The Great Minority, 1952

(click to enlarge)

Source:

The New Yorker - 6/21/52

(click to enlarge)

Grieco Brothers company picnic, 1950

Source:

Lawrence History Center

Brooks Brothers' Distinctive No. 4 Model, 1952

(click to enlarge)

This good-looking two-button suit is a variation of our famous No. 1 model, and is favored by men who like a slightly built-up shoulder, a more tailored appearance in the cut of the jacket, and pleated trousers.

Source:

The New Yorker - 9/27/52

White Bucks, 1953

(click to enlarge)

Source:

The Daily Princetonian - 1/21/53

On a Monday morning in the fall of 1952, Peter Hulit left his Princeton shoe store and walked the short distance to Albert Einstein’s home at 112 Mercer Street. Einstein’s secretary, Helen Dukas, had asked Hulit to make an emergency house call because Einstein was having a problem with sore feet. “This magnificent guy came down the stairs,” Hulit recalls, “smoking his pipe, and he whipped this folded piece of paper out of his pocket and said, ‘Zis is ze problem, Mr. Hulit.’”

Source: "Feet of Genius" - Cabinet Magazine, Fall 2006

Simple on purpose(?), 1964

(click to enlarge)

Cardigan sweater in 100% imported cashmere, with full saddle shoulder and narrow self piping border.

Source:

The New Yorker - 10/24/64

The Cashmere Goat

Cashmere gets its name from the goat which is a  domestic animal in the high mountain regions of the Cashmere (or Kashmir) province of India. Essentially the same animal is found in other countries of the Himalaya ranges and the name "Tibet" goat is frequently used in referring to the animal from which this special wool is obtained.

Collecting the Wool

The goat is covered with coarse, shaggy hair, beneath which is the soft, downy wool fiber used in making cashmere yarn. The goats are not sheared or clipped as are sheep; instead, twice a year, as the animals are shedding, the loosened down is combed out and saved. In addition, wool is picked off the twigs and underbrush against which the goats have rubbed as they grazed. Traders tour the country periodically, buying wool from the herdsmen, and sending it out to a collection point where it is  baled and made ready for its journey to the processing plant.

The total amount of hair obtained from a single animal is almost incredibly small. It averages no more than six or eight ounces per year, according to most authorities. This means that the operations of a firm such as Cashmere are dependent on the collection of a handful of hair from as many as twenty or twenty-five million goats, living in nearly inaccessible areas of distant mountain countries. With such a tenuous supply line for its primary raw material, the business of processing cashmere might seem a highly venturesome undertaking. But such is not the case. The cashmere industry is vigorous and well-established, and its roots extend back for centuries.

Opening and Scouring

The first operations in the conversion of the dirty, unpromising, raw cashmere into a soft, beautiful yarn are opening and scouring.
 
Opening separates the fibers from some of the heavier impurities and helps to fluff them up, overcoming much of the matting which is evident as the wool is removed from the bale. Scouring, which follows, is the step in which the raw stock is freed entirely of the dirt and grease— normally present in such quantity as to represent as much as one-third of the total weight of the bale. The scouring operation is a most delicate step, for the fibers may be easily damaged.

Wallace Adler, Vice President of Erie Dyeing and Processing Company, is in charge of all the technical aspects of processing, and critical operations such as scouring, de-hairing and dyeing of the cashmere are under his personal direction.

"Cashmere may be ruined by processing techniques which are considered routine in the handling of ordinary wool," Mr. Adler points out. "The soft down is highly sensitive to alkali and it is much more sensitive to excess soda ash than is other wool. It is also readily damaged by too high a temperature during processing." 

Under Mr. Adler's direction, Erie has conducted extensive research in the problem of scouring, and the technique which has been developed has proved both safe and effective. 

The equipment used is what is known in the textile trade as a five-bowl scouring train. This is a unit consisting of five long rectangular tanks (commonly called bowls) each of which is equipped with rows of mechanically-operated forks that gently manipulate the wool and urge it along to the end of the tank where an apron transfers it to the next unit. Each bowl is for a specific function in the scouring process. The first is filled with plain water, held to a temperature of 100 degrees, and serves to condition the wool, by wetting it out and bringing its temperature up close to that required in the next steps. It also removes solid dirt particles and soluble salts from the wool. The second and third bowls contain scouring solution and the fourth and fifth are plain water rinses, which also provide a two-step drop in temperature to avoid cooling the scoured wool too suddenly.

Triton Used

Erie uses Triton, Rohm & Haas synthetic detergent, in each of the two scouring steps. The complete scouring formulation includes a carefully regulated amount of soda ash and certain other chemicals which support the detergent and emulsifying action of the Triton. The resulting scour is mild and gentle, yet it removes even the most stubborn grease and grime from the cashmere. After scouring, the wool is dried and then taken to the de-hairing room for removal of the unwanted hairs. This secret process can be described only in terms of end result: the cashmere enters the room heavily contaminated with stiff, coarse hairs; it leaves as downy wool with all these objectionable hairs removed. 

The cashmere stock is now ready for the various operations which change it into yarn. These steps include blending, mixing, picking, carding, spinning and dyeing. These are typical wool-processing operations, found in any woolen mill, but they are performed at Erie with constant attention to the extra-fine quality of the fiber being worked. 

Dyeing is of special interest, since it may be performed at any of three different points in the manufacturing process: the raw stock may be dyed right after de-hairing; the yarn may be dyed in the skein; or the sweaters may be dyed as completed garments. The choice depends primarily upon the quantities involved. When an order calls for a large number of sweaters in a single shade, the stock-dye process is commonly selected. For the opposite situation, where only a few items in a given color are required, dyeing of the finished garment is the most practical. For requirements that fall between these two extremes, the skein-dye process is the choice. In any of the dyeing operations, Triton may be used as a dye-assist. It is particularly helpful in the stock-dye process where the color must penetrate every fiber of the kettle-load of wool. In skein dyeing, as in the dyeing of the finished garment, the Triton helps to insure a uniform deposit of the dye all the way through the yarn. All dyeing at Erie is precisely regulated by automatic controls, for every effort is made to avoid any unnecessary handling of the cashmere yarn when wet. For this reason, Erie does not strip colors and re-dye - a procedure which is thoroughly practical with other kinds of wool. Cashmere must be dyed right the first time.

Full-Fashioned Knitting

The yarn which has been processed so carefully and dyed with such skill and precision is now ready for Cashmere Corporation's knitting room. Here the painstaking attention to perfection in every detail continues as the yarn is threaded onto the long rows of full-fashioned knitting machines on which the sweaters are made.

Full-fashioned knitting is essential in the production of top-quality sweaters of the type featured by Cashmere Corporation for only by this technique can the perfect fit be built into the garment.

Fronts and backs of the sweaters are knitted separately, as are the sleeves. The parts are then joined, with the sleeves being looped into the armholes on looping machines. The sweaters are now completed and the label— Hadley Cashmere— is sewn in. Hadley is the trade name for all the sweaters manufactured by Cashmere Corporation.

Source:

"Cashmere - Mink of the Sweater Trade", The Rohm & Haas Reporter - November-December 1952

Can a sports shirt be in good taste? (1952)

(click to enlarge)

Source:

The New Yorker - 1/5/52

Shoes, Bowdoin College, 1952

(click on image to view uncropped original)

Source:

Google's LIFE image archives - May 1952

Louder and Odder, 1952

(click to enlarge)

Source:

LIFE magazine - 12/15/52

Larrimor's "Ivy League Suits", 1952

(click to enlarge)

What is the IVY LEAGUE? It's a three button sack type suit with narrow lapels, no padding, easy lines, and center vent. Trousers without pleats.

Source:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - 3/24/52

Brooks Brothers, 1952

(click to enlarge)

Source:

Cornell Daily Sun - 4/17/52

Refresh yourself, 1952

Seaforth, 1952

(click to enlarge)

A new fabric import takes its place in the front ranks of sports jacket classics. Woven by skilled hands of fine Shetland wool...it has the full-bodied character and virile patterns that are so highly prized by knowing men.

Source:

Gentry Magazine - Issue #4, Fall 1952 (via flickr)

HS&M, Very short thesis on tweeds, 1952

"It used to be that tweeds were strictly for the great outdoors. But our Pan American tweeds have helped change all that. This fall you'll find them looking equally smart and appropriate on campus and in conference. Woven exclusively for Hart, Schaffner & Marx, they are a special blend of two kinds of imported wools. One is tough and wiry. The other is soft and luxurious. The result is a tweed that is rich and pleasing to the touch yet has incredible stamina and longevity. Try on a Pan American outercoat as well as a suit."

Source:

The Saturday Evening Post

Alden and Southwick, 1952

(click to enlarge)

Source:

Gentry Magazine - #5, Holiday Issue 1952, courtesy of DixieRising on The Curriculum

J. Press, 1952

(click to enlarge)

Button Down Shirts - Full cut, pullover style with wide back panel pleat - unlined collar and cuffs - buttoned down collar points, collar back and pocket flap.

Source:

Gentry Magazine - #5, Holiday Issue 1952, courtesy of DixieRising on The Curriculum

Gentry Fashions...for the undergraduate, 1952

(click to enlarge)

The muffler-toque is rather strange, isn't it?

Source:

Gentry Magazine - Issue #4, 1952 (via flickr)

Chipp, 1952

(click to enlarge)

The Chipp Ready-Cut is designed with soft natural fronts, shoulders without padding and small lapels...all important details of the conservative styling for which we are well-known.

Source:

Gentry Magazine - #5, Holiday Issue 1952, courtesy of DixieRising on The Curriculum

Natural Shoulder Models Lead in Survey, 1952

Toledo Blade editorial cartoon - May 6, 1952

Natural Shoulder Models Lead in Survey of Men Suit Sales

Woolen Types, Novelty Weaves Growing In Favor; Plaids and Checks Popular

Natural shoulder models now hold the lead in men's suit sales, accounting for 37 percent of last fall's volume, Men's Wear magazine's annual survey indicated today. Broad-shouldered drape models followed with 35 percent of sales and the "American lounge" model, 28 percent.

The survey noted the natural shoulder led in New England and the South, while the broad shoulder drape was favored in the north central area, and the "lounge" was the leader in the West.

Source:

Toledo Blade - 5/6/52

HS&M, designed for life on the campus, 1952

(click to enlarge)

Source:

Cornell Daily Sun - 12/2/1952

Note: $65 - $75 at the time of the ad is roughly equivalent to $515 - $600 today.