# "Seersucker Guide" from South Carolina paper



## djl (Feb 6, 2006)

This was in _The State_ newspaper, in Columbia, SC. It's much better than I would have expected, suggesting "natural shoulders," regimental or madras bow ties, sock-less, grosgain belt and watch strap, etc.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

What a great article, informative as well as entertaining. The multi color (seven different colors, in an alternating sequence) fabric sounds a bit edgy for my tasts but, otherwise...love that sucker! Thanks for sharing.


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## AlanC (Oct 28, 2003)

Looks like they got it pretty much right. The Brittons men's store they reference is where I purchased most of my Hanauer bow ties, some of them at trunk shows back in my grad school days.


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## Jay Gatsby (Jun 8, 2006)

Great article!

Jay Gatsby


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## pendennis (Oct 6, 2005)

Very entertaining and informative. Nice to see that someone takes the time to get the traditions right.


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## Liam (Jun 18, 2006)

*Braces and belt?*

The blurb on braces concludes "Pattern should not compete with belt." I was under the impression that there was a pretty firm rule about wearing one or the other, but never both. Is this just another flamboyance allowed with Seersucker? It never would have occured to me to wear a striped ribbon watchband either.


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## Trilby (Aug 11, 2004)

Great article. As Liam points out, the only serious error is the implication that you would wear braces and a belt together.

Also, would any any of the Trads here wear a suit without socks? I find it hard to imagine wearing any suit (even a seersucker one) with deck shoes or espadrilles, sans socks.


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## Liam (Jun 18, 2006)

*No socks?*

The New York Times Style magazine's "Men's Fashion Spring '06" issue included a number of pictures, both accompanying articles and in ads, of men wearing suits and shoes without socks. This seems to have some obvious functional problems, and I've never done it myself, but for some reason it seems to be somewhat in fashion.


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## Patrick M Thayer (Dec 24, 2004)

I would never think of wearing boat shoes with socks. . .and I would never think of wearing boat shoes with a suit. . .


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## kkollwitz (Oct 31, 2005)

I live in Greenville, SC, wear seersucker on hot days (over 95 degrees or so), but wouldn't dream of not wearing socks with a suit. At best people would think I was an idiot, at worst that I was insulting them.

Although maybe it's it's different in the Midlands.


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## tripreed (Dec 8, 2005)

I've been wearing my seersucker with my white bucs with some socks that I cut down so that it looks like I'm not wearing any socks. I like the look and it keeps me from ruining my shoes.


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## Coolidge24 (Mar 21, 2005)

Nice avatar trip.

In response to the above...I certainly wear the striped watchbands (with everything except my formalwear) but I would not dream of wearing Top-Siders with a seersucker suit or going sockless with it.

Per advice from this forum several months ago, I wear colorful socks of the sort found at Brooks with the white bucks.

And never suspenders with a belt. What are they thinking? 

I usually wear suspenders with suits, although sometimes with the sucker I occasionally go for an emblematic or surcingle.


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## AlanC (Oct 28, 2003)

kkollwitz said:


> Although maybe it's different in the Midlands.


LOL
----


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## tripreed (Dec 8, 2005)

Coolidge24 said:


> Nice avatar trip.


Thanks, Cooly. I was hoping that someone would get the reference.


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

You scanned in the avatar I take it? So much good info in the OPH 

Brian


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## Where Eagles Dare (Feb 14, 2006)

I like the black penny loafers, no socks look myself.


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

I caught the belt and suspenders thing, too.

I'm sure something unintended got through the editing process.


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## knickerbacker (Jun 27, 2005)

*belts with suspenders*

Obviously, a very bad idea.

Were one to need any confirmation, I'd recommend watching Sergio Leone's
"Once Upon A Time In The West" in which Henry Fonda plays a vicious hired gun who kills a flunkie, "Buckles", that wears a belt and suspenders by shooting him in the suspender adjusters (twice in the chest) and once in the belt buckle while saying "How can you trust a man who can't trust his own pants?"


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## JLibourel (Jun 13, 2004)

*Tan Shoes*

As a Westerner of Yankee origins (my great-grandfather served in the Army of the Potomac and lost his arm in the Battle of the Wilderness), I just acquired my first pair of seersucker pants--this after seeing my father-in-law (a Yankee's Yankee, New Hampshire born and bred) and his daughter, my wife, wearing seersucker pants at the latest family get-together.

Anyway, I was curious about the prohibition on tan shoes with seersucker. I would have thought that it would look pretty good with my Allen-Edmonds shoes in chestnut. Can one or more of you who is thoroughly steeped in the rich Southern tradition of seersucker enlighten me as to why it is such a faux pas?

Fear not! For my first wearing of them tomorrow, they shall be paired with white bucks!


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## Liberty Ship (Jan 26, 2006)

JLibourel said:


> As a Westerner of Yankee origins (my great-grandfather served in the Army of the Potomac and lost his arm in the Battle of the Wilderness), I just acquired my first pair of seersucker pants--this after seeing my father-in-law (a Yankee's Yankee, New Hampshire born and bred) and his daughter, my wife, wearing seersucker pants at the latest family get-together.
> 
> Anyway, I was curious about the prohibition on tan shoes with seersucker. I would have thought that it would look pretty good with my Allen-Edmonds shoes in chestnut. Can one or more of you who is thoroughly steeped in the rich Southern tradition of seersucker enlighten me as to why it is such a faux pas?
> 
> Fear not! For my first wearing of them tomorrow, they shall be paired with white bucks!


I have lurked on these seersucker threads and now feel it is necessary to speak up. I was raised in the deep south, with what seems to have been a trad background. Seersucker has been part of my life since birth; I think my first formal childhood photo was a seersucker suit (with shorts), white shirt, and a bow tie.

When I was a child, black and white saddle shoes were what kids wore with seersucker. As I got older, that changed to cordovan or black leather. Others seemed to go to "tassle loafers," I never did. Sometimes I would see penny loafers; to _me_ that would be a "go to hell" statement. Never saw, nor can I imagine, no socks. Boat shoes???? ????! It seems as if the seersucker has been pirated by the trust fund kids!!!

Strangely, I think that the way to "dress down" a seersucker suit is to "dress it up." I like black cap toes, and a black tie, gosgrain or silk knit. I'm trying to remember if I have ever seen a pocket square with seersucker. I might wear white bucks with seersucker slacks, or even the suit with no tie, but probably not with a tie when using the seersucker suit in its more formal role as a cool, comfortable summer replacement for my business suit.

P.S. My great-great grandfather sends his apologies to your great grandfather. But, in all fairness, your great grandfather shouldn't have been running around the woods in Virginia with a gun.


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## AlanC (Oct 28, 2003)

Jan, I think seersucker with tan (or, well, cognac below) shoes looks quite good, actually.










I have also worn mine with chestnut AE Lexingtons.



Liberty Ship said:


> My great-great grandfather sends his apologies to your great grandfather. But, in all fairness, your great grandfather shouldn't have been running around the woods in Virginia with a gun.


Well said, LS.


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## JLibourel (Jun 13, 2004)

Liberty Ship said:


> P.S. My great-great grandfather sends his apologies to your great grandfather. But, in all fairness, your great grandfather shouldn't have been running around the woods in Virginia with a gun.


And my great-grandfather sends his apologies to your great-great grandfather for the inhospitable reception the Army of Northern Virginia received at places like Antietam (Sharpsburg to you Rebs, I guess) and Gettysburg when they attempted to move north.


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## Liberty Ship (Jan 26, 2006)

JLibourel said:


> And my great-grandfather sends his apologies to your great-great grandfather for the inhospitable reception the Army of Northern Virginia received at places like Antietam (Sharpsburg to you Rebs, I guess) and Gettysburg when they attempted to move north.


Now, see here, the only reason my great-great grandfather went north was to draw your great-grandfather away from our women, homes, crops, and livestock! And if we had had seersucker instead of woolens in that summer of 1863, our boys would have made it up that hill at Gettysburg without breaking a sweat even with black boots instead of white bucks, and you, suh, would be eating grits instead of oatmeal!

(This is getting ugly.)

Found this pic of your great-grandfather and my great-great grandfather burying the hatchet. Well...sort of....


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## JLibourel (Jun 13, 2004)

For all the complaints about the "War of Northern Aggression," let's not forget who fired the opening shots!


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## Liberty Ship (Jan 26, 2006)

JLibourel said:


> For all the complaints about the "War of Northern Aggression," let's not forget who fired the opening shots!


Well, we wouldn't have had to shoot if they had surrendered Fort Sumter like General Beauregard so politely asked Major Anderson to do, subsequent to South Carolina's peaceful resignation from the Union. To wit:

Headquarters Provisional Army, C. S. A.
Charleston, April 11, 1861.

Sir: 
The government of the Confederate States has hitherto foreborne from any hostile demonstrations against Fort Sumter, in hope that the government of the United States, with a view to the amicable adjustment of all questions between the two governments, and to avert the calamities of war, would voluntarily evacuate it.

There was reason at one time to believe that such would be the course pursued by the government of the United States, and under that impression my government has refrained from making any demand for the surrender of the fort. But the Confederate States can no longer delay assuming actual possession of a fortification commanding the entrance of one of their harbors and necessary to its defense and security.

I am ordered by the government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter. My aides, Colonel Chestnut and Captain Lee, are authorized to make such demand of you. All proper facilities will be afforded for the removal of yourself and command, together with company arms and property, and all private property, to any post in the United States which you may select. The flag which you have upheld so long and with so much fortitude, under the most trying circumstances, may be saluted by you on taking it down. Colonel Chestnut and Captain Lee will, for a reasonable time, await your answer.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Brigadier-General Commanding.

Major Anderson replied as follows:

Fort Sumter, S.C.,
April 11, 1861.

General:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding the evacuation of this fort, and to say, in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which I regret that my sense of honor, and of my obligations to my government, prevent my compliance.

Thanking you for the fair, manly and courteous terms proposed, and for the high compliment paid me,

I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.
https://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/civilwar/cw26.htm

And so it began...clearly an act of passive agression on the part of the representative of the Union initiating the hostilities.

But we have strayed from seersucker, which makes me think of the mint juleps I will be drinking on the 4th of July while rocking on my front porch -- in my seersucker suit.


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## knickerbacker (Jun 27, 2005)

Liberty Ship said:


> I have lurked on these seersucker threads and now feel it is necessary to speak up. I was raised in the deep south, with what seems to have been a trad background. Seersucker has been part of my life since birth; I think my first formal childhood photo was a seersucker suit (with shorts), white shirt, and a bow tie.
> 
> When I was a child, black and white saddle shoes were what kids wore with seersucker. As I got older, that changed to cordovan or black leather. Others seemed to go to "tassle loafers," I never did. Sometimes I would see penny loafers; to _me_ that would be a "go to hell" statement. Never saw, nor can I imagine, no socks. Boat shoes???? ????! It seems as if the seersucker has been pirated by the trust fund kids!!!
> 
> ...


JLibourel,
As a Yankee born in Connecticut of old New York Stock (though forcibly relocated to the Commonwealth of Virginia as a minor) I still look at the song "battle hymn of the republic" as a cover song.. of "John Brown's Body" of course, and though there is much our respective great grandfathers might disagree on, their offspring from opposite sides of the country agree on at least one thing- black shoes ( I, too wear a captoe) with seersucker or pincord suits. White bucks are as go-to hell as I think this person should get in terms of shoe selection. Brown's somewhere between the two on the scale from conservative to GTH, and all three are acceptable. For some reason, I associate white bucks as a gift to us from the 1920's.
Nice post
Regards,
Knickerbacker


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## Liberty Ship (Jan 26, 2006)

knickerbacker said:


> JLibourel,
> As a Yankee born in Connecticut of old New York Stock (though forcibly relocated to the Commonwealth of Virginia as a minor) I still look at the song "battle hymn of the republic" as a cover song.. of "John Brown's Body" of course, and though there is much our respective great grandfathers might disagree on, their offspring from opposite sides of the country agree on at least one thing- black shoes ( I, too wear a captoe) with seersucker or pincord suits. White bucks are as go-to hell as I think this person should get in terms of shoe selection. Brown's somewhere between the two on the scale from conservative to GTH, and all three are acceptable. For some reason, I associate white bucks as a gift to us from the 1920's.
> Nice post
> Regards,
> Knickerbacker


Lol! That reminded me of a conversation I had with my mother when I was in my early teens. Were were in an upscale Southern men's store looking for clothes, probably my school uniform. I saw a pair of bucks, maybe white, and picked one up off the display and walked over to her hoping that she would buy a pair for me. Seems like a lot of my friends had them. She looked at them, then looked over her glasses at me, and said, "I don't think we are that kind of people." The _nouveaux pauvres_ cling to standards with greater tenacity than anyone else!


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## Tomasso (Aug 17, 2005)

Trilby said:


> I find it hard to imagine wearing any suit (even a seersucker one) with deck shoes or espadrilles, sans socks.


For resort wear or a summer party I'll sometimes wear seersucker and linen suits sans tie with espadrilles sans socks. And, a Panama hat:icon_smile_wink:


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## Tito (Aug 6, 2006)

The character looks like JOE! I agree weejuns or white bucks. No socks.


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## Joe Tradly (Jan 21, 2006)

Tito said:


> The character looks like JOE! I agree weejuns or white bucks. No socks.


JOE who?


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## Tito (Aug 6, 2006)

Sorry this is .


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## Joe Tradly (Jan 21, 2006)

Tito said:


> Sorry this is .


You're right! Wonder if he ever wears seersucker.

JB


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## djl (Feb 6, 2006)

Joe Bondi said:


> You're right! Wonder if he ever wears seersucker.
> 
> JB


Hard to tell the details, but at least he's on the right track here with Gov. Romney this weekend in what appears to be poplin...


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

Gentlemen,

AlanC, that is a nice look. I have worn seersucker for many years as well.
Never thought of chestnut or a brown.
That is very nice.

Nice day gents


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