I love corduroy, especially in winter, but every time I put it on I feel like a refugee from the 1970s or the woods. What’s the best way to wear it so it seems contemporary? — Jane, Brooklyn
Corduroy is one of those materials that have been with us for so long that it has acquired a whole encyclopedia’s worth of cultural references.
There’s academic corduroy, all elbow patches and lamp-lit brown; think Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society.” There’s hippie-chic corduroy, à la old Bob Dylan or Oscar Isaac in “Inside Llewyn Davis.” There’s journalist corduroy; see Robert Redford as Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men.” (Bob, did you really wear a lot of corduroy?) There’s weirdo corduroy, best worn by Wes Anderson and the cast of “The Royal Tenenbaums.” Preppy corduroy. Camp corduroy. Cool corduroy. (Hello, Steve McQueen.)
And then there’s fashion corduroy, product of all of the above, since fashion loves a reference, which has periodic surges in popularity but never really goes out of style — for any gender. Recently Gwyneth Paltrow posted an Instagram selfie on her Goop account in which she modeled a pair of camel cords with a button-up white shirt. Katie Holmes, street-style magnet extraordinaire, is a dedicated corduroy model.
“It’s perennial,” Wes Gordon, the creative director of Carolina Herrera, said when I asked. He had, it turned out, just worn his own favorite new pair of corduroy pants. “It’s like denim.”
Corduroy’s roots go back to ancient Egypt, when the city of Al-Fustat became a center for woven materials and gave its name to a fabric christened “fustian.” That was effectively the ancestral forerunner of corduroy, without the ridges (or what we now call “wales”). Those showed up sometime in the 18th century, and by the 1800s, fustian had become “the proverbial costume of the working-men,” thanks to its toughness, at least according to Friedrich Engels, who memorialized it in “The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.”
After that came wales wide and narrow, and in 2005 the Corduroy Appreciation Club was formed, and Nov. 11 was crowned Corduroy Day, because 11/11 looked the most like — yup — wales. Once upon a time rumor had it that corduroy derived its name from the French “cord du roi.” That has largely been disproved, but corduroy remains fabric royalty.
As to why, well: Corduroy is both plush and hard-wearing, warm and cool. It’s comfort clothing that can look good in pretty much any context, depending on “how it’s used, how it’s cut, how it’s worn,” Mr. Gordon said.
The good news is that this winter corduroy is enjoying one of its upswings, and there are many different styles to choose from, depending on what, exactly, you want to convey. According to Tagwalk, the fashion search engine, there were at least 148 different corduroy looks on the fall men’s and women’s runways from brands as diverse as Brunello Cucinelli (for whom corduroy is a veritable staple, as it is for Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger), Eckhaus Latta and Sacai.
To keep from seeming too walking-through-the-heather, Mr. Gordon suggested thinking in extremes — opt for loose, wide trousers or narrow ones, but avoid the basic middle — and pairing your cords with a well-tailored jacket, rather than a chunky cable sweater. (Cords plus chunky sweater pretty much equals ski resort.)
Look for lines with a bit of flare and a sharp silhouette. Avoid polyester weaves, which are less long-lasting. And remember: The wider the wale, the more luxurious the effect.
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