Washington Bureau

Seersucker Thursday

If you were in Congress today, or even watching C-Span, and wondered why everyone was dressed like a country Southern lawyer from the turn of the century, here’s your answer:

It was Seersucker Thursday.

Every year, members of Congress put on the lightweight, summer-friendly fabric for one day, usually the second or third Thursday in June. Before air conditioning, it was commonplace to see such suits in the Capitol, according to the Senate Historian’s office.

From their Web site:

In the late 1990s, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott decided the time had come to revive a long-forgotten Senate sartorial tradition. He selected a “nice and warm” day in the second or third week of June to be designated Seersucker Thursday. His goal was to show that “the Senate isn’t just a bunch of dour folks wearing dark suits and—in the case of men—red or blue ties.” On the day before each year’s event, senators are alerted to the impending “wearing of the seersucker.” In 2004, California Senator Dianne Feinstein decided to encourage participation by the growing cadre of the Senate’s women members. “I would watch the men preening in the Senate,” she said, “and I figured we should give them a little bit of a horse race.” The following year, 11 of the 14 women senators appeared on Seersucker Thursday in outfits received as gifts from Senator Feinstein. Today, senators voluntarily make this annual fashion statement in a spirit of good-humored harmony to remind their colleagues of what earlier Senates considered mandatory summer attire.
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