Farewell to Flannel

Then all of a sudden, she saw some jerk she knew on the other side of the lobby. Some guy in one of those very dark grey flannel suits and one of those checkered vests. Strictly Ivy League. Big Deal.

The Catcher in the Rye

During Tom Brown's school days at Rugby a century ago, for fastidious Dink Stover going up to Yale in 1912, down to Catcher's supercilious modern hero, Hoiden Caulfield, the big deal for the well-dressed schoolboy and collegian has always been flannel. In the last decade alone, flannel for boys' and students' suits has topped all other suit fabrics in the U.S. each year without exception. But last week fabled flannel was on the way out. In 1960 worsteds will be the most popular fabric for youthful suits, followed by hopsackings, with flannel toppling to third place, according to a retail buyers' survey made by the Boys' Apparel Buyers' Association and the Clothing Manufacturers Association of the U.S.A.

The figures: the tightly woven worsteds in 1960 will grab 37% of the boys' suit market, 48% of the student trade. Hop-sackings, a coarse, basket-weave pattern of cotton, linen, rayon or wool, will make up nearly one-fourth of both boys' and students' suits. Fading flannel will plummet to 21% of the junior market, a mere 14% of the undergraduate trade. Best explanation for flannel's worsting by worsted, from a buyer in New York's Old School Tie haberdashery. Brooks Brothers: worsteds weigh less, wrinkle less, wear longer--and now are being made in flannel--like finishes and colors.

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