Plate No. 010fabric

The classic summer-suit stripe.

First documented: c. 1700s
Origin: South Asia, India
Fiber: cotton
Weave: slack-tension plain weave
Family: stripes

Plate No. 010 · fabric

Seersucker

Seersucker is a cotton fabric whose puckered stripes are woven, not printed, by holding some warp threads slack while others are taut. The raised stripes lift the cloth off the skin, which is why it became summer suiting in hot climates and a fixture of the American South. The pucker survives washing because it is structural rather than a finish.

Illustration: a New Orleans veranda on a hot afternoon in the 1920s, a pale striped summer suit jacket over a wicker chair, sweating glass of iced tea on a side table, ceiling fan, deep shade and bright street beyond — A New Orleans veranda on a hot afternoon in the 1920s, a pale striped summer suit jacket over a wicker chair, sweating glass of iced tea on a side table, ceiling fan, deep shade and bright street beyond.

Named for

From the Persian shir o shakkar, milk and sugar, by way of Hindi, describing the cloth's smooth and puckered stripes side by side.

Often confused with

Linen vs Seersucker →

From the journal

Guaranteed to Bleed: How a Flaw Sold Madras →

Sources & References

1.Seersucker, Wikipedia
2.seersucker, Online Etymology Dictionary

Related specimens

Ticking pattern

Ticking

fabric · stripes

Breton Stripe pattern

Breton Stripe

pattern · stripes

Pinstripe pattern

Pinstripe

pattern · stripes

Madras pattern

Madras

fabric · checks

Linen pattern

Linen

fabric · plain

Cloqué pattern

Cloqué

fabric · pile