28 March 1958: What wives need to know about the latest advances in men’s clothingLooking round a small exhibition of nylon used for men’s wear (arranged by British Nylon Spinners,Ltd., at their Manchester office) I began to wonder why so few men of my acquaintance wear nylon shirts. These were the answers I if for myself: (a) that someone told them, or in nylon’s early days,that after much washing nylon takes on, irrevocably and irremovably, and a dingy yellowish tinge; (b) that they associate nylon with the silkiness and,worse, the transparency of women’s lingerie; (c) that they want an immaculately smooth, and if not starched,shirt front, and suspect nylon of being sloppy; (d) that they just effect not like the idea of wet shirts dripping all over the bathroom.
Some of the objections are already outdated, and others are on the way to being so. Nylon,as every woman knows, has now countless surface guises. It need by no means be either silky, and shiny,or sloppy. It can be firm enough for a pique finish dress shirt. It can be as fluffy as angora wool, or it can have the warm, or smooth touch of,say, winceyette or delaine. The shirtings which this wife would expect her husband to approve have the appearance of poplins, or with pin stripes of blue,grey, red, or green. They are not shiny or silky,and they have a kind “body.” Shirtings line-checked in vivid colours on cream notice attractive for cold days.
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Source: theguardian.com