disable drop cap

Miles Rohan, president and founder of the Corduroy Appreciation Club, had just opened the third annual meeting on November 11 at the Montauk Club in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to receptive, corduroy-clad devotees when a man in the audience jumped to his feet.

"There is a person among us who is not wearing two pieces of corduroy!" Rohan yelled, pointing out the interloper. Corduroy-cloaked guards descended from the stage, wrestled the offender out of his chair, and hauled him from the room.

"Don't cord me, dude!" the offender yelled, struggling to get free.

The club takes corduroy very seriously.

"We revel in our deep fellowship, our social bonds fostered by dear corduroy," Rohan explained after the interruption. "We do this in spite of an age of increasing disconnection, epidemic loneliness, and rampant insolence. Corduroy has provided us with a warm and protective embrace."

The winners of the Best Corduroy Outfit award pose with club president Miles Rohan. (Photo: Craig Chin)

Rohan, a digital archivist for Nickelodeon, has no financial incentive to promote corduroy. Originally, the club was just a party held at Rohan's house. But with the help of Rohan's wife, the project escalated into a satire of a social club. To gather members Rohan slipped membership cards inside the pockets of corduroy clothes on the rack. He posted fliers and chased down well-dressed corduroy wearers on the street. In 2005, the first grand meeting of the Club had 100 people and was profiled in the New Yorker. Since then it has grown enormously: there are now 1,276 members and club branches in North Carolina, Texas, California, England, and Norway.

Fashionistas from all over the country came to participate in the third annual meeting. Daniel Thomas flew from Portland just to show off his exquisite Duchess' "Roy" corduroy suit, vest, and bowtie. "I needed an excuse to come to New York and nothing is more absurd than the celebration of corduroy," Thomas said. He even joked that he wears corduroy underwear.

This, of course, is a lie. Corduroy underwear is considered the Sasquatch of the corduroy community; many members claim to have seen it, but no one has yet proven its existence.

The club meets on 11/11 and 1/11, the dates that most closely resemble corduroy. Their mascot is the whale because of its ribbed belly. Corduroy snacks include Ruffles potato chips, celery, and peanut butter cookies (pressed with stripes).

The Club voted to endorse Dennis Kucinich as the most corduroy friendly candidate. (Photo: Craig Chin)

The club also held its first presidential caucus and voted to endorse Dennis Kucinich as the most corduroy-friendly candidate. Kucinich has been invited to speak at the next meeting and there are high hopes that he might actually attend.

The club has secret rituals that cannot be divulged. They have a poet laureate. Its members are very concerned with the perception of corduroy and those who wear it.

"It's strange because it kind of straddles a lot of different senses. It's not just nice to look at; it's also nice to touch, nice to feel. Sometimes it makes some interesting noises," said Lord Whimsy, the keynote speaker of the evening.

The club is currently building momentum for 11/11/11. Their ultimate goal is an international celebration in several major cities. To this end they have launched C.O.R.D., the Corduroy Office of Research and Development, to identify corduroy-friendly historic figures, collect and preserve corduroy artifacts, and fund secret experiments to discover lucrative new uses for the fabric.

"It is maybe pretentious or over the top but I think this is kind of a golden age of corduroy," Rohan said.

digg this | add to del.icio.us | add to reddit | add to newsvine

[To discuss this article—or to comment on anything in the magazine or on mensvogue.com—visit the Men's Vogue Forum.]