Safari suit
Encyclopedia
The safari suit was a style of men's suit
Suit
-Garments:*Suit , a set of garments with matching pieces, including at least a coat and trousers**Formal wear, the general terms for clothing suitable for formal social events*Boilersuit, or coverall, a loose-fitting one-piece garment...

 popular in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in the 1970s, and in India until the late 1990s.

Origin

The safari suit was created by French designer Ted Lapidus
Ted Lapidus
Edmond "Ted" Lapidus was a French fashion designer. He was born in Paris the son of a Russian-Jewish Émigré tailor....

 and popularised by former South Australian Premier Don Dunstan
Don Dunstan
Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan, AC, QC was a South Australian politician. He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became state Labor leader in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979.The son of a business...

.

The Safari suit's popularisation in India is believed to have descended from colonial era garments designed for "Cross country expeditions".

Description

The safari suit featured a square-cut short-sleeved jacket with a broad collar unbuttoned at the top, epaulette
Epaulette
Epaulette is a type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces and other organizations.Epaulettes are fastened to the shoulder by a shoulder strap or "passant", a small strap parallel to the shoulder seam, and the button near the collar, or by laces on the...

s and four pockets. It was worn with either long pants or short pants and knee high socks. Safari suits were often khaki
Khaki
This article is about the fabric. For the color, see Khaki . Kaki, another name for the persimmon, is often misspelled "Khaki".Khaki is a type of fabric or the color of such fabric...

 or sky blue and made from polyester
Polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...

.

Australia

Safari suits were highly popular in Australia in the 1970s, when many men owned at least one. They even became an acceptable substitute for business attire
Informal attire
Informal attire, also called international business attire or Western business attire is a dress code, typified by a suit and necktie, for men. On the scale of formality, informal attire is more formal than casual but less formal than semi-formal. It is more presentational than semi-casual, but...

. By 1980 they had gone completely out of fashion.

India

In India it was very popular among bureaucrats and businessmen. For decades, from the 1970s to the late 1990s, it was a virtual uniform among people working for corporations. Its popularity took off in the 1970s after Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered at Mumbai, India. The company operates through three business segments: petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas, other segment of the company includes textile, retail business, special economic zone development and...

set up synthetic fiber plants in India making it affordable to many.
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