Sharkskin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the textile. For the skin of sharks, see
placoid scales. For the rough leather, sometimes made of shark's skin, see shagreen
.

Sharkskin describes a specific woven or warp-knitted fabric with a distinctive sheen. Sharkskin is a

lycra
, and other plastic fibers.

The arrangement of darker and brighter threads in a twill weave, creates a subtle pattern of lines that run across the fabric diagonally and a two tone, lustrous appearance. Primarily a suiting material, the fabric is sometimes seen in light jackets and non-fashion items such as curtains, tablecloths, and as a liner in

wetsuits.[1][2][3]

Composition

President Harry S. Truman's sharkskin suit, 1950s.

Sharkskin has historically been made with different types of natural fibers, including either

alpaca in such blends: inclusion of silk was even more common among the "natural sharkskin". Whereas, "artificial sharkskin" is a fabric variant that is more often found from that period and can contain synthesized or synthetic fibers that were developed contemporary to those eras.[4]

Artificial variations

Artificial sharkskin variants used for suiting first appeared in the 1950s. These variants made more significant use

disco era of the late 70s
. Its popularity waned, but enjoyed brief fashion resurgences in the mid-1980s, mid-1990s and late 2000s.

Middle East

British diplomat Sir Terence Clark in the 1950s served in Bahrain. He reminisced that the requisite winter evening wear for a diplomat was a white sharkskin dinner jacket.[5] Lucette Lagnado in her prize-winning memoir about her childhood, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World uses the imagery of the white sharkskin suit to evoke the glamorous evening life in Egypt in the 1950s. Early in Justine, Lawrence Durrell mentions the heroine sitting in front of a multi-panel mirror trying out a sharkskin dress; the book is set in the high society of diplomats and businessmen in Alexandria in the 1930s, a city where Durrell spent much time during World War II, a few years later.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ The Textile Institute and Industry - Volume 5. The University of Michigan: Textile Institute. 1967. p. 174.
  2. ^ Frank Pollatsek, William Seitz, Louis Goldblatt (1952). Fabrics Today and Drycleaning - Volume 1. Origin University of Minnesota: New York Neighborhood Cleaners Association. p. 36.
  3. ^ Tregonning, Melwyn. Fabric Dictionary. Mel Tregonning.
  4. ^ Harris, Milton (1962). Natural and Synthetic Fibers Yearbook. p. 156.
  5. ^ Churchill College Cambridge. "British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP)". Archived interview: Former member of the British Diplomatic service Charles Cullimore interviews fellow diplomat Sir Terence Clark on Friday 8, November 2002. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sharkskin&oldid=1228856798"