summer seersucker accessories – combine with a blue striped suit for the definitive pairing. Elsewhere? Surely a bold patterned tie and matching pocket square – we love this William Morris effort with its intricate, summery detailing. Whilst we would gladly die on the hill of dressing for dinner, this beige striped suit also lends itself to dressing down: why not try with a textured white polo shirt and weave seamlessly from morning to sundown.
Pair your seersucker with the endlessly refined Superfine luxury Panama hat
The seersucker is a staple of any serious summer wardrobe. Pop your sandals on and stroll through our range of seersucker suits, and perhaps plump for an airy jacket or the coolest pair of pants.
