“Orchestra musicians still tend to saw away at Beethoven and Mahler in hot, constricting formal attire that would be instantly recognizable to audiences of a century ago,” writes Michael Cooper in Tuesday’s (8/18) New York Times. “It is none too comfortable. So when word spread that a Dallas violinist and businessman had engineered a stretchable, breathable men’s tuxedo shirt, a mix of formal attire and athletic performance wear that he calls ‘performal,’ musicians flocked to his website…. Kevin Yu, the shirt’s inventor … said the idea of building a better shirt struck him a few years ago after he had played some particularly hot, sweaty performances of Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ with Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra of Irving, Tex.” Musicians were given shirt prototypes to test out, and after he began offering shirts for sale, “Yu sold out his first run of 300 shirts in nine days…. After a post about his ‘high-tech tux shirt’ appeared on Violinist.com … his inbox soon filled up…. Players in orchestra pits wanted black shirts, church choirs wanted breathable gowns, marching bands wanted shirts without pleats…. He has been talking to his designer about putting out a women’s line sometime in 2016.”
Posted August 19, 2015
