ABSTRACT
The early 1950s saw a substantial rise in the use of synthetic fabrics for clothing. Men's summer suits made of new materials such as Dacron and Dynel progressed from novelty status in 1951, when they were first introduced in limited quantities, to bonafide best-seller status. As noted by Time, merchants, whose clothing business had been in a marked slump, found customers crowding their stores with a curiosity faintly reminiscent of the one-time rush for ballpoint pens. The snappy sales figures for synthetics belied their high price. Some merchants offered blends of synthetics and less expensive yarns. Chicago's Lytton's store sold 1,000 suits made of a blend of Dynel, acetate, and rayon in a fortnight. DuPont, Union Carbide, and other large chemical companies announced plans to build big new plants so as to permit still further expansion in the production of synthetics. Ironically, by the 1980s all-natural clothes had become the prestigious, premium-priced alternative.
