Short Stuff: Leisure Suits

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. A big part of parenting today is figuring out which technology will help your kid and which might hurt them, especially when it comes to learning. Brilliant is the online math tutor that's visual and interactive. Unlike other tools, it never hands your kid the answer. It helps them think for themselves with personalized support when they need it. It's helped millions of students excel in math from fractions to calculus. Sign up today at brilliant.org slash tutor and get 20% off for back to school. That's brilliant.org slash tutor. Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs, and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong, even when life gets busy. Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees a network you can rely on so you can focus on your kids. the moments, and people that matter most. That's the AT&T guarantee. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Just visit att.com slash guarantee for details. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, sitting in for Dave. So that automatically just converted this to a short stuff, whether you like it or not, sucker. Converted. Very good. And we converted right back into the 70s accidentally, Chuck, because we're talking about leisure suits. And there's really no other decade that the leisure suit truly existed in. It's an icon of the 70s. I'm just going to come out and say it. Face it. Yeah, I agree. And why do we feel the need to be so silly in short stuff? So when did we give ourselves that permission? From the get? Pretty much from the get-go, yeah. All right. They have a different tone, which I enjoy. Well, yeah. I mean, you don't want just the same thing. It's crazy. Yeah, you never hear me going, meep, meep, meep, meep, meep, converted on a regular episode. Those are far too serious. For sure. They're dead serious. Very dry. All right. It also gives us a chance to cover things like leisure suits, which, you know, we'll talk about sort of the precursors that weren't really leisure suits but may have led to them. But the leisure suit that we're really talking about, obviously, is the one from the mid-70s, which was, you know, the jacket and pants thing with the wide lapel. And apparently, they came about really in the 70s but had a lot of precursors, including the 1960s, when hippies were like, yeah, I got to wear a suit sometimes too, but I don't want to be a stuffy. So I want something a little more chill. Yeah. And so, like, the guys in the 70s looked up from their lines of coke and said, hey, we want to be more chill too, but we still have jobs unlike those dirty hippies. So we need to have something to wear to the office but also chill. So weirdly, a leisure suit is, or it came out of, the concept of hippies wearing suits at the office. That was where the leisure suit was born. Yeah. Some early maybe inspirations, maybe some of these are reaches, but there had been in fashion history some other kind of a little more relaxed suits, including in 1800s Britain. There was something called a lounge suit that was, you know, that was a very stuffy time when everything matched and everything was maybe even had like coattails and things. And this was just a little less structured, a little softer, and maybe the jacket and the pants didn't match, which was, you know, like a very casual look at the time. Right. It was the original navy blazer with khakis. Yeah, probably. Pleated khakis. Yeah. So, yeah, that one's kind of like, all right, you can connect that. Just in. In that it was like a less, like you said, stuffy suit. Yeah. And connected a little further, starting in the 1920s, the roaring 20s in the United States, there's something called a sack suit. And if you go look for images of this, you're going to see basically every type of suit there is. Yeah. All called sack suits. So I'm still not entirely certain what a sack suit looks like, but it's a tailored, relaxed type of suit, as opposed to, say, something in like flannel with like sharp lines. And stuff like that. That's the best I can explain it as. Yeah. Agreed. It can get confusing when you're looking this stuff up. But the leisure suit is noted for polyester. And polyester didn't come around until the 1940s in the UK. Yeah. And didn't really, like, get big until the 1970s in the United States when the leisure suit came around. And maybe we should take an early break because we have a little bit of a teaser on why. Well, I don't know. I don't know if it was named this for this reason or not, but we'll settle it after this. Okay. Did you know that Apple has a new tool for helping businesses like yours grow? It's called Apple Business, and it's free to get started today. Just claim your location and control how your business shows up across Apple. And now you have a new way to show up to an even wider audience of potential customers with ads on Apple Maps, available in the U.S. and Canada. Sign up for Apple Business today. You know what? The smallest things, when they're done really well, can completely change your mood. Did you know that? That's right. They sure do. Like sitting down at the end of the day with something that actually tastes incredible. And, of course, we're talking about Ghirardelli Premium Dark Chocolate because it's a real standout. It's the kind of dark chocolate that's all about great taste. I love this stuff. Exactly. Good dark chocolate really hits differently when it's done right. It's rich and it's smooth without being overpowering. So every bite delivers that satisfying dark chocolate flavor that keeps you coming back for more. That's right. And that's because it's made with high-quality cocoa beans and premium ingredients. And the first thing you're going to notice is how great it tastes. Whether it's part of an evening wind-down or just a small everyday treat, it's an easy way to make an ordinary moment feel a little more special. And sometimes that's all you need. Chocolate this good. Pick up a Ghirardelli Premium Dark Chocolate today. All right. This is what I don't quite understand. When the first sort of leisure suit as we know it came around in the 1970s, when the first sort of leisure suit as we know it came around in the 1970s, it was manufactured by Lee Jeans as the L-E-E-S-U-R-E suit. And is that where the name came from, like the leisure suit? My two cents is yes. Or were they playing on the fact that it was a leisure suit and they were like, Lee, sure. No, I think that they were playing. It was a play on leisure, obviously, but I think they were the ones who introduced the word leisure to— the concept of a relaxed suit. That's my take. Okay. I found one ad that I think I found for the actual Lee Shore suit. I saw that, too. And, you know, it's everything you think. It's like a disco stew-like guy. Yes. It was designed by a guy named Jerry Rosengarten, who was designing for Lee at the time. And I think I saw it debuted in 1970 on the Lee website, which is gold. It debuted in 1972. Okay. But regardless, when Lee debuted it, remember, this is something that guys were like, we want something relaxed, but that we can wear for the office. And moms were like, we want something relaxed that is made out of durable fabric for my little boy to wear to Easter mass. And that's pretty much what it was originally released for. It was like meant to be like less stuffy business attire slash Easter attire. Yeah. And if you've never seen one, you know, the pants and the jacket match. It was the 70s, so the pants were flared, maybe a bell-bottom, maybe just a nice flare. The jacket looked sort of like what you might call a shacket these days, like a shirt jacket. I've never heard that before. Oh, you never heard of a shacket? No. I've heard of Shaquille O'Neal, but that's the closest. I mean, you've seen shackets. It's like a, yeah, like a shirt jacket. All right. I'll point one out next time we're hanging out. Okay. Thank you. Or maybe I'll buy you one. Okay. Okay. So they have wide lapels, the leisure suit did. Some of them did have a vest, like if you think of the classic Travolta suit that we'll talk about at the end, that had a matching vest. Sharp. And another kind of big giveaway was they usually had contrasting stitching. So the stitching was a different color than the suit, which is a look. It is definitely a look. A lot of people, I don't want to say a lot. Some people would actually just go buck wild. And wear white patent leather shoes with them. And you can see there's plenty of pictures from the 1970s, people standing in front of their Malibu proudly wearing a leisure suit with like white patent leather shoes. And I think Cousin Eddie wears patent leather shoes, white shoes with his leisure suit, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he's a great example. And then another great example is Otho from Beetlejuice, when Beetlejuice pulls his smart suit off and all of a sudden he's wearing blue polyester leisure suit. Yeah. With white patent leather shoes. People actually wore that, Chuck. Yeah, they wore that stuff. It never became. came office wear like they were hoping it would, I think. I'm sure some people wore it to the office, but it was kind of frowned upon. It was for like a more formal thing like that. And it was definitely more for like hitting the disco or going out or getting together with neighbors and that kind of thing when you wanted to look dressy. But I guess still be comfortable. But it was like an it look for about 10 minutes. And then it became a bit of a joke. Yeah, I think it started to be forbidden at like nicer restaurants. You couldn't wear it. And I'm guessing the reason why is because most people paired it with a shirt that was well open at the collar, lots of chest hair flowing out, medallions. Like it was not it was not an it's not an appropriate suit for the kind of place the Blues Brothers showed up to get their maitre d' horn player fired from. Boy, nice reference. And, you know, before too long, it's out of style. You know, styles come and go. But the leisure suit did not last long. That 80s power suit came in pretty quickly. And, you know, now it's just a little blip on the radar of fashion history. Yeah, it's a signifier, right? So like Disco Stu is definitely going to be wearing a leisure suit or leisure suit. Larry, obviously, is going to be wearing a leisure suit, too. But like you said, I think the most iconic leisure suit of all time was Travolta's from Saturday Night Fever. Yeah, that's how to interesting history over the years. It was purchased for the film from a store in New Jersey, not surprisingly, for about 100 bucks. And very famously, and we've talked about this before, Gene Siskel, the movie, great, great movie reviewer with his partner, Roger Ebert, owned that suit. He bought it in 1978 for a couple of grand, which was a great deal because he sold it in 1995 for $145,000. Yeah, which is worth about $300,000 today. What an investment. Yeah, for real. Did you know that Gene Siskel's favorite movie is Saturday Night Fever? Oh, yeah. We talked about it in that episode. I know. Many times since then, I think. So it actually has gone down in value. I guess people are less attracted to kitsch today because the most recent time it was sold was at auction in 2023, and it had dipped down to $260,000. Yeah. It's not bad for a white leisure suit. Yeah, not bad. And the good news is, if you ever get invited to a 70s party or something, a leisure suit is always a great way to go for men and women. I feel like the women had sort of the pantsuit leisure suit version of this as well. Yeah, like Kate Jackson in Charlie's Angels wore that kind of thing. Kate Jackson. I'll go down as a Jacqueline Smith fan. Oh, sound like a real fan. Bessette? Jacqueline Smith was Charlie's Angels, yes. Why can't I keep that? They look alike. Do they look at all alike? I mean, they were both brunettes, attractive brunettes in the 70s, sure. There you go. So, yes, I'm justified. That's right. I think short stuff should be out, Chuck. Let's go. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.