Green’s Dictionary of Slang

threads n.

[metonymy]

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

[US]Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 11/2: New set of threads, new suit of clothes.
C.S. Montanye ‘Tight Spot’ in Complete Stories 15 Sept. 🌐 How about them forty-two suits of yours? Boy, they’re classy threads.
[US]S.J. Perelman ‘How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth’ in Keep It Crisp 141: You wear the keenest threads on the campus.
[US]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.
[US]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.
[US]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.
[US]P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 5: He wears work clothes on the job and pimp threads on weekends.
[SA]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.
[US]N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 13: I relished those threads like they were store-bought.
[Aus](con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 103: Val’s big comment on my threads was ‘Mmm’.
[Ire](con. 1916) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 113: Another kid, dressed in the threads of a golfer five times his size.
[Aus](con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 17/1: The threads were swank but not foppish.
[US]T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 18: I’ll teach him to fuck up my threads!
[US]Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 333: He was tall and muscular, looked great in gangster threads and gold jewelry.
[US]S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘See you’ve been spendin’ all the taxpayer’s money on threads’.
[UK]Eve. Standard (London) 20 Aug. 43/1: Leeson treated himself to some fancy threads.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 200: The gang’s got up in street threads [...] No Afrika Korps kouture today.
[UK]‘Aidan Truhen’ Seven Demons 223: wow man nice threads.

In phrases

get threaded up (v.)

to get dressed up in one’s best clothes.

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