a wale of a season

For many women, the arrival of cooler weather means one thing: there's a new crop of corduroy to purchase. And this season doesn't disappoint. Fall's favorite fabric is back, softer and more comfortable than ever, in a range of casual pants, trousers, skirts, shrunken jackets and fitted blazers.

"Corduroy as a fabrication has always been a fall and winter staple," affirms Sean Krebs, a spokesperson for Gap. "It's really the silhouettes and colors that will be updated from year to year."

For fall, Gap is featuring fine-wale cords in fitted blazers, tailored trousers and A-line skirts, all in rich, autumnal shades like chocolate brown, green, grape, and teal.

"Corduroy is extremely important for us, and we've been selling it since August," says Diana Salen, co-owner of Diana & Jeffries, a clothing boutique with two Manhattan locations. "Our customer loves corduroy. We've been selling tons of corduroy pants and blazers, and we've been reordering."

Salen carries mainly corduroy jean-style pants from Cambio and Red Engine, as well as shrunken corduroy blazers, cord jeans and trousers from Theory. This season, she's featuring basic shades such as dark green, brown and black, with one or two pieces in teal; winter-white corduroy jeans have already sold out.

As Salen sees it, corduroy is the perfect cold-weather fabric. "People like corduroy because when it gets cold out, it's an extremely warm fabric," she says. "Jeans are great, but with cords, you have a great jean-like pant that's casual and extremely warm. And because of all the new finishes, it's not bulky or stiff."

At a time when city streets, suburban shopping malls, and just about everywhere else are a virtual sea of denim, corduroy also offers women a more colorful option for casual wear.

"Everybody's talking about denim, so corduroy is important because it's an alternative to denim that's still casual, still looks great, still feels comfortable," says Jessica Paruch, a trend forecaster for Cotton Incorporated.

And there's no doubt that denim's ever-growing popularity is affecting the very look of today's corduroy, too. "All of the embellishments that we're seeing on denim are now happening on corduroy - the embroidery, the patchwork," says Alessandra Brunialti, vice president of women's design at Banana Republic.

"We're doing a lot more abrasion and vintage feeling, too --a little ripping and tearing on some of the five-pocket cords," she adds. The colors, she notes, also favor a more vintage feel, with neutral shades such as black, brown, and camel.

This fall, everything old is new again. The retro-inspired looks of the season may make us nostalgic for the cords of yore, but finer wales and innovative finishes have made corduroy infinitely more fashion-forward. Even women who may have balked at wearing corduroy in the past are finding something new to like about the fabric this season.

"I guess my view of corduroy has always been stuck back in the corduroy of my teensÑyou know, very stiff, uncomfortable corduroy pants," says Renee, a 39-year-old software executive in New York. "But the looks that are out there now are completely different; they're soft and plush, with a little bit of stretch. I've even found some really nice corduroy trousers that I would feel comfortable wearing to work."

Corduroy at the office? Absolutely. That might have been considered a fashion faux pas a few years ago, but it's acceptable now, partly because corduroy has become more sophisticated, at the same time that workplaces in general have become more casual and open. After all, as Cotton Incorporated's Lifestyle Monitorª found, 34% of women describe their work attire as "business-like with freedom," while 25% said they wear casual clothes to work. In addition, 89.8% of respondents said that their office had a casual dress policy year-round.

Certainly, pieces such as a well-cut corduroy blazer can help to dress up an outfit. As Banana Republic's Brunialti notes, "It's not about a full-on suit for a large part of our customer base, so for a sportswear approach it's nice to be able to break things up a bit with a little cord jacket."

"Corduroy looks great for the office when cut into a blazer or a trouser," affirms Krebs at Gap. "It's especially appropriate in a finer wale, because that tends to look more polished and professional."

And that, of course, brings up the continuing corduroy debate over pinwale vs. wide wale. The good news? Consumers will find a little bit of everything to choose from this season. At Banana Republic, for example, finer wales are definitely more prevalent for early fall, featured in everything from lightweight trousers, to a clean-styled cord jean.

But the retailer will be augmenting its mix for late fall and holiday. "The wider-wale cord is a bit more fashion-forward, more fresh," says Brunialti. "And we'll be giving it a little bit more of an abraded look, with more texture, which makes it a lot more rustic."

Shoppers at Diana & Jeffries, however, will find mainly fine-wale cords, with just one wide-wale corduroy pant from TheoryÑand even that wider wale, notes Salen, is only about one-eighth of an inch thick.

Salen remains convinced that the average woman prefers pinwale over wide-wale. "The fine wale is less bulky, and it makes you look thinner," she says.

This story is one in a series of articles based on findings from Cotton Incorporated's Lifestyle Monitorª tracking research. Each story will focus on a specific topic as it relates to the American women's wear consumer and her attitudes and behavior regarding clothing, appearance, fashion, fiber selection and many other timely, relevant subjects.

Publisher: cotton inc
A research and promotion company funded by US cotton producers and importers of cotton goods into the United States designed and operated to build demand for cotton in the US market and for US cotton in world markets.
Published: October 2005
Region: usa

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