Don’t Sweat the Summer Weddings: Seersucker Is Back

(Bloomberg) -- Laurie Haspel has an outfit laid out in her room at the ritzy Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans. It's a short little number with blue and white stripes, paired with Saint Laurent pumps. The dress is seersucker, the ruffled Southern summertime staple, but she's not just wearing it because it's hot in Louisiana.

Haspel is seersucker royalty. Her great-grandfather Joseph Haspel Sr. sewed the first suit out of seersucker in 1909, adapting what was once workwear to tailored menswear. She's here for a “Seersucker, Sazeracs, and Hats” themed luncheon, another stop on her seasonal tour. Soon she's off to New York for National Seersucker Day—yes, there is such a thing. Then to Nashville for the Seriously Seersucker party. Then an event at the American Saddlebred Museum in Lexington, Ky. “Then, good Lord, where is my next?” an exasperated Haspel says in a soft Southern accent.

All this travel is part of a campaign to spur a seersucker-led renaissance. Crinkly and breathable, seersucker is a type of cotton fabric that puckers and allows air to weave through and keep skin cool. Once used in worker's garb for sweltering summer days down south, the fabric became a fashion statement for the Southern man of a certain age. Worn right, it can be a sartorial revelation that'll keep you chill in the hottest months. Mess it up, and you'll find yourself looking like Colonel Sanders.

Haspel, 50, is tuning up this standby, though. Gone are the big, boxy suits and pleated pants, replaced by slimmer modern styles to revise an old-fashioned look for younger folks. In recent years, mainstream preppy labels such as J.Crew and Vineyard Vines pushed seersucker on the coasts as a textured addition to the beach or country club. These days, you're more likely to see the material in the form of shorts, a shirt, or a tie—separates or accessories that imbue an outfit with just a little bit of bumpiness.

The Haspel label relaunched in 2013 after languishing for years in obscurity. Ownership bounced around for decades after the family sold it in 1977.

“Haspel lost a bit of its family charm,” Haspel says. “It got lost in translation.”

Now back under family control, the brand is sold in upscale specialty stores across the country, such as Ron Herman in Los Angeles and Mitchells in Westport, Conn. Haspel sportswear is carried by Bloomingdale's and will enter more retailers this fall. Although the label once made its clothes in the U.S., it has since moved operations abroad to keep costs down. The New Orleans factory is long gone—tailored clothes are made in Jordan, sportswear in China. A seersucker sport coat costs $395 at retail, while matching trousers go for $200. (The company declined to share revenue figures.)

Haspel has brought everything but manufacturing in-house, including sales and marketing, and opened an office in New York. The label now sells all its suits in separates, allowing for more mixing and matching. A priority is to convince men they have permission to leave their comfort zone and try new colors and fabrics.

Special occasions are key for Haspel, since much of its sales come from formal summer wear. Weddings are a focus, and the brand has even begun selling seersucker tuxedos. Destination nuptials happen year-round, which helps balance Haspel's innate seasonality. So does a push to sell more resort wear, items for shoppers to take with them on tropical vacations. Various category expansions are being planned, too. Dress shirts and ties are the most obvious additions. The brand plans to include accessories, footwear, fragrances, and eyewear under the Haspel name.

Haspel wants wearers to discard any ingrained seersucker suit rules—for instance, that you must wear a white button-down and a bow tie with it. “You have to show them that it is versatile,” she says. “The stigma, in some parts of the country, it's more of an age thing.”

To contact the author of this story: Kim Bhasin in New York at kbhasin4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.