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A deep dive into the fascinating history of cellular cotton—from Victorian innovation to mid-century school uniforms—and how Cathcart is bringing this classic summer fabric back with the new Airflow Polo Shirt.
By Sean Longden
For generations of British schoolkids, all the way through the mid-20th Century and into the 1970s, there was one garment that they were all familiar with. Every year, as they arrived back at school for the summer term, they would wear their summer uniform. And for many of them this meant wearing a short-sleeve cellular cotton shirt, either in a polo shirt style or with an opening front. It was as much as a part of school life as breaking the ice on the top of the daily milk on a winter’s morning, playing endless 30 a-side football matches or, as they grew older, smoking behind the bike sheds.
With such a place in the British psyche, it’s no surprise that cellular cotton shirts remain a firm favourite among clothing-obsessed Britons. And, more than this sense of familiarity, the cellular cotton shirt remains popular because – well, to be honest – they are great summer garments. As adverts for cellular cotton proclaimed, it was a fabric that “lets air in instead of shutting it out”.
With its open weave that allows air to circulate around the body, whilst still shading the skin, cellular cotton is ideal for the warmest summer day. And it is this functionality that means that it’s a fabric that is popular worldwide among those who want to wear natural fabrics whilst still looking smart and keeping cool.
And now you can join in with Cathcart’s latest range of cellular cotton shirts: The Airflow Polo Shirt.
So, what are the origins of cellular cotton?
Surprisingly, for a fabric that is famous for keeping the wearer cool, it was originally designed with warmth in mind. In the late 1800s, Lewis Haslam, a British mill-owner with a reputation for innovations in weaving technology and who later became a Liberal MP, recalled an observation he had heard from an elderly aunt who had talked of how clothing with holes in it could actually help keep the wearer warm. Intrigued, he discussed the apparent contradictory nature of 'holes' and 'warmth' with two medical experts. This discussion led to experimentation into 'aeration' within the weave of a fabric. They soon recognised the health values of heat and moisture, leading to the creation of an aerated fabric which trapped warm air and provided a buffer between the warmth of the skin and the chill of the atmosphere. Being both light and practical, Haslam’s researchers believed they could make clothes that were healthy to wear. As they were soon telling potential customers, their garments were “the healthiest and best for all seasons and climates.”
After patenting the new weave in 1896, the company was soon selling its fabric all across the UK. Initially using merino wool and silk to create their aerated weaves, which proved impractical due to the need for regular washing, they soon focussed on cotton. They even offered a booklet entitled ‘The Theory and Practice of Cellular Clothing’ to support the efforts of their salesmen. And so, in 1888, The Cellular Clothing Co was established. Writing in an 1890 newspaper article on women’s clothing, one female journalist noted: “Those who have tried it tell me that the cellular cotton fabric is very comfortable to wear, and it is not nearly so costly as wool, and it does not shrink in washing”.
By 1891 the company was using the brand name ‘Aertex’, a name that would become synonymous with cellular cotton. As the company’s advertising put it in 1911: “Aertex cellular is composed of small cells in which air is always enclosed, forming a protective layer to the skin; while owing to the ventilated nature of the clothing, any surplus heat and perspiration can readily escape. The body, therefore, maintains an even temperature whether the outside atmosphere is warm or cold. The action of the pores of the skin is never impeded, as with clothing of thick and heavy textures, and as Aertex Cellular is literally ‘light as air’, the body always enjoys a sense of Restful Luxury.”
The company immediately focussed on producing lightweight underwear that was more comfortable than the heavy woollen alternatives that had previously been worn by most people. For women, cellular cotton was used between the spurs of the fashionable corsets, making the famously uncomfortable garments slightly more bearable. As a 1920s advert for aertex underwear put it, cellular cotton was “soft, clinging, dainty and delightfully comfortable”, ensuring “perfect hygiene”.
The company also pushed their shirts as being ideal for sports, advertising them to cyclists and tennis players. In 1901, in an article on suitable clothing for cyclists, one journalist wrote: “I know many riders advocate cellular cotton clothing, on the grounds that it has all the advantages of wool and none of the ordinary disadvantages of cotton.”
The Aertex brand soon became well established among the English middle-class and the company set up factories in Nottinghamshire to produce Aertex garments. They also invested heavily in advertising, even getting a ‘celebrity’ endorsement from the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley. A few years later cellular cotton was employed to keep another explorer comfortable, this time not in the heat of Africa but in the freezing cold of Antarctica when Dr Macklin chose cellular cotton vests for his time with the Shackleton expedition.
Advertising that their customers were 'clothed in air', the garments soon spread around the world being manufactured in New Zealand and Australia, using fabrics shipped from Lancashire. Cellular cotton garments were essential for men travelling to the warmer climes of the British Empire. The open-weave kept them cool when dressed casually, such as when out on hunting trips and hanging around their estates and tea plantations. Even when dressed formally, they could wear the fabric, with evening shirts being produced in cellular cotton, to allow ventilation, with a starched cotton front panel meaning the wearer retained a traditionally formal look.
In the wake of the success of Aertex, there were a host of imitators and innovators who, inspired by the popularity of cellular cotton, wanted to get in on the act. Cellular weaves in wool, cotton and linen were all available on the market. In the USA the Chalmers Knitting Company of Amsterdam, New York, produced underwear made from cotton stockinette with small all-over holes. This patented in 1905 and named ‘Porosknit’, as porousness was considered to be healthy. Its adverts proclaimed the cloth was “cool because of its ventilated texture. Cool because the soft fabric absorbs hot perspiration. Never loses its shape because it is cut like a coat. Fits faultlessly because properly proportioned. Yields to every movement because elastic” and the company’s clothes were exported to the UK to compete with Aertex underwear.
One of the more successful competitors was the British brand Sunspel. In 1914 Thomas A. Hill Ltd, a Nottingham-based company specialising in luxury underwear and hosiery which produced one of the world’s first cotton t-shirts, used traditional lace-making equipment to develop its own version of cellular cotton using an extra-long staple cotton knit. In 1937 the company changed its name to Sunspel and, to this day, it continues to produce luxury cellular cotton underwear. The timing of their introduction of cellular cotton, coming at the start of the First World War, was fortuitous as, with wool required for military uniforms, the public were soon being encouraged to wear cellular cotton as an alternative.
What had been intended for athletic wear of vest and shorts for running and other sports, was increasing used for everyday wear. As sport and leisure became increasingly popular through the 1920s and 1930s, cellular cotton sports shirts became of staple of the summer wardrobe, becoming the ideal casual summer shirt for men. It was the ideal fabric for strenuous activity, for both men and women, whether it be for cycling, hiking, golf or even horse-riding, a leisure activity which became increasingly popular with the middles-classes during the 1920s and 1930s. These sports shirts had the advantage of being constructed with an attached collar, meaning that there was no need for fiddling with collar studs, meaning that men could spend their leisure in relative comfort. Writing in 1933 about how British men wore too many clothes in the summer, one doctor wrote: “Within the conventions, about the nearest a man can get to a sane summer costume consists of a cellular cotton shirt, short pants, and thin, light, unlined coat and trousers.” However, there was one disadvantage to cellular cotton clothing on the beach. As noted by one journalist: “Sand has a nasty habit of creeping through the small cellular holes and causing acute discomfort.”
One style that became increasingly popular was the short sleeve ‘polo shirt’ style of shirt that became a favourite for tennis players. The famous ‘Fred Perry’ tennis shirts were available in cellular cotton and another famous British fabric manufacturer which produced cellular cotton was Tootal whose fabric was available for home-sewers. Elsewhere brands used words like ‘fishnet weave’, ‘mesh’, or ‘open weave’ to advertise their garments.
Cellular cotton sports shirts weren’t confined to white tennis wear. Shirts were available in a range of other colours including red, gold, lemon, blue, rust, wine, fawn, green and grey. By the 1950s Aertex had begun producing cellular cotton shirts, for both men and women, in ‘Mexican’ prints. And by the end of the 1950s cellular cotton was being used to make T-Shirts.
Such was the popularity of cellular cotton sports shirts that similar weaves began to be used for formal shirts, such as this example of a late 1930s summer shirt sold by the Simpsons menswear shop in London’s Piccadilly which was designed to keep the wearer cool even when he was wearing a tie. However, cellular cotton shirts weren’t limited to summer activities with cellular cotton shirts becoming popular for layering, and trapping warm air, in ski clothing.
Cellular cotton continued to be popular and by the 1940s it was widely used to produce clothing for the military, which used cellular cotton for tropical uniforms which offered greater comfort in the heat of the desert or in the stifling environment of the jungles of Burma. These uniforms were direct descendants of the earlier safari suits that were popular among men travelling to tropical regions who had also favoured cellular cotton to keep them cool. In post-war Italy there were mills producing cellular cotton fabric which was exported to the UK to make bush jackets for the British Army. Cellular cotton military uniforms remained in production in India and Pakistan for many years, continuing to be issued long after those two countries had won their independence from the UK.
Cellular cotton remained popular into the 1960s until, with the relentless spread of man-made fibres, cotton became less popular. By 1960, manufacturers were even offering cellular underwear made from ‘Bri-Nylon’, as an alternative to regular cotton or Sea Island cotton cellular weaves. Perhaps it was a sign of the times that a fabric that had been introduced to keep the population comfortably cool was in turn replaced by polyester fabrics that inevitably made their wearers sticky and sweaty.
With the passing of time, and people realising the importance of remaining cool, cotton has had a revival. With our summers seeming to get ever hotter, now is the time to make sure that you can remain cool and comfortable even on the hottest days. And so, in the tradition of all great casual clothing, here at Cathcart we have woven modern cellular cotton for our latest range of casual summer wear. Coming in a selection of colours, these shirts are a perfect addition to your summer wardrobe.
