WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Leisure Suits

0:00:04.230 --> 0:00:06.950
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck,

0:00:07.030 --> 0:00:09.570
<v Speaker 1>and Jerry's here too, sitting in for Dave. So that

0:00:09.630 --> 0:00:12.540
<v Speaker 1>automatically just converted this to a short stuff, whether you

0:00:12.570 --> 0:00:13.760
<v Speaker 1>like it or not, sucker.

0:00:15.580 --> 0:00:16.079
<v Speaker 2>Converted.

0:00:17.020 --> 0:00:21.259
<v Speaker 1>Very good. And we converted right back into the 70s accidentally, Chuck,

0:00:21.300 --> 0:00:24.599
<v Speaker 1>because we're talking about leisure suits. And there's really no

0:00:24.660 --> 0:00:27.920
<v Speaker 1>other decade that the leisure suit truly existed in. It's

0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:30.660
<v Speaker 1>It's an icon of the 70s. I'm just going to

0:00:30.700 --> 0:00:33.080
<v Speaker 1>come out and say it. Face it. Yeah, I agree.

0:00:34.500 --> 0:00:36.440
<v Speaker 2>And why do we feel the need to be so

0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.820
<v Speaker 2>silly in shortstuffs? When did we give ourselves that permission?

0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:39.519
<v Speaker 2>From the get?

0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.229
<v Speaker 1>Pretty much from the get-go, yeah. All right.

0:00:42.370 --> 0:00:44.150
<v Speaker 2>They have a different tone, which I enjoy.

0:00:45.090 --> 0:00:47.449
<v Speaker 1>Well, yeah. I mean, you don't want just the same thing.

0:00:47.530 --> 0:00:48.430
<v Speaker 1>That's crazy.

0:00:48.650 --> 0:00:51.570
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you never hear me going, meep, meep, meep, meep,

0:00:51.690 --> 0:00:54.990
<v Speaker 2>converted on a regular episode. Those are far too serious.

0:00:55.450 --> 0:00:58.170
<v Speaker 1>For sure. They're dead serious. Very dry. All right.

0:00:58.310 --> 0:01:00.050
<v Speaker 2>It also gives us a chance to cover things like

0:01:00.110 --> 0:01:05.010
<v Speaker 2>leisure suits, which, you know, we'll talk about sort of

0:01:05.030 --> 0:01:07.490
<v Speaker 2>the precursors that weren't really leisure suits but may have

0:01:07.510 --> 0:01:09.150
<v Speaker 2>led to them. But the leisure suit that we're really

0:01:09.190 --> 0:01:13.479
<v Speaker 2>talking about, obviously, is the one from the mid-70s, which was,

0:01:13.580 --> 0:01:18.380
<v Speaker 2>you know, the jacket and pants thing with the wide lapels.

0:01:18.540 --> 0:01:22.520
<v Speaker 2>And apparently they came about really in the 70s but

0:01:22.620 --> 0:01:25.840
<v Speaker 2>had a lot of precursors, including the 1960s when hippies

0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:29.440
<v Speaker 2>were like, Yeah, I got to wear a suit sometimes, too,

0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.720
<v Speaker 2>but I don't want to be a stuffy. So I

0:01:32.740 --> 0:01:33.940
<v Speaker 2>want something a little more chill.

0:01:34.790 --> 0:01:38.670
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And so like the guys in the 70s looked

0:01:38.770 --> 0:01:41.030
<v Speaker 1>up from their lines of Coke and said, hey, we

0:01:41.069 --> 0:01:44.190
<v Speaker 1>want to be more chill, too. But we still have jobs,

0:01:44.270 --> 0:01:47.240
<v Speaker 1>unlike those dirty hippies. So we need to have something

0:01:47.580 --> 0:01:51.440
<v Speaker 1>to wear to the office, but also chill. So weirdly,

0:01:51.460 --> 0:01:55.419
<v Speaker 1>a leisure suit is or came out of the concept

0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:01.620
<v Speaker 1>of hippies. Wearing suits at the office. That was where

0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.340
<v Speaker 1>the leisure suit was born. Yeah.

0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.660
<v Speaker 2>Some early maybe inspirations. Maybe some of these are reaches,

0:02:07.780 --> 0:02:11.209
<v Speaker 2>but there had been in fashion history, some other kind

0:02:11.220 --> 0:02:15.450
<v Speaker 2>of a little more relaxed suits, including in 1800s Britain,

0:02:15.470 --> 0:02:18.549
<v Speaker 2>there was something called a lounge suit that was, you know,

0:02:18.570 --> 0:02:22.190
<v Speaker 2>that was a very stuffy time when everything matched and

0:02:22.230 --> 0:02:25.980
<v Speaker 2>everything was maybe even had like Coattails and things. And

0:02:26.020 --> 0:02:28.720
<v Speaker 2>this was just a little less structured, a little softer.

0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.100
<v Speaker 2>And maybe the jacket and the pants didn't match, which was,

0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.440
<v Speaker 2>you know, like a very casual look at the time.

0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.950
<v Speaker 1>Right. It was the original navy blazer with khakis.

0:02:37.990 --> 0:02:38.590
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, probably.

0:02:38.970 --> 0:02:39.809
<v Speaker 1>Pleated khakis.

0:02:40.130 --> 0:02:40.370
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

0:02:40.389 --> 0:02:42.589
<v Speaker 1>So, yeah, that one's kind of like, all right, you

0:02:42.630 --> 0:02:46.320
<v Speaker 1>can connect that just in that it was like a less,

0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:47.960
<v Speaker 1>like you said, stuffy suit.

0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:48.220
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

0:02:48.910 --> 0:02:51.970
<v Speaker 1>And connected a little further, starting in the 1920s, the

0:02:52.150 --> 0:02:54.489
<v Speaker 1>Roaring Twenties in the United States, there's something called a

0:02:54.550 --> 0:02:57.410
<v Speaker 1>sack suit. And if you go look for images of this,

0:02:57.430 --> 0:02:59.950
<v Speaker 1>you're going to see basically every type of suit there is,

0:03:00.510 --> 0:03:03.870
<v Speaker 1>all called sack suits. So I'm still not entirely certain

0:03:03.950 --> 0:03:07.570
<v Speaker 1>what a sack suit looks like, but it's a tailored,

0:03:08.380 --> 0:03:12.420
<v Speaker 1>relaxed type of suit, as opposed to, say, something in

0:03:12.460 --> 0:03:15.650
<v Speaker 1>like flannel form. with like sharp lines and stuff like that.

0:03:15.690 --> 0:03:18.530
<v Speaker 1>That's the best I can explain it as. Yeah, agreed.

0:03:18.550 --> 0:03:20.530
<v Speaker 2>It can get confusing when you're looking this stuff up.

0:03:21.669 --> 0:03:25.190
<v Speaker 2>But the leisure suit is noted for polyester and polyester

0:03:25.210 --> 0:03:29.130
<v Speaker 2>didn't come around until the 1940s in the UK and

0:03:29.190 --> 0:03:33.850
<v Speaker 2>didn't really like get big until the 1970s in the

0:03:33.910 --> 0:03:38.310
<v Speaker 2>United States when the leisure suit came around. And maybe

0:03:38.330 --> 0:03:41.330
<v Speaker 2>we should take an early break because we have a

0:03:41.330 --> 0:03:44.780
<v Speaker 2>little bit of a teaser on Why? Well, I don't

0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.400
<v Speaker 2>know if it was named this for this reason or not,

0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:47.620
<v Speaker 2>but we'll settle it after this.

0:03:48.220 --> 0:04:19.830
<v Speaker 1>Okay. Okay. All right.

0:04:20.570 --> 0:04:23.190
<v Speaker 2>This is what I don't quite understand. When the first

0:04:23.230 --> 0:04:25.170
<v Speaker 2>sort of leisure suit as we know it came around

0:04:25.190 --> 0:04:30.390
<v Speaker 2>in the 1970s, it was manufactured by Lee Jeans as

0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:36.820
<v Speaker 2>the L-E-E-S-U-R-E suit. And is that where the name came from,

0:04:36.860 --> 0:04:40.000
<v Speaker 2>like the leisure suit?

0:04:40.260 --> 0:04:41.440
<v Speaker 1>My two cents is yes.

0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:43.540
<v Speaker 2>Or were they playing on the fact that it was

0:04:43.580 --> 0:04:45.940
<v Speaker 2>a leisure suit and they were like, Lee, sure.

0:04:46.940 --> 0:04:49.560
<v Speaker 1>No, I think that they were they were playing. It

0:04:49.730 --> 0:04:52.150
<v Speaker 1>was a play on leisure, obviously, but I think they

0:04:52.170 --> 0:04:55.970
<v Speaker 1>were the ones who introduced the the word leisure to

0:04:56.529 --> 0:04:59.229
<v Speaker 1>the concept of a relaxed suit. That's my take.

0:04:59.610 --> 0:05:02.339
<v Speaker 2>OK, I found one ad that I think I found

0:05:02.420 --> 0:05:04.440
<v Speaker 2>for the actual Lee Shore suit.

0:05:04.740 --> 0:05:05.440
<v Speaker 1>I saw that, too.

0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.120
<v Speaker 2>And, you know, it's everything you think. It's it's like

0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:09.500
<v Speaker 2>a disco stew like guy.

0:05:10.580 --> 0:05:14.409
<v Speaker 1>Yes. It was designed by a guy named Jerry Rosengarten,

0:05:14.529 --> 0:05:16.750
<v Speaker 1>who was designing for Lee at the time. And I

0:05:16.790 --> 0:05:21.589
<v Speaker 1>think I saw it debuted in 1970 on the Lee website,

0:05:21.710 --> 0:05:27.430
<v Speaker 1>which is gold. It debuted in 1972. Okay. But regardless,

0:05:27.810 --> 0:05:30.890
<v Speaker 1>when Lee debuted it, remember, this is something that guys

0:05:30.910 --> 0:05:32.909
<v Speaker 1>were like, we want something relaxed, but that we can

0:05:32.950 --> 0:05:35.770
<v Speaker 1>wear for the office. And moms were like, we want

0:05:35.810 --> 0:05:39.330
<v Speaker 1>something relaxed that is made out of durable fabric for

0:05:39.450 --> 0:05:42.990
<v Speaker 1>my little boy to wear to Easter mass. And that's

0:05:43.130 --> 0:05:45.730
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty much what it was originally released for. It

0:05:45.790 --> 0:05:50.360
<v Speaker 1>was like meant to be like less stuffy business attire

0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.540
<v Speaker 1>slash Easter attire. Yeah.

0:05:52.860 --> 0:05:55.320
<v Speaker 2>And if you've never seen one, you know, the pants

0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.339
<v Speaker 2>and the jacket match. It was the 70s, so the

0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.320
<v Speaker 2>pants were flared, maybe a bell-bottom, maybe just a nice flare.

0:06:03.779 --> 0:06:06.690
<v Speaker 2>The jacket looked sort of like what you might call

0:06:06.730 --> 0:06:08.870
<v Speaker 2>a shacket these days, like a shirt jacket.

0:06:09.330 --> 0:06:10.450
<v Speaker 1>I've never heard that before.

0:06:10.710 --> 0:06:12.350
<v Speaker 2>Oh, you've never heard of a shacket? No.

0:06:12.630 --> 0:06:15.130
<v Speaker 1>I've heard of Shaquille O'Neal, but that's the closest.

0:06:15.870 --> 0:06:18.789
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you've seen shackets. It's like a shirt jacket.

0:06:19.470 --> 0:06:20.030
<v Speaker 1>All right.

0:06:20.050 --> 0:06:21.270
<v Speaker 2>I'll point one out next time we're hanging out.

0:06:21.730 --> 0:06:22.330
<v Speaker 1>Okay, thank you.

0:06:22.470 --> 0:06:23.290
<v Speaker 2>Or maybe I'll buy you one.

0:06:24.010 --> 0:06:24.390
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

0:06:24.410 --> 0:06:28.380
<v Speaker 2>Okay. So they have wide lapels. The leisure suit did. Uh,

0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:30.900
<v Speaker 2>some of them did have a vest. Like if you

0:06:30.940 --> 0:06:33.320
<v Speaker 2>think of the classic Travolta suit that we'll talk about

0:06:33.339 --> 0:06:36.659
<v Speaker 2>at the end, that, that had a matching vest and

0:06:36.940 --> 0:06:42.790
<v Speaker 2>another kind of big, uh, giveaway was, uh, they usually

0:06:42.830 --> 0:06:45.730
<v Speaker 2>had contrasting stitching. So the stitching was a different color

0:06:45.750 --> 0:06:47.310
<v Speaker 2>than the suit, which is a look.

0:06:48.190 --> 0:06:51.809
<v Speaker 1>It is definitely a look. Um, A lot of people,

0:06:51.890 --> 0:06:54.030
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to say a lot, some people would

0:06:54.110 --> 0:06:58.549
<v Speaker 1>actually just go buck wild and wear white patent leather

0:06:58.589 --> 0:07:01.589
<v Speaker 1>shoes with them. You can see there's plenty of pictures

0:07:01.630 --> 0:07:04.930
<v Speaker 1>from the 1970s, people standing in front of their Malibu

0:07:04.990 --> 0:07:08.919
<v Speaker 1>proudly wearing a leisure suit with like white patent leather shoes.

0:07:09.620 --> 0:07:13.220
<v Speaker 1>And I think Cousin Eddie wears patent leather shoes, white

0:07:13.660 --> 0:07:15.960
<v Speaker 1>shoes with his leisure suit, if I'm not mistaken.

0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:16.740
<v Speaker 2>He's a great example.

0:07:17.420 --> 0:07:20.980
<v Speaker 1>And then another great example is Otho from Beetlejuice. When

0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.420
<v Speaker 1>Beetlejuice pulls his smart suit off and all of a

0:07:24.420 --> 0:07:27.260
<v Speaker 1>sudden he's wearing blue polyester leisure suit with white patent

0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.300
<v Speaker 1>leather shoes. People actually wore that, Chuck.

0:07:30.940 --> 0:07:34.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they wore that stuff. It never became office wear

0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.960
<v Speaker 2>like they were hoping it would, I think. I'm sure

0:07:37.020 --> 0:07:39.610
<v Speaker 2>some people wore it to the office, but it was

0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.010
<v Speaker 2>kind of frowned upon. It was for like a more

0:07:42.070 --> 0:07:44.190
<v Speaker 2>formal thing like that. And it was definitely more for

0:07:44.980 --> 0:07:48.280
<v Speaker 2>Like hitting the disco or going out or getting together

0:07:48.300 --> 0:07:49.920
<v Speaker 2>with neighbors and that kind of thing when you wanted

0:07:49.940 --> 0:07:53.800
<v Speaker 2>to look dressy. But I guess still be comfortable. But

0:07:53.860 --> 0:07:56.450
<v Speaker 2>it was like an it look for about 10 minutes.

0:07:56.830 --> 0:07:58.310
<v Speaker 2>And then it became a bit of a joke.

0:08:00.070 --> 0:08:02.710
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I think it started to be forbidden at like

0:08:02.850 --> 0:08:05.950
<v Speaker 1>nicer restaurants. You couldn't wear it. And I'm guessing the

0:08:05.990 --> 0:08:07.980
<v Speaker 1>reason why is because most people paired it with a

0:08:08.540 --> 0:08:11.040
<v Speaker 1>shirt that was well open at the collar. Lots of

0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.190
<v Speaker 1>chest hair flowing out. Medallions. Like it was not. It

0:08:15.230 --> 0:08:19.310
<v Speaker 1>was not an appropriate suit for the kind of place

0:08:19.380 --> 0:08:21.820
<v Speaker 1>the Blues Brothers showed up to get their maitre d'

0:08:21.940 --> 0:08:23.280
<v Speaker 1>horn player fired from.

0:08:24.260 --> 0:08:27.660
<v Speaker 2>Boy, nice reference. And, you know, before too long, it's

0:08:28.180 --> 0:08:31.340
<v Speaker 2>out of style. You know, styles come and go, but

0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.719
<v Speaker 2>the leisure suit did not last long. That 80s power

0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.690
<v Speaker 2>suit came in pretty quickly. And, you know, now it's

0:08:38.730 --> 0:08:41.650
<v Speaker 2>just a little blip on the radar of fashion history.

0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.820
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's a signifier, right? So, like, Disco Stu is

0:08:46.100 --> 0:08:49.560
<v Speaker 1>definitely going to be wearing a leisure suit. Or Leisure

0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.839
<v Speaker 1>Suit Larry, obviously, is going to be wearing a leisure suit, too.

0:08:54.210 --> 0:08:56.569
<v Speaker 1>But like you said, I think the most iconic leisure

0:08:56.590 --> 0:08:59.330
<v Speaker 1>suit of all time was Travolta's from Saturday Night Fever.

0:08:59.890 --> 0:09:02.790
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's had an interesting history over the years. It

0:09:02.809 --> 0:09:07.570
<v Speaker 2>was purchased for the film from a store in New Jersey,

0:09:07.710 --> 0:09:08.290
<v Speaker 2>not surprisingly.

0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:08.430
<v Speaker 1>Right.

0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.590
<v Speaker 2>For about $ 100, and very famously, and we've talked about

0:09:11.610 --> 0:09:16.690
<v Speaker 2>this before, Gene Siskel, the great, great movie reviewer with

0:09:16.730 --> 0:09:19.010
<v Speaker 2>his partner Roger Ebert, owned that suit. He bought it

0:09:19.530 --> 0:09:22.589
<v Speaker 2>in 1978 for a couple of grand, which was a

0:09:22.670 --> 0:09:30.170
<v Speaker 2>great deal because he sold it in 1995 for $ 145, 000.

0:09:29.530 --> 0:09:33.199
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, which is worth about $ 300, 000 today.

0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:34.130
<v Speaker 2>What an investment.

0:09:34.700 --> 0:09:37.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for real. Did you know that Gene Siskel's favorite

0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:38.400
<v Speaker 1>movie is Saturday Night Fever?

0:09:38.780 --> 0:09:40.540
<v Speaker 2>Oh, yeah. We talked about it in that episode.

0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:45.660
<v Speaker 1>I know. Many times since then, I think. So it

0:09:45.730 --> 0:09:48.730
<v Speaker 1>actually has gone down in value. I guess people are

0:09:48.850 --> 0:09:52.350
<v Speaker 1>less attracted to kitsch today because the most recent time

0:09:52.410 --> 0:09:53.910
<v Speaker 1>it was sold was at auction in 2023. And it

0:09:53.929 --> 0:09:54.530
<v Speaker 1>had dipped down to.

0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:56.719
<v Speaker 2>$ 260, 000.

0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:02.660
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. It's not bad for a white leisure suit. Yeah,

0:10:02.780 --> 0:10:03.219
<v Speaker 1>not bad.

0:10:03.500 --> 0:10:06.300
<v Speaker 2>And the good news is if you ever get invited

0:10:06.340 --> 0:10:09.510
<v Speaker 2>to a 70s party or something, a leisure suit is

0:10:09.550 --> 0:10:12.630
<v Speaker 2>always a great way to go for men and women.

0:10:12.650 --> 0:10:16.030
<v Speaker 2>I feel like the women had sort of the pantsuit

0:10:16.090 --> 0:10:17.689
<v Speaker 2>leisure suit version of this as well.

0:10:18.770 --> 0:10:22.309
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like Kate Jackson in Charlie's Angels wore that kind

0:10:22.330 --> 0:10:22.609
<v Speaker 1>of thing.

0:10:23.650 --> 0:10:24.220
<v Speaker 2>Kate Jackson.

0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.500
<v Speaker 1>I'll go down as a Jacqueline Smith fan.

0:10:29.460 --> 0:10:30.540
<v Speaker 2>Oh, sound like a real fan.

0:10:31.179 --> 0:10:31.599
<v Speaker 1>Beset?

0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.080
<v Speaker 2>Jacqueline Smith was Charlie's Angels, yes.

0:10:35.620 --> 0:10:39.360
<v Speaker 1>Why can't I keep that? They look alike. Do they

0:10:39.380 --> 0:10:40.359
<v Speaker 1>look at all alike?

0:10:40.750 --> 0:10:44.310
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they were both brunettes, attractive brunettes in the 70s, sure.

0:10:44.350 --> 0:10:48.340
<v Speaker 1>There you go. So, yes, I'm justified. That's right. I

0:10:48.380 --> 0:10:50.900
<v Speaker 1>think short stuff should be out, Chuck. Let's go.

0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.460
<v Speaker 2>Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:01.610
<v Speaker 2>more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:11:01.770 --> 0:11:03.570
<v Speaker 2>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.