Shark skin?

[priestyboy]

I've been browsing the suits on ebay and will admit I'm new to this. I'm looking late 40s-early 60s group and have seen suits called 'Sharkskin". I take it this is some kind of shimmering fabric?

Additionally, the look of the 50s-early 60s G-man with the dark suit (black?) white shirt and skinny tie with Shuron horn-rimmed glasses, would this be the sharkskin suit?

I love the classic and clean look of the 50s-early 60s. It is the look so many of our parents have in their highschool graduation pictures! ANy words of wisdom, a website or the such on obtaining that look? Yeah, like Rat Pack!

 

[cookie]

I've been browsing the suits on ebay and will admit I'm new to this. I'm looking late 40s-early 60s group and have seen suits called 'Sharkskin". I take it this is some kind of shimmering fabric?

Additionally, the look of the 50s-early 60s G-man with the dark suit (black?) white shirt and skinny tie with Shuron horn-rimmed glasses, would this be the sharkskin suit?

I love the classic and clean look of the 50s-early 60s. It is the look so many of our parents have in their highschool graduation pictures! ANy words of wisdom, a website or the such on obtaining that look? Yeah, like Rat Pack!

All of the above - go to eBay.com - - vintage clothing -1950-60s - suits - and you will will get somewhere.

 

[GwenLake]

Mr. Rooster's sharkskin suit

 

[CharlestonBows]

Sharkskin

A sharkskin fabric is basically just a dressy worsted fabric. It's a very clear finished fabric with two tones of twill weave that gives a little subtle motion to the fabric surface, and it looks kind of like a shark's skin. Think of it as a fabric with an odd colored warp in the weave. Just a little more surface interest than your standard worsted or gab.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Here's a tidbit for you:


Back in the 1930s, sharkskin suits existed -- but they weren't the sharkskin that we think of today.
The fabric wasn't shimmery at all: it was a thick worsted wool with white "polka dots" woven in.


In The Disenchanted, Budd Schulberg's novel about F. Scott Fitzgerald's time in Hollywood, a 1930s movie agent is wearing a bespoke sharkskin suit.


Sometime around the '40s, the fabric's name was changed to "nailhead."


Here's the 1930s version of sharkskin:

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[CharlestonBows]

Re: shimmering

Marc is right, but there is a devilish detail that needs some clarification. I wouldn't say that sharkskins and nailheads are necessarily different, but rather variations on the same thing. A nailhead is simply a slightly more pronounced, small dotted design (looking like the head of a nail, obviously) that is used in worsted cloths in some sharkskin designs. They are not mutually exclusive -- just a clarifacation.

But Marc is right - a sharkskin shouldn't shimmer. If it does, its likely a modern designer's "interpretation" of what they think the fabric really is.

It's a classy suiting, and very much a city look. Back when gangsters well well dressed, they were typified not only by the flashy chalk-stripes, but also the impeccably tailored sharkskin suits.

 

[manton]

Hmmm.

My understanding is that nailhead and sharkskin are two different things. Both are worsted weaves with very small patterns. But the patterns are different.

Nailhead is a pattern of squarish dots, arranged on a vertical/horizontal basis:

Sharkskin is a staggered twill which, when viewed up close, looks like a series of staircases:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Manton, I base my statement on a cloth sample in an early 1930s Apparel Arts issue I once had. The sample was labeled and described as "sharkskin." It was definitely an example of what we now call "nailhead," rather than the staggered twill that you show.


.

 

[manton]

That closeup you posted looks to me like birdseye: sort of like nailhead, but the dots are larger, rounder, and arranged on the diagonal.

These are the terms that tailors and merchants use today, anyway. I couldn't say about the past.

 

[CharlestonBows]

My understanding is that nailhead and sharkskin are two different things. Both are worsted weaves with very small patterns. But the patterns are different.

This both is correct, and incorrect -- at least according to the strict definitions.

Sharkskin, strictly defined, is clear-faced, dressy worsted that utilizes two tones of yarns in a twill weave. A nailhead, strictly defined, is a small dotted type of design often utilized for worsted suiting cloths in a sharkskin weave -- not necessarily the exact same thing, but very related. These are similar to a pick-and-pick fabric, which is a neat-patterned weave with single filling threads in different colors. It's about the manner in which the cloth, or more specifically, the YARNS (not twills, sorry) are woven together.

A birdseye, however, is an all-over woven fabric typified by a geometric pattern (either a diamond or a dot) with a dot in the center. A more complicated nailhead, if you would.

 

[manton]

I'm not sure I follow you, but I don't see how nailhead can be a type of sharkskin when it's not a twill.

 

[CharlestonBows]

A sharkskin is a type of twilled weave, and a nailhead is a type of design - not the same thing - and they are not mutually exclusive. A nailhead design can be, and often is, used in a classic sharkskin weave.

I meant yarns, not twills. Talking while typing.

 

[Senator Jack]

I used to have a closetful of sharkskin, but I began to weed out some of the flashier models, keeping only the muted variety as I have on in this pic.

I still have a blue nailhead sharkskin that I used to wear in my younger days. The nailheads tend to make the suit 'glow'. My advice is to stay away from both them and the 80s models. (Yes, there was a brief sharkskin revival in the 80s, and, like everything else, they got it wrong.)

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Feraud]

But Marc is right - a sharkskin shouldn't shimmer. If it does, its likely a modern designer's "interpretation" of what they think the fabric really is.

For clarification.. my reading of Marc's comments is that 30s sharkskins do not shimmer.
Certainly the 50-60s version do.

Here is a closeup of a sharkskin in my closet. This baby shimmers when viewed from afar!

 

[CharlestonBows]

Here is a closeup of a sharkskin in my closet.

Any 'action' shots of this one? That looks like a fun fabric!

 

[Feraud]

Any 'action' shots of this one? That looks like a fun fabric!

I was going to do a separate thread on the suit but since you asked..
There are no pics of me wearing it yet but here are a couple to view.
Front

Back

 

[CharlestonBows]

I really dig the one button - very flattering cut on most guys. I like the lapels too. Very hip!

 

[Feraud]

I am sure the television show Mad Men will get all the credit for bringing back the look.
The question is can modern designers make a correct sharkskin material?

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I used to have a closetful of sharkskin, but I began to weed out some of the flashier models, keeping only the muted variety as I have on in this pic.

I still have a blue nailhead sharkskin that I used to wear in my younger days. The nailheads tend to make the suit 'glow'. My advice is to stay away from both them and the 80s models. (Yes, there was a brief sharkskin revival in the 80s, and, like everything else, they got it wrong.)

Regards,

Senator Jack

Took me a while to find the suit in this picture.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Took me a while to find the suit in this picture.

Suits? What suits?

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