the washed corduroy short: a little surf history, and why cord belongs in summer

Everyone files corduroy under fall. Professors, October, falling leaves. They have it backwards. Long before cord was a cool weather fabric, it lived at the beach, cut short and pulled straight out of the sun. The corduroy short is summer’s best kept secret, and I will die on that hill.

The surf history nobody tells you

In the 1960s and 70s, cord shorts were a uniform of California surf culture. The walk short, cut around the knee, sand to parking lot to taco stand. The texture made sense by the ocean: it shrugged off salt, dried soft, and got better the more you lived in it. Corduroy shorts are not a library fabric. They are a coast fabric with a tan.

The name nobody gets right

People love to say corduroy comes from the French corde du roi, the cord of the king. Great story, almost certainly not true. More likely it is just cord, for the ridges they call wales, plus duroy, an old English cloth. Those wales catch light and shadow the way flat fabric never will, and they age into something personal.

Why we wash it, and make it in Japan

New cord is stiff. We do not want stiff. We weave, dye, and wash our corduroy in Japan, where it is done best, so the washed corduroy short shows up already broken in: soft in the wales, the color settled down with a little fade. That first day feeling of a pair you have owned for years. Premium cord, washed soft, built to be worn hard.

FAQ

Are corduroy shorts good for summer? Yes. Cut into a summer weight and washed soft, cord breathes, moves, and ages better than almost anything. It started at the beach.

Where is Black Bear Brand corduroy made? In Japan. We weave the fabric, dye and wash it, and make our corduroy in Japan, where it is done best.

What goes with corduroy shorts? A plain tee and sandals, or an embroidered flower shirt thrown over the top when the night turns.

Corduroy in summer is not a contradiction. It is the original move. Shop Black Bear Brand corduroy

- Josh