There was no air conditioning post-World War I when Jacobi Press opened the door of his Yale shop for Dixie favorite 100% cotton seersucker suits and accoutrements derived not from south of the Mason Dixon Line, but more specially from his prized London-based resource Welch, Margretson & Co. Genesis of the fabric, not unlike India Madras, came from Britain’s warm weather colonies borrowing its name in English from Hindustani, further derived from Persian words shir o shekar, translated as “milk and sugar.”
To read this story and many more, purchase the Threading the Needle book by Richard Press.
