{"id":6840,"date":"2018-03-15T03:13:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T03:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=6840"},"modified":"2018-04-01T21:23:44","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T21:23:44","slug":"on-nehru-jackets-madras-shirts-and-the-magic-of-spin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=6840","title":{"rendered":"On Nehru jackets, Madras shirts, and the magic of “spin”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Beatles<\/a>\u00a0– at the height of their mid-1960’s fame – sporting their “trendy<\/a>”\u00a0Nehru jackets<\/a><\/strong>…<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

Over the past year I’ve accumulated a number of draft posts<\/a>:\u00a0 Draft posts that have remained unpublished “even to this day.”\u00a0 So for this<\/em><\/strong> post I started with some\u00a0odds and ends<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One such “scrap” had to do with\u00a0Nehru jackets<\/a>.\u00a0 They were the “hip-length tailored coat for men or women, with a\u00a0mandarin collar<\/a>,” as featured by the Beatles\u00a0– and others – in the early 1960s:<\/p>\n

The jacket began to be marketed as the\u00a0Nehru jacket<\/i>\u00a0in Europe and America in the mid 1960s.\u00a0 It was briefly popular there in the late 1960s and early 1970s, its popularity spurred by growing awareness of foreign cultures, by the\u00a0minimalism<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Mod lifestyle<\/a>\u00a0and, in particular, by\u00a0the Beatles<\/a>\u00a0and subsequently\u00a0the Monkees<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note also that the word “trendy<\/a>” first came into use around 1962.\u00a0 (What a great decade!)\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

And here’s another BTW:\u00a0\u00a0Jawaharlal Nehru<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0– seen above right and for whom the jacket was named – “never<\/em><\/strong> wore a Nehru jacket.”\u00a0 The point being that – while I never got to wear a Nehru jacket in the 1960s (when I was in high school)<\/em> – I did<\/em><\/strong> get to wear a\u00a0Madras shirt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Madras shirts – and pants and jackets – also became popular in the 1960s.\u00a0 The name came from\u00a0the Indian city of Madras, now called\u00a0Chennai<\/a>.\u00a0 (Located near the southern tip of India, the city is now nicknamed “The Detroit of India,” with more than one-third of India’s automobile industry.)\u00a0<\/em> And the “Madras shirt” is definitely a lesson in\u00a0spin doctoring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"1954The original idea was a “lightweight breathable fabric suited to a humid tropical climate.”\u00a0 (Like Florida, where I used to live.)\u00a0<\/em> And today’s Madras is basically a check-patterned cotton cloth, in three varieties.\u00a0 The most interesting of the three is\u00a0bleeding Madras<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For us the story began when a textile importer – and ultimately\u00a0Brooks Brothers<\/a>\u00a0– loved<\/em> <\/strong>the fabric’s low price.\u00a0 But the seller never mentioned that it “required utmost care when laundering because the color would run out if it wasn\u2019t gently washed in cold water.”<\/p>\n

As a result, “Customers were furious when they saw the colors run that ruined their expensive summer apparel.”\u00a0 Lawsuits were threatened, but ultimately a solution of “sheer marketing genius” was arranged.\u00a0 An attorney for Brooks Brothers<\/a>\u00a0arranged a meeting with an editor from\u00a0Seventeen magazine<\/a>, about a new “miracle handwoven fabric from India:”<\/p>\n

In the following issue, the editor ran a seven-page article about fabric titled \u201cBleeding Madras – the miracle handwoven fabric from India<\/strong>.”\u00a0 And since pictures say more than 1,000 words, they added beautiful photographs with the caption \u201cguaranteed to bleed<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 Within a days [sic<\/a>]\u00a0of the magazine hitting the newsstands, Brooks Brothers was flooded with thousands of requests for the Madras items and it became an overnight success.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And who couldn’t help but fall in love … with either the dashing “Hathaway gent” in the photo above left, or\u00a0\u201cMad Men<\/a>‘s”\u00a0Pete Campbell<\/a>?\u00a0 (As shown below.)\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0And speaking of lessons in\u00a0spin doctoring<\/a>:\u00a0 I just\u00a0Googled<\/a>\u00a0“spin conor lamb<\/a>” and got 16,900,000 results.<\/p>\n

Which just goes to show:\u00a0 Fashions like Madras may come and go, but\u00a0spin<\/a>\u00a0goes on forever!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

\"Mad<\/p>\n

“Mad Men<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Pete Campbell<\/a>\u00a0[center] in Bold [Madras] Sportscoat…”<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The upper image is courtesy of “https:\/\/sep.yimg.com\/ay\/yhst-73969762682587\/beatles-45-rpm-picture-sleeve-i-ll-cry-instead-b-w-i-m-happy-just-to-dance-with-you-32.gif.”\u00a0 See also\u00a0File: Beatles I’ll Cry Instead.jpg<\/a>\u00a0(Wikipedia).\u00a0 As to Nehru jackets in general, see\u00a0<\/em>Nehru jacket – Wikipedia<\/a>, and\/or\u00a0The Nehru Jacket Guide \u2014 Gentleman’s Gazette<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re: “Trendy.”\u00a0 The\u00a0Merriam-Webster<\/a>\u00a0definition included a note that the first-known use of the word came in 1962.\u00a0 For other “first words” from 1962, see\u00a0WORDS FROM THE SAME YEAR<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 “Spin conor lamb:”\u00a0 Those results included\u00a0New GOP spin: Conor Lamb is a secret Republican<\/a>, and\u00a0Paul Ryan Is Dizzy From The Spin He’s Putting On Conor Lamb’s Victory<\/a>\u00a0(dailykos.com<\/a>).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The lower image is courtesy of\u00a0Madras Guide – How the Shirt, Pants & Jackets Became Popular<\/a>\u00a0(Gentleman\u2019s Gazette<\/a>).\u00a0 See also\u00a0Mad Men – Wikipedia<\/a>, which noted the character\u00a0Pete Campbell<\/a>\u00a0(Vincent Kartheiser<\/a>) was a “young, ambitious\u00a0account executive<\/a>\u00a0from an old New York family with connections and a privileged background.”\u00a0 Further, “Campbell is often shown cheating on his wife, and is not above manipulating and blackmailing women to get them to sleep with him.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

See also\u00a0prescience<\/a>,\u00a0foreboding<\/a>, and\/or\u00a0foreshadowing<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

On a totally unrelated note:\u00a0 The original title for this\u00a0of\u00a0draft post<\/a>\u00a0was “On Nehru jackets, Madras shirts \u2013 and other<\/strong> odds and ends.”\u00a0 As to such\u00a0odds and ends<\/a>, see also\u00a0Dictionary.com<\/a>, which noted that this term \u2013 for a \u201cmiscellany of leftovers, outsizes, scraps,\u201d or \u201cunmatched bits\u201d \u2013 came to its present meaning in the mid-1700s.\u00a0 \u00a0Some future posts will likely feature more “odds and ends…”<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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The Beatles\u00a0– at the height of their mid-1960’s fame – sporting their “trendy”\u00a0Nehru jackets… * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * Over the past year I’ve accumulated a number of draft posts:\u00a0 Draft posts that have remained unpublished “even to this day.”\u00a0 So for this post I started with some\u00a0odds and ends. One such “scrap” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6840"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6840"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7083,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6840\/revisions\/7083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}