I’m reading Three-Eight Charlie by Jerrie Mock, about her 1964 solo flight around the world. She mentions ‘drip-dry clothes’. What are those? Aren’t all clothes drip-dry? I mean, you hang them up, the water drips off and what’s left evaporates?
Drip-dry was more common in the days before Perma-Press and electric dryers being fairly common.
The clothes in question, if hung up, would dry wrinkle-free. I know my Mom had drip-dry clothes bought from places like Alexanders.
In the City, we had a washer we shared with the landlord on the ground floor, but clothes went out on a line to dry. So drip-dry at least eliminate one onerous step in cleaning clothes.
Thanks. The flight took place in 1964. In the '70s, I heard ‘Perma-Press’. Sounds like Perma-Press supplanted ‘drip-dry’? (Now I’m curious what ‘drip-dry’ clothes actually were. Material, and whatnot.)
It was what they called the early generations of synthetics. You know, nylon and polyester and the like. Not only were they more likely to dry wrinkle free just from hanging, like wicking clothes today they would dry much faster. They just didn’t hold water.
As I recalkl from that era, drip dry was mostly shirts, blouses, and dresses, not pants. They were always something like thin polyester, and they looked kind of cheap. Certainly not like the cotton and wools that “good” clothes were made from. But they dried on a hangar in minutes and they didn’t wrinkle enough to need ironing.
In a pinch, my father could wear a drip dry shirt with a suit and tie, as long as he kept his jacket on, but he preferred cotton shirts and would iron them himself.
The title character in Allan Sherman’s “Bye Bye Blumberg” was a traveling salesman who never traveled without his “Playboy Magazine, drip-dry shirt and Dramamine.”
[Emphasis mine.] Appropriate, considering the book that prompted my question. 