Corduroy Trousers- An Analysis Of The Social Impact Of A Particular Garment

Corduroy trousers were mainly worn as work wear, It was invented as a hard wearing fabric but then over a period of time its uses have changed. It was trendy in the 60s and 70s but now can be a bit naff. Now nerds are in fashion and Jarvis Cocker makes it cool to wear corduroy.

Corduroy is a textile composed of twisted fibres that, when woven, lie parallel to one another to form the cloth's distinct pattern. Corduroy is in essence, a ridged form of velvet. Corduroy is a wardrobe staple. Corduroy guarantees comfort, warmth, style and fun. The fabric is durable and fashionable and is available in all colors and prints. The fabric can be made into trousers of all styles and cuts, like pleated pants, jeans, etc. It is considered a durable hardwearing cloth.

While the word "corduroy" looks as though it should have a French origin, as if derived from "corde du roi" ("cloth/cord of the king"), but in fact there is no such phrase in French, and the word, like the cloth, is of English origin, probably from cord plus the obsolete duroy, a coarse woollen fabric.

There is a club called: The Corduroy Appreciation Club, which looks to be poking fun at corduroy. It has a fish emblem which might be because the fish skin is like the texture of corduroy but is actually about the number of cords in an inch of cloth.

Corduroy is associated with old people and geeks. You see a lot of older people wearing them in town with shirts tucked in. These are not the sort of people who wear tracksuit bottoms and skinny jeans. Corduroy communicates old age because of the large numbers of older people who wear it.

I think it was designed for everybody and while a large number of older people wear it, there are some younger people who wear corduroy trendily. It depends on how you wear it. If someone wore it with a nice top it could look smart and trendy and rock out as a style. I think old people chose to wear corduroy because it is smart, comfortable and it is more sophisticated than denim.

In the 70s actors like Robert De Niro, who was famous for Mean Streets, Godfather part 2 and Taxi Driver made it cool to wear corduroy. He was a style icon and men admired him because he was talented, famous, and had a tough guy image. Corduroy must have been trendy then. The second more recent image below of De Niro wearing corduroy in his older years in 2011 shows how corduroy is now not as trendy and worn by old people. Even though De Niro is still famous, he is no longer a modern fashion style icon. These images show the fashion cycle of corduroy, which like any fashion item is trendy and then not and then trendy again. So maybe corduroy will become fashionable again soon?


This image shows Robert De Niro wearing corduroy in the 70s.

This image shows Robert De Niro wearing corduroy now. January 2011

Reference

http://corduroyclub.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corduroy