I have this wonderful Stroock fabric coat. I read that Stroock was famous in the '30s & '40s for creating exotic fabrics with llama, vicuna, alpaca, cashmere, etc. Not sure how long the company was in business The fabric in this coat is called PREFERENTIA by Stroock. I am trying to find the content of this fabric. It feels like a wonderful heavy cashmere to me. There was a catalog made called "Fine Fabrics by Stroock". -but I don't know how to find it. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Coat is a clutch coat with a large shawl collar, so am I looking at late 40s or 50s??? Thanks everyone.
Stroock gave their fabrics exclusive names and I find lots of references to Preferentia in the newspaper archive that I subscribe to, but none of the ads states the fiber content of the fabric. They just refer to it as "soft". If it had a luxury fiber like vicuna or cashmere, it's likely that would have been mentioned. I did find an ad for your exact coat from 1960. I can't post it here due to copyright issues.
I was stuck between late 50s and early 60s on this coat. Thank you, Jody! Love the pick-stitching on that collar. Nice coat!
Thank you Jody for your help. I would love to know more about the newspaper archive you subscribe to. It sounds like a wonderful resource to have available.
Beautiful coat - I was going to date as late '50s to early '60s too. Wonder what this mystery fabric is made of? I guess you could get away with stuff like that before fabric content labels became obligatory. Nicole
Omigosh, Alice--I had almost that exact same coat a few years ago, but the label was gone. I'd swear it was your coat's identical twin or darn close to it! I've had, and still have, several Stroock-fabric coats, and very few of them have had any indication of exact fabric content. I suspect yours likely has some cashmere in it, but is blended with something else. If vicuna, it would be labeled, I'm sure. Most of mine have been longer, rougher-napped "camelid" wools (like camel--lol) or blends. But the coat I had like yours was definitely cashmere or cashmere blend, but not labeled as such. I think your coat is very late 50s.
Thanks Nicole & Anne. Maybe that darn vicuna label fell off! :scratchchin: This is such a beauty - I'm going to have a hard time parting with it. Yes it definitely feels like a cashmere or cashmere blend. Wish I could find that catalog, "Fine Fabric of Stroock.
