Synthetic Surge

When men's summer suits made out of new synthetic fabrics appeared last y>>ar, they were little more than a novelty. Supplies, from the pilot plants first built by the big chemical companies (Du Pont, Union Carbide, etc.), were so limited that few customers could get suits. Last week, for the first time, the suits were available in goodly quantities. Result: merchants, whose clothing business had been in a marked slump, found customers crowding their stores with a curiosity faintly reminiscent of the onetime rush for ballpoint pens.

Like the original ballpoints, the new synthetics were still in their high-priced phase. Many men, accustomed to paying about $20 for a cotton seersucker or $50 for a light worsted, looked askance at the $82.50 price asked by New York's Witty Bros, for a 100% Dacron suit. (The price is high because Dacron fabric still costs a lot more than worsteds.) But Witty predicted it would sell 16,000 such suits in 1952 against the 2,500 available last year. (Witty Bros, plugged the fact that its Dacron slacks are washable.) Other merchants, using blends of Dacron with wool, rayon, nylon, or other less expensive yarns, offered cheaper suits (John David's at $45, Brooks Brothers at $52, Hart Schaffner & Marx at $69.50). Chicago's Lytton's store had boys' and young men's suits made of a blend of dynel, acetate and rayon, sold 1,000 suits in a fortnight.

Deering, Milliken & Co., Inc., whose "Visa" is a blend of 55% Dacron and 45% wool, introduced another new fabric, "Lo-rette," made of a blend of 55% Orion and 45% wool, which it predicted would be a big seller for women's sportswear and suits when marketed next fall.

Synthetics still have a long way to go to overtake wool (annual U.S. consumption: 478 million Ibs.). But Du Pont, Union Carbide and others are building and blueprinting big new plants, which shortly will permit a tremendous expansion in production. Soon dynel will be spilling out at a rate of 26 million Ibs. a year, Dacron at 35 million Ibs., Orion at 36 million Ibs. When that time comes, the wool industry, already quaking, will have to look sharp lest it go the way of silk.

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