Monday, March 29, 2010

Dacron, Because Polyester Has A Brand Name Too

There are so many bizarrely-named fabrics out there.  Most sound like they are named by aliens or by scientists wishing to instill a sense of foreboding in the wearers of the materials.  One of these is "dacron."  Dacron is a real something.  It is the DuPont registered name for a particular kind of synthetic material, a kind of polyester.  I'm not sure of the exact date of the patent on the material, but it seems to have been used for clothing since sometime in the 1960's.

Dacron has a myriad of uses that the DuPont marketing team has dreamed up.  It goes on plane wings, is used to repair veins and arteries and naturally, you can make dresses out of it.  Usually, these dresses are vintage as most clothing manufacturers do not bother listing the particular brand name of a polyester, probably because the brand awareness among consumers is next to nothing and it would probably just create confusion.  Based on my research, the dacron is usually used in knitwear and at least in vintage wear, by high-end designers.  And, if I'm not mistaken, dacron is the synthetic element in the classic St. John Santana Knit.

One of the designers who has used dacron is Rudi Gernreich.  I'm sure I'll blather on about her in another post sometime in the future, but today we talk about the materials she used.  The dress pictured is made out of 100% knit dacron.  It looks really nice, it hangs well and since it is vintage, it can clearly last a good long while.  Its really interesting to think that the material used in this lovely dress is probably the same stuff used to patch your grandfather's arteries during heart surgery--imagine such a versatile material that one day it can be manufactured into a lovely designer dress and the next it is made into surgical patches.  The cool part is that if you decide to wear it on your outside, you'll look fabulous!

Pictures have been graciously provided by ricysue, who has a variety of dacron dresses as well a myriad of other lovely things.

For my blog post about Azlon, a related fabric, click HERE

3 comments:

VIDEO MOVES ME! said...

Thank you so much! We are having a class reunion freshman night. I saw a pair of long, flare jeans that says material is Dacron. Does this material stretch? Please advise and thank you again.

Bjmini said...

A little, keeps it's shape

Unknown said...

Rudi Gernreich was a man infamous for his mid-60s topless swimsuit.

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