Inspiration: Corduroy Day 2017

My dad was fond of saying If Fashion and I cross paths, it is Fashion’s good fortune.  And that’s what has happened: corduroy, one of my very favourite fabrics, is in fashion this season.  (Well, for you people in the Northern Hemisphere.  It’s a bit late for us; we’re already thinking of sundresses and tank tops.  Maybe next year.)

It always made me feel thrilled and a bit smug when a fabric or style I enjoy wearing came to the fore….until the following season when everyone else moved on and I’m the one looking out of date.  However, I don’t worry so much these days.

Dad was also a corduroy lover.  When I was a child he had a tan suit of wide-wale corduroy with leather buttons and flared trousers.  It had a red lining.  Mum sewed it.  We children liked to sit on his lap and feel the fabric.

Here’s the suit I’m talking about, photographed in 1975. He wore it tighter but he’d been ill and lost weight. I’m the girl in tartan with the sassy pose.

Corduroy is a fabric with different personalities.  It’s usually considered a relaxed, soft, informal yet smart-casual fabric, perhaps tailored or perhaps not.  It has a few nostalgic, 1970’s associations (as above), but how about:

• Brightly coloured corduroy with 1980’s knitwear.
• A tough pair of corduroy shorts paired with a t-shirt and a mountain bike.
• Preschooler’s clothes in smart, soft baby cord, with gathers, ric rac or embroidery.
• Any cord trousers with a black skivvy = you’re in art school.  Beret optional.

Corduroy combines beautifully with…

• tweed
• leather
• cotton shirting
• wool
• stripes
• glossy fabrics
• Liberty florals
• bias binding and piping

Corduroy Day 2017 is coming up this Saturday, the 11th of November (read about last year here).  Do you have a project or outfit planned?

Cheers, corduroy lovers!