Beaver Hats to Hockey Pads: A Social History of Felt in Canada: Part 9
American Influence and Affluence
Cars, white-goods and poodle skirts…
LEFT: American Felt Company advertisement, 1948; CENTRE: skirt pattern; RIGHT: variations on the felt skirt
The felt industry in North America came into its own with the advent and growth of the automobile industry. As heavy volume buyers with a demand for precise specifications, car companies drove the need for standardization in felt manufacturing. Standards were determined and defined by the Society of Automotive Engineering in 1923, and remain the basis for the present-day qualities of industrial felt.
Through the post-war economic boom felt remained a strong component of not only automotive parts but also of other modern conveniences flourishing at the time, especially of home appliances or “white-goods”, so-called for their typical white paint or enamelled finish. Felt filters, gaskets and seals became a staple of the American dream, found in dishwashers and clothes dryers across the continent.
Felt found its way into other domestic markets in the 1950s through women’s magazines full of handy tips and patterns. The circle skirt, a full felt skirt often appliquéd, helped to usher in the new wave of growth and optimism in the US, offering a cheap alternative to the voluminous style of ‘The New Look’ made famous by Christian Dior on the runways of Paris. Cut from a circle of felt with a hole in the middle for the waist, American home-makers inadvertently emulated American industry with this pattern that resembles a giant gasket. KW