worsted

He often mixed silk and wool or silk and linen for a softer alternative to the heavy, stiff gabardines and worsted wools that were typical for men’s suits and jackets.

He belonged to a walled city of the fifteenth century, a city of narrow, cobbled streets, and thin spires, where the inhabitants wore pointed shoes and worsted hose.

“It was a real novelty back then,” says Susan Schoelwer, Mount Vernon’s senior curator, of the fancy silk and worsted wool sofa with scrolled arms and rows of brass tacks.

His father was a Wall Street banker turned Connecticut senator who was straight out of central casting: craggy, 6-foot-4, wearing gray worsted suits even in warm weather.

They had put chairs and pillows into it, and several worsted suits.