The Hide Of Fashion

The realistic needs imposed, curiously enough, by such strange bedfellows as austerity and affluence have played fundamental roles in the emergence of leathers and suedes as important design factors in today's fashions for men. The ubiquitous, hard-wearing leather elbow patch first appeared as an economic measure to prolong the lives of the threadbare sports jackets that many undergraduates had to make do with during the equally threadbare Thirties. Of functional origin, too, is the currently distinctive suede or leather shoulder patch, a clever and decorative bit of upholstery that once protected many a gentleman hunter's delicate deltoids from painful pummeling at the hands of his Purdey shotgun or his Weatherby magnum rifle. Today's sartorial arrow also flies through the air onto the hat, sports coat and sweater with the greatest of elegant ease. It's on target, as well, because leather and suede score bull's-eyes as both color accents and practical, wear-resistant trims on a man-sized variety of handsome knits, woven woolens and corduroy, as shown on these pages.