Cycles continue to swirl, heads remain spinning and men`s styles come and go with dazzling frequency. The only certainties: Drabness has been firmly relegated to the past, and the future foretold in previous seasons has at last arrived.
The general resistance to high style has begun to weaken, and even devotees of ultra-traditional clothing have loosened up a bit for fall, menswear retailers report.
Following the long, wide wake established by fashion swashbucklers in the last few years, the hardliners are beginning to accept the expansive lapel, the flowing line, the pleated trouser and even the tongue-in-cheek: Retro is flying off the shelves at places as traditional as Mallards and as across-the- board as J.C. Penney.
”Our customers are kind of getting away from some of the classic old navy and gray, solids and pinstripes and into more fashionable pleated suits with different colorations,” said Penney`s Steve Strom, who oversees menswear operations in the chain`s Chicago region.
Double the pleasure
”Updated clothing, meaning more stylized as far as fabrication is concerned, has been very successful, predominantly in double-breasted,”
according to Sal Ruggiero, vice president and fashion director at Marshall Field & Co.
Ruggiero said Fields` customers have been moving boldly toward the designer racks and walking out with creations by Joseph Abboud (”a new resource for us,” with his own boutique officially opening Friday), Hugo Boss and Perry Ellis-to mention just three of several lines available.
At Mallards in the Loop, a home for ”updated traditional,” patrons have been flipping much more rapidly through the calendar, arriving at a self-image they find more appropriate for the turn of the decade. The minor sartorial revolution may not turn Wabash Avenue into the Via del Corso, but, clearly, Chicago men have finally begun to change some of their buying habits.
”Our slightly shouldered, slightly lower-gorged two-button suit, the Niven, has already taken off,” reported John McCord, Mallards` buyer of suits and accessories. Conservative dressers might describe the Niven as big-shouldered and loose, almost Italianate, compared with Mallards offerings in past years, but they have been buying them nonetheless and matching them with appropriate cravats.
A wider outlook
”Ties have gone to 3 1/2 inches or wider for fall,” McCord said-up at least a quarter-inch. ”They`re selling best in traditional colors but in nontraditional patterns, which I refer to as `tossed prints`-oversized foulards or paisleys, where the pattern looks like it`s been tossed, rather than regimented. Lapels got a little wider, pants got fuller, so ties got wider.”
And, McCord might have added, some of the ties have gotten absolutely wild. A few 5-inch-wide numbers, shorter and tackier than anything one might have found in Oliver Hardy`s closet, have been spotted hovering well above the bellies of the avant-garde.
Such novelties may represent retro, postfashion or antifashion shenanigans, but the re-emerging three-button suit is more problematical. Scaled to Pee-wee Herman proportions and buttoned to the max, the outfits can appear satirical. But they have been worn that way, soberly, in the past
(check out any mid-`50s high school yearbook or annual report), and some retailers feel a reincarnation coming on.
”We`ve sold three-button suits real well,” said Jerry Kamhi, president of the Urban American Club haberdashery at 1800 N. Clybourn Ave. The new, private-label store leans toward European cuts and materials at relatively moderate prices (suits run from $375 to about $495).
Three buttons, plus
”We are selling a three-button suit that has some shoulder to it,”
Kamhi added. ”It`s not just a plain sack suit, because that`s not flattering. We are 100 percent full-chested, full-shouldered, non-vented suits, and we are not having a problem selling that.”
McCord said his suppliers still haven`t come up with a three-button that fits the Mallards image. Like Urban American Club, Mallards features private- label merchandise almost exclusively. ”I`d like to offer a shaped, slightly shouldered three-button suit, but I haven`t found a good one on the market,” McCord said. ”I`m going to have one model in for spring with a little bit of shoulder in it and darts in the front, and that one will be slightly shaped.
”The problem with traditional three-button clothing is that it`s not becoming on most people. We all go to the gym four times a week, and you put on a classic three-button sack coat and it doesn`t look like you do anything for your body.”
Brooks Brothers, of course, continues to offer the three-button sack and some shaped versions that might satisfy even a few preening weight-lifters. The top button, however, should remain unbuttoned, the Brothers recommend, because the age of stingy-brim hats, puddle-clearing pants cuffs and Doris Day movies has long since passed. Therefore, a buttonhole winks subtly from the otherwise uninterrupted and graceful sweep of the Brooks lapel, which continues to fasten at button No. 2.
People caught up in the buying mood of a new season seldom have the patience to note such nuances, of course. This appears to be a time when men are settling on a ”look” that, for them, might be radically different.
Going to blazers
One can sense the excitement in the voice of Michael Karpik, executive vice president for merchandising at Bigsby & Kruthers: ”People are getting a little more dressed up lately. I`ve seen a resurgence of a very nice dress-up look, especially in the neckwear-a little more expression there. Our blazer business is really very strong for this fall season. The blazers have so much more interest now. They`re a little wider, some with single buttons, dual vents, a lot more texture.
”My customers are getting more used to double-breasted. The shoulders are getting a little wider, a little more comfortable. The look is not as tailored-let`s put it that way. When a man puts it on, all of a sudden he doesn`t feel that binding under his arm. He doesn`t know what makes it different, but he feels it and he sees it in the mirror.
”This is all new for the customer. In the last couple of years, there`s been no redirection in menswear. There are subtle nuances available without having to have a new Armani on the block, saying, `This is what it`s going to be, guys,` or Ralph Lauren saying, `This is the new look.` ”
Stepping on out
A quick glance around almost any office, or, in the off-hours, any back yard or laundry room, clearly reveals that men`s fashions evolve. Most men still shop not for an overhaul but for replacement parts. Yet retailers seem to sense that a collective decision has been made to deviate from the norms.
The demand for leather jackets continues where it left off last year, lashed on by the reappearance of bomber-clad Indiana Jones.
Even in tradition-bound emporiums, splashy or rich necktie patterns greatly outpace the stripes, with crepes and multicolored jacquards coming on strong. ”The bottle shape has been a very, very good seller,” said Dan Robbins, merchandise manager at Mark Shale. ”The throat is narrow, and then it widens right out in a bottle shape.”
Suspenders are winning fewer new converts, although loyalists do continue to replace their braces, and dandies hold up their pants with lavishly decorated or outrageous numbers.
Black has muscled its way into a dominant position in the fashion spectrum, turning up even in sweaters.
The sweaters themselves tend to be smoother, with flatter weaves, buttery softness and subdued, ”classic” colors, such as burgundy and hunter green.
All buttoned up
The V-neck reappears, often worn with a buttoned-to-the-Adam`s-apple sport shirt, which might be in a wispy, Italian-style solid color or in various traditional patterns, from lumberjack plaid to paisley.
Vests with suits may not be readily available, particularly on the more modestly priced models. Costs of materials have risen steeply in recent months. ”A vest adds, at the cheapest level, $50 retail to the suit,” said Mallards` McCord. ”Consequently, a lot of manufacturers haven`t offered them, because they`re afraid of customer sticker shock.”
Decorative vests, however, may be on the forefront of a trend. Young fashion pacesetters have been buying them in fancy patterns, including lavish brocade. ”All of a sudden, the tie manufacturers are making vests, too,”
Karpik noted.
At Mark Shale, customers have been buying leather and suede vests to go with sport coats and a shawl-collared doeskin vest to wear under blazers.
”It`s our answer to the brocade vest,” said Robbins.
Rugged individualism
The rugged look continues to dominate sportswear. Heavy, loose fabrics in olive and beige are worn with buckskin loafers or hiking boots.
”There`s a new waist treatment in the denims,” Ruggiero said. ”It`s a higher waist, belted, detailed with snaps and tabs.”
Ruggiero also observed that Field`s customers have been making a run at some heavy-gauged knit sweaters with colorful stitching. ”We call them ethnic patterns,” he said, ”like American Indian or a folklore type of theme.”
Kamhi, meanwhile, reports: ”We`re selling a lot of merino wool mock turtlenecks, cardigans and polos in colors as well as basic tones.”
At Kamhi`s rather advanced store, customers have been snapping up a sportcoat patterned in traditional plaid. And several buyers have noticed that some spring lines for 1990 have been featuring narrower lapels. At the same time, stripes have been creeping back into the necktie wardrobes of certain television hosts.
This appears to be the dawning of an era when one would have difficulty making the wrong choice. –
