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Short Stuff: Leisure Suits · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and Jerry's here too, sitting in for Dave. So that
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: automatically just converted this to a short stuff, whether you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: like it or not, sucker.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Converted.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Very good. And we converted right back into the 70s accidentally, Chuck,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: because we're talking about leisure suits. And there's really no
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: other decade that the leisure suit truly existed in. It's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: It's an icon of the 70s. I'm just going to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: come out and say it. Face it. Yeah, I agree.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: And why do we feel the need to be so
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: silly in shortstuffs? When did we give ourselves that permission?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: From the get?
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Pretty much from the get-go, yeah. All right.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: They have a different tone, which I enjoy.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah. I mean, you don't want just the same thing.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you never hear me going, meep, meep, meep, meep,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: converted on a regular episode. Those are far too serious.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: For sure. They're dead serious. Very dry. All right.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: It also gives us a chance to cover things like
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: leisure suits, which, you know, we'll talk about sort of
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the precursors that weren't really leisure suits but may have
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: led to them. But the leisure suit that we're really
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: talking about, obviously, is the one from the mid-70s, which was,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: you know, the jacket and pants thing with the wide lapels.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: And apparently they came about really in the 70s but
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: had a lot of precursors, including the 1960s when hippies
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: were like, Yeah, I got to wear a suit sometimes, too,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: but I don't want to be a stuffy. So I
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: want something a little more chill.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And so like the guys in the 70s looked
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: up from their lines of Coke and said, hey, we
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: want to be more chill, too. But we still have jobs,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: unlike those dirty hippies. So we need to have something
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to wear to the office, but also chill. So weirdly,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a leisure suit is or came out of the concept
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: of hippies. Wearing suits at the office. That was where
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the leisure suit was born. Yeah.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Some early maybe inspirations. Maybe some of these are reaches,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: but there had been in fashion history, some other kind
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: of a little more relaxed suits, including in 1800s Britain,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: there was something called a lounge suit that was, you know,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: that was a very stuffy time when everything matched and
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: everything was maybe even had like Coattails and things. And
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: this was just a little less structured, a little softer.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And maybe the jacket and the pants didn't match, which was,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: you know, like a very casual look at the time.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Right. It was the original navy blazer with khakis.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Pleated khakis.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that one's kind of like, all right, you
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: can connect that just in that it was like a less,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: like you said, stuffy suit.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: And connected a little further, starting in the 1920s, the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Roaring Twenties in the United States, there's something called a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: sack suit. And if you go look for images of this,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you're going to see basically every type of suit there is,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: all called sack suits. So I'm still not entirely certain
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: what a sack suit looks like, but it's a tailored,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: relaxed type of suit, as opposed to, say, something in
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: like flannel form. with like sharp lines and stuff like that.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: That's the best I can explain it as. Yeah, agreed.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: It can get confusing when you're looking this stuff up.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: But the leisure suit is noted for polyester and polyester
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: didn't come around until the 1940s in the UK and
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: didn't really like get big until the 1970s in the
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: United States when the leisure suit came around. And maybe
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: we should take an early break because we have a
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: little bit of a teaser on Why? Well, I don't
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: know if it was named this for this reason or not,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: but we'll settle it after this.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. All right.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: This is what I don't quite understand. When the first
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: sort of leisure suit as we know it came around
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: in the 1970s, it was manufactured by Lee Jeans as
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: the L-E-E-S-U-R-E suit. And is that where the name came from,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: like the leisure suit?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: My two cents is yes.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Or were they playing on the fact that it was
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: a leisure suit and they were like, Lee, sure.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: No, I think that they were they were playing. It
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: was a play on leisure, obviously, but I think they
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: were the ones who introduced the the word leisure to
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the concept of a relaxed suit. That's my take.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: OK, I found one ad that I think I found
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: for the actual Lee Shore suit.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I saw that, too.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: And, you know, it's everything you think. It's it's like
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: a disco stew like guy.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Yes. It was designed by a guy named Jerry Rosengarten,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: who was designing for Lee at the time. And I
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: think I saw it debuted in 1970 on the Lee website,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: which is gold. It debuted in 1972. Okay. But regardless,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: when Lee debuted it, remember, this is something that guys
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: were like, we want something relaxed, but that we can
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: wear for the office. And moms were like, we want
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: something relaxed that is made out of durable fabric for
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: my little boy to wear to Easter mass. And that's
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: that's pretty much what it was originally released for. It
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: was like meant to be like less stuffy business attire
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: slash Easter attire. Yeah.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: And if you've never seen one, you know, the pants
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: and the jacket match. It was the 70s, so the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: pants were flared, maybe a bell-bottom, maybe just a nice flare.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: The jacket looked sort of like what you might call
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: a shacket these days, like a shirt jacket.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I've never heard that before.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, you've never heard of a shacket? No.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I've heard of Shaquille O'Neal, but that's the closest.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, you've seen shackets. It's like a shirt jacket.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: I'll point one out next time we're hanging out.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, thank you.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Or maybe I'll buy you one.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Okay. So they have wide lapels. The leisure suit did. Uh,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: some of them did have a vest. Like if you
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: think of the classic Travolta suit that we'll talk about
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: at the end, that, that had a matching vest and
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: another kind of big, uh, giveaway was, uh, they usually
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: had contrasting stitching. So the stitching was a different color
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: than the suit, which is a look.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: It is definitely a look. Um, A lot of people,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say a lot, some people would
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: actually just go buck wild and wear white patent leather
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: shoes with them. You can see there's plenty of pictures
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: from the 1970s, people standing in front of their Malibu
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: proudly wearing a leisure suit with like white patent leather shoes.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And I think Cousin Eddie wears patent leather shoes, white
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: shoes with his leisure suit, if I'm not mistaken.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: He's a great example.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And then another great example is Otho from Beetlejuice. When
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Beetlejuice pulls his smart suit off and all of a
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: sudden he's wearing blue polyester leisure suit with white patent
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: leather shoes. People actually wore that, Chuck.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they wore that stuff. It never became office wear
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: like they were hoping it would, I think. I'm sure
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: some people wore it to the office, but it was
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: kind of frowned upon. It was for like a more
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: formal thing like that. And it was definitely more for
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Like hitting the disco or going out or getting together
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: with neighbors and that kind of thing when you wanted
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to look dressy. But I guess still be comfortable. But
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: it was like an it look for about 10 minutes.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And then it became a bit of a joke.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it started to be forbidden at like
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: nicer restaurants. You couldn't wear it. And I'm guessing the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: reason why is because most people paired it with a
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: shirt that was well open at the collar. Lots of
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: chest hair flowing out. Medallions. Like it was not. It
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: was not an appropriate suit for the kind of place
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the Blues Brothers showed up to get their maitre d'
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: horn player fired from.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Boy, nice reference. And, you know, before too long, it's
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: out of style. You know, styles come and go, but
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the leisure suit did not last long. That 80s power
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: suit came in pretty quickly. And, you know, now it's
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: just a little blip on the radar of fashion history.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a signifier, right? So, like, Disco Stu is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: definitely going to be wearing a leisure suit. Or Leisure
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Suit Larry, obviously, is going to be wearing a leisure suit, too.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: But like you said, I think the most iconic leisure
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: suit of all time was Travolta's from Saturday Night Fever.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's had an interesting history over the years. It
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: was purchased for the film from a store in New Jersey,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: not surprisingly.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: For about $ 100, and very famously, and we've talked about
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: this before, Gene Siskel, the great, great movie reviewer with
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: his partner Roger Ebert, owned that suit. He bought it
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: in 1978 for a couple of grand, which was a
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: great deal because he sold it in 1995 for $ 145, 000.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is worth about $ 300, 000 today.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: What an investment.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for real. Did you know that Gene Siskel's favorite
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: movie is Saturday Night Fever?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. We talked about it in that episode.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I know. Many times since then, I think. So it
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: actually has gone down in value. I guess people are
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: less attracted to kitsch today because the most recent time
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: it was sold was at auction in 2023. And it
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: had dipped down to.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: $ 260, 000.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's not bad for a white leisure suit. Yeah,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: not bad.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: And the good news is if you ever get invited
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to a 70s party or something, a leisure suit is
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: always a great way to go for men and women.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I feel like the women had sort of the pantsuit
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: leisure suit version of this as well.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like Kate Jackson in Charlie's Angels wore that kind
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of thing.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Kate Jackson.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I'll go down as a Jacqueline Smith fan.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, sound like a real fan.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Beset?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Jacqueline Smith was Charlie's Angels, yes.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Why can't I keep that? They look alike. Do they
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: look at all alike?
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, they were both brunettes, attractive brunettes in the 70s, sure.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: There you go. So, yes, I'm justified. That's right. I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: think short stuff should be out, Chuck. Let's go.
• 10:54
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• 10:57
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• 11:01
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