Green’s Dictionary of Slang

threads n.

(orig. US) clothes; occas. in sing.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 11/2: New set of threads, new suit of clothes.
1931		C.S. Montanye ‘Tight Spot’ in Complete Stories 15 Sept. 🌐 How about them forty-two suits of yours? Boy, they’re classy threads.
1947		S.J. Perelman ‘How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth’ in Keep It Crisp 141: You wear the keenest threads on the campus.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 2: The mellow little old frames are showcasing their ‘frantic threads,’ and the cool kitties are riffing in their ‘mad fronts’ and daddy you better believe everything is much straight.
1963		T. Southern ‘You’re Too Hip, Baby’ in Southern (1973) 78: ‘That’s a groovy thread,’ said Murray [...] ‘Oh?’ she looked down at the dress.
1965		Newsweek 7 June 58/1: But a Little Orphan Annie dress by Mary Quant or Caroline Charles will do, or for the male, a set of Mod threads.
1977		P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 5: He wears work clothes on the job and pimp threads on weekends.
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 56: In Koelietown, van Dam who rolled in pocket-money, bought clothes on the sales. His zoot suits and fancy threads, he called them.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 13: I relished those threads like they were store-bought.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 103: Val’s big comment on my threads was ‘Mmm’.
1999		(con. 1916) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 113: Another kid, dressed in the threads of a golfer five times his size.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 17/1: The threads were swank but not foppish.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 18: I’ll teach him to fuck up my threads!
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 333: He was tall and muscular, looked great in gangster threads and gold jewelry.
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘See you’ve been spendin’ all the taxpayer’s money on threads’.
2018		Eve. Standard (London) 20 Aug. 43/1: Leeson treated himself to some fancy threads.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 200: The gang’s got up in street threads [...] No Afrika Korps kouture today.

In phrases

get threaded up (v.)

to get dressed up in one’s best clothes.

2001

(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 185: And I’m supposed to go and get threaded up for this turn today?