Portrait Of A Contemporary (1967)

we are products of our age defined by our buildings our art our songs our [Music] clothes no age has been more clearly defined by its Fashions than contemporary 20th Century our address speaks unmistakably of space and speed of astronauts and astrodom of high-i and TV and univac of SuperSonics super highways and supermarkets our Fabrics are just as unmistakably today woven to the specifications of a going generation this is the story of one of these Fabrics a fabric that has waited a thousand years for the 20th century this is the story of Cordo [Music] [Music] its ancestry can be traced back to the Egyptians and a coarse pile cloth known as fustion but the ribbed cotton fabric we know today did not appear until the 18th century Louis the 14th of France dressed his servants in it and some enterprising an Englishman aware of the snob appeal of a French label called this corded pile cloth Cordura French for cted the King still it was considered suitable only for servants laborers and peasants prized only for its ruggedness with the 20th century however new technology began slowly but certainly to bring about a new way of life made clothing began to appear in stores and designers began to look for new fashion fabrics in 1935 a fine narrow whale corduroy was introduced for men's plus fours plus fours went out of style but tennis Idol Bill Tilden took a fancy to white cordoy tennis slacks and cordoy moved into fashionable circles a decade later there was a veritable corduroy explosion postwar 20th century liked going and doing and corduroy was durable enough to stand the pace it loved wearable casual clothes fashion decreed that function was Beauty and prized corduroy off-hand Elegance so popular has it become in recent years that Mills have had to work around the clock to meet the demands it is so familiar to most of us that we take it for granted never realizing what a feat of textile technology it is it begins with a slender thread of cotton spun of The Fluffy White Fiber from the seed pot of the plant a slender thread but strong as steel actually it begins with thousands of Slender threads strung harpik on a loom it is woven much like any other fabric the lengthwise threads are alternately raised and lowered while the shuttle races back and forth with the crosswise threads [Music] [Music] at this point the Corduroy is a rather ordinary piece of cloth without its characteristic soft plushy pile but the pile is there and the trick is to raise it the operation is a delicate precise one tiny needlelike guides are inserted under the cross threads in the surface of the fabric as the fabric is drawn toward them a series of rotary cutting knives set above the guides cuts the threads [Music] now it resembles somewhat a ribbed bath towel but it is not yet curo the pile must be brushed and fluffed until it is as soft as chinchilla [Music] it's bleached and washed and dried and it's ready to be colored to be dyed brilliant solids or printed corduroy prints were first first introduced in the 1930s and in the artc conscious 20th century have become an important part of the fashion scene it is printed much like a colored photograph in a magazine engraved rollers apply each color one at a time in just the right places [Music] but the chemist can do still more to Corduroy in chemical baths he adds a lustrous she to it he can make it water repellent and stain resistant he can make it hold a crease permanently or make it resist wrinkling he can even make it stretch the things that 20th century demands of its [Music] Fabrics now the cordoy is ready to be turned into the thousand one things we wear and live with to give you some idea of the scope of the 20th century corduroy boom Americans will buy nearly 175 million yards of it this year in suits dresses and coats nearly every type of wearing apparel even evening dresses [Music] [Music] they'll clothe their children in it [Music] m s with it [Music] and they'll furnish their homes with it even cover their walls with it in Fashions and Furnishings this is the age of corduroy [Music]