page_title: Seersucker
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Seersucker / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Dick Roden, chief engineer at Steamtown, in the cab of steam locomotive CN3254.Photo taken with an Olympus E-5 in Steamtown National Historic Site, PA, USA.Cropping and post-processing performed with Adobe Lightroom.
context_page_description: Seersucker or railroad stripe is a thin, puckered, all-cotton fabric, commonly striped or chequered, used to make clothing for spring and summer wear. The word came into English from Hindi, and originates from Sanskrit क्षीरशर्करा and also Persian words شیر shîr and شکر shakar, literally meaning "milk and sugar", from the resemblance of its smooth and rough stripes to the smooth texture of milk and the bumpy texture of sugar. Seersucker is woven in such a way that some threads bunch together, giving the fabric a wrinkled appearance in places. Often realized by warp threads for the puckered bands during weaving being fed at a greater rate than the warp threads of the smooth stripes. This feature causes the fabric to be mostly held away from the skin when worn, facilitating heat dissipation and air circulation. It also means that pressing is not necessary.
  Common items made from seersucker include suits, shorts, shirts, curtains, dresses, and robes. The most common colors for it are white and blue; however, it is produced in a wide variety of colors, usually alternating colored stripes and puckered white stripes slightly wider than pinstripes.
context_section_description: During the British colonial period, seersucker was a popular material in Britain's warm-weather colonies like British India. When seersucker was first introduced in the United States, it was used for a broad array of clothing items. For suits, the material was considered a mainstay of the summer wardrobe of gentlemen, especially in the South, who favored the light fabric in the high heat and humidity of the southern climates, especially prior to the arrival of air conditioning.
  During the American Civil War, this cheap but durable material was used to make haversacks and even the famous baggy pants of Confederate Zouaves such as the Louisiana Tigers.
  From the mid Victorian era until the early 20th century, seersucker was also known as bed ticking due to its widespread use in mattresses, pillow cases and nightshirts during the hot summers in the Southern US and Britain's overseas colonies. 
  The fabric was originally worn by the poor in the U.S. until preppy undergraduate students began wearing it in the 1920s in an air of reverse snobbery.
  Seersucker's comfort and easy laundering made it the choice of Captain Anne A. Lentz, one of the first female officers selected to run the Marine Corps Women's Reserve during the Second World War, for the summer service uniforms of the first female United States Marines. From the 1940s onwards, nurses and US hospital volunteers also wore uniforms made from a type of red and white seersucker known as candy stripe.
caption: Steam locomotive driver wearing a popular shade of light blue and white striped seersucker overalls and engineer cap
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