Stuck on Each Other

As every clothing manufacturer has always known, flawless fabrics do not exist. Tweed is good in the winter but bad in the stretch, cashmere is cozy to the touch but droopy to the eye, and silk has lots of life but little body. Recently, however, a technical breakthrough called "bonding" has promised to free the industry from some of the limitations of its own materials.

Two materials that offset each other's weaknesses are glued together with adhesives made from coal tar or polyurethane foam. Bonding fragile fabrics onto stable yet supple synthetics, textile manufacturers can make cloth that lasts longer, holds its shape better, and resists stretching. The potential of the hybrid materials is so great that 300 million yards of bonded fabric have been produced this year, and by 1970 bonding is expected to capture 50% of the industry.

A major advantage of bonding is that it eliminates the need for a separate lining. This not only saves considerable labor and cost, but also does away with the loose linings that tend to bunch up in the sleeve or tear loose at the hem.

No Sag or Buckle. Bonding has also opened new vistas for hard-to-manage materials. Mohair jackets and coats, infamous for bagging and stretching, can now be stabilized with a simple backing of cotton sheeting or tricot. Loose-weave hopsack and tweed suits no longer sag in the seat and buckle at the knee, keep their shape as well as an all-Dacron suit. Lace, once too fragile for anything but brides and banquet tables, now can be used for all-purpose coats and dresses. Women's heavy knitted suits and dresses, often made double-thick to prevent stretching and wrinkling, can be just as neat and twice as light if made of bonded single knit.

Coin International, the leader of the new bond street, has achieved a 3-D effect by bonding a semitransparent Japanese print over a polka-dot crepe, thus allowing the polkas to show through the print. It is experimenting with scratchy materials such as fiber glass and burlap, which can be made wearable by bonding to a smooth inner skin. Also looming is a new rash of reversibles. Because bonding makes two-faced suits and coats possible, designers may soon be turning themselves inside out to give customers two costumes in one. Instead of going home to change, the day may come when a businessman can arrive at work in a grey worsted, leave in a black dinner jacket. All that stands in the way is the trivial matter of how to make it fit both ways--and what to do about the pockets.

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