Traditional firms take country sports coats to town; gone are the gimmicks of the Ivy League era in fall lines. - Daily News Record

Gone are the gimmicks of the Ivy League era in fall lines

NEW YORK -- The Country Squire is back in style again and the look is anything but hayseed or hokey.

For fall, Country is sophisticated and savvy in traditional sport coats and suits and a needed alternative to the stuffy corporate suit or sleek Euro styling. Gone are the bells, whistles and Ivy League trappings that were once called Country.

Today, the look is subtle and clean and the traditional clothing market's answer to dressy weekend sportswear. Their subtle blending of Americana and Savile Row couldn't have come at a better time either. Country Squire answers the call for something new and hip after the long run of Italian styling.

While sales of Country looks are still fairly small, the trend has made such an impact for fall that everybody is planning a spring '94 followup.

Discussing the Country trend in his fall Couture and Colours lines, designer Alexander Julian admits, 'I'm from the school that plain pockets on a sport jacket look too much like a suit. I've always liked country suits because I grew up in the country.' But this doesn't mean he likes all the obvious gimmicks associated with Country styling.

Bill Kaiserman, in New York for a brief visit from Italy to finalize his spring fabrics for his label at Hartz & Co., reports, 'I interpret country as the elegant man walking in the country with his dog, walking stick ...and you can picture the rest. The country look I try to get is super-rich and out of a '30s movie.'

Carl Freedberg, vice-president, Freedberg of Boston, offers his rationale on Country styling. 'Today, we're selling a lot of items, and that's what we consider country. For example, we have a new, unconstructed sport coat line called Caravan. It's tweedy, soft, oversize and very much like sportswear.

'Retailers aren't buying it just for the sake of adding another sport coat and just showing it on a rack. Instead, they're buying Caravan on the basis that everything they add has to be special. They need a reason to buy a particular suit or sport coat, and country is the new answer.'

Jim Hertling, president, Hertling Industries, reports, 'In our case, country pushes the right buttons for the consumer to dress down a little in terms of giving him comfortable clothing. It's easy because today he has the option of wearing a soft sport coat a number of ways.

'We're doing an oversized jacket that's almost hybrid outerwear and meant to be worn over a sweater with jeans--or as a dressup jacket.'

Rod Smith, vice-president, merchandising, Southwick, agrees. 'We see contry as an oversized sport coat with three open patch pockets in lambswool and shetland in tartan plaids and district checks. This is a super-soft coat that's fully lined. We see it as outerwear or sportswear.'

Country is far from new for Alexander Julian, who recalls 'when I did the clothes for Tim Robbins in the movie The Player, I did a double-breasted suit with three open patch pockets because I wanted to show something sportier but in a business-like fabric.' And this is his guide to Country styling.

'As far as obvious country details,' he continues, 'I think they're all fine so long as you don't overdo them, because you limit the range of a customer who will understand the look. He knows he can buy a suit without the extra country details at the same price. It takes a more self-confident consumer to understand country.'

The designer adds, 'As I did it for fall, country means a two-button sport coat with four patch pockets in very quiet fabrics, such as a charcoal and oatmeal bird's-eye or a Thornproof-type twist fabric.'

This is as far as the designer has gone in interpreting Country, avoiding the obvious details. 'And our customers are buying this subtle look in country suits as well as jackets.'

Country is a new proposition for Kaiserman. He asserts, 'I went further for fall than I did in the last two years and did a tweedy English-cut jacket with two buttons, a cutaway front, high side vents and hacking pockets. I also did it in Italian soft, tweedy fabrics that gave the coats a super-luxurious country feeling.'

Why the switch to Country for the Milan-based designer? 'Because I felt it was time for a change in silhouette and the only one I've done is an Italian strong shoulder. I've gone as far I as I can with this silhouette and can't improve on it.

'So, as a result, I've been looking for another direction. And for me the only thing that can combine elegance and casual is a country look that starts with an extreme Savile Row cut. Then I turned it into an aggressive or updated English look. I designed a coat with bigger shoulders, a strong shape in the waist and a flared skirt.

'That is what I believe in for a more avant-garde look.'

Kaiserman also believes that vests are a big part of Country and he's doing a five-button version in fabrics that match the sport coats. As he describes them, 'The vests are proportioned to the jacket and very cutaway at the bottom. Country is another reason for consumers to buy the vest.'

For the record, he explains that his Country coat/vest combos 'met our sales projections and better. We didn't kill the world but we did change the silhouette and our major fashion retailers went along with it. Frankly, they loved it more than they trusted it, but they all feel it will be the future. Everybody jumped on it in a limited way.

'I'm going to have a spring follow-through in an unconstructed coat, and tie it in with summer cottons and linens. I feel confident that by fall '94, people will be used to this country feeling.'

Commenting on his company's new Country coats, Freedberg comments, 'We do country in two ways: one is the Caravan soft-constructed four-button sport coat without any lining. It has a button-on self-belt, four patch pockets and suede elbow patches. We did it in a gamekeeper tweed, a houndstooth check and a cashmere/wool plush.

'Our other country coat is also unlined with three open patch pockets. We also did it in cashmere/wool plush, ombre plaids and a woven patchwork wool.'

Freedberg adds the company also did Counry suits 'in a corporate way in English Saxony-district checks. The three-button coat has deep side vents. We've had a very favorable response to country and we're selling it to specialty stores.

'Country is a feature item and has to be promoted that way. Realistically, it's small but growing. In fact, we plan a spring/summer version in silk/wool and linen with the same kind of detailing. Naturally, we won't do suede elbow patches, but we will do linen-on-linen patches.

'By introducing the Caravan line with a real sportswear appeal, we opened up many new accounts that we couldn't sell before because we mostly did corporate suits.'

At Southwick, Smith also confirms the fact that 'sales for country styles are relatively small. But we're getting a great acceptance to several styles in the total sport coat package. And retailers include our oversized, soft jackets in their total sport coat package.

'We're going to have a spring country model and it will include suits as well made the same way in linen/silk blends, all-cotton and silk/wool.'

The Country trend at Hertling, according to its president, includes such details as throat latches and elbow patches on french-faced three-button sport coats. Fabrics include heavy sport coatings in 11- to 12-ounces, because, as he notes, 'They make sense for this oversized outerwear-type model.

'It's been our best sport coat and easily close to half of this classification's sales. This is our third year with the model and it keeps growing. We also do a model for spring in linen and lightweight silk/linen. When we think country, we just do a clean model and don't put on all of the extra details.

'Today, the country sport coat is a change of pace and fits into the young corporate customer's wardrobe.'

Hertling observes, 'We've shown the same country concept in suits, but frankly we haven't done anything with it. Our suits for business are essentially 'uniform' clothing, and this is what retailers look to us for. We're in that price classification and do updated business models.'

Most of the traditional clothing market does, and that's why the Country sport coat is becoming a hot property. It's new, different and the best road yet to instant sportswear.