NEW YORK -- Spring '92 has turned into a stretched out buying season.
With a lot of first half business still to be booked, tailored clothing manufacturers expect January to be a replay of pre-season fall showroom activity, when the business sport coat became the new MVP.
Clothing executives agree the growing interest in these tailored sport coats is a pendulum swing back from suits and the result of the overkill of double-breasted gabardine suits. The onetime 'airport coat' is being rediscovered and updated as the newest clothing item to wear to work.
Despite the fact that suits still lead the sales league for spring, tailored sport coats have piled on the biggest percentage gains.
According to Wayne Galvin, vice-president, sales, national sales manager, The 500 Fashion Group, 'We're about 14 percent ahead of plan on sport coats and we feel it's because they're being accepted as alternative dressing for business.'
He emphasizes the sportswear market doesn't address this need. 'The consumer wants a coat that's dressier, with more mileage. Still, he doesn't want a stiff, stand-up coat. Our look is international and the fit is relaxed, with a wider point-to-point shoulder, lowered armholes and a slightly fuller silhouette.'
Galvin adds, 'There were three components driving the classification for spring. They were color, silhouette and fabric, and, as a result, price wasn't the most important factor.
'Our best-selling fabrics are silk/rayon ad silk/linen/rayon in muted patterns and flatter weaves. The coats retail from $175 to $225 and we're doing them in our Bert Pulitzer, Botany '500' and Bernhard Altmann labels.'
Mentioning the growth of the split suit concept, he notes dress trousers in the same fuller silhouette did well with double and triple pleats in all-worsted as well as 55/45 polyester microfiber/wool gabardines retailing from $85 to $95.
Sport coats with an extended shoulder top the best-seller list for spring in the Nigel's line at Pincus Bros.-Maxwell, claims Nathan Pincus, vice-president, merchandising. 'Flat worsteds in micro patterns and in dark colors with an extended shoulder were wanted in two- and three-button models. The coats are ventless with triple patch pockets.
'They're almost airport coats, but this time around, they're different. They can be worn with jeans or with a dress shirt and tie for business. The coats are for the guy who doens't want to wear just another blazer.'
Insisting that the days of the 20-inch shoulder are over, Pincus contends, 'For spring, everybody's silhouette was so exaggerated we felt it was time to come back to a middle ground in shoulder widths for fall. So we developed a model that's sort of a cross-pollination of American and Italian.
'We're introducing a 19-inch sloped should in the Nigel's line in both three and two buttons.' He calls the model a 'happy compromise,' pointing out that it comes with either double forward pleated pants or triple reverse pleated pants.
Even with this addition, Nigel's volume in sport coats and suits will continue to be a 19 7/8-inch shoulder.
Several kinds of sport coats sold well for spring at various Joseph & Feiss divisions, according to Kim Herring, vice-president, merchandising, 'In Baracuta, where sport coats were half the business, the pigment-dyed linens and other, heavier-washed lines with a true sportswear feeling really sold. These coats have an extended soft shoulder and either patch or flap pockets.
'We did them in a soft construction with a three-eighths lining. Believe it not, the best-selling color was orange followed by medium ocean blue. The retail is $385.'
Herring continues that in the country Britches line, 70 percent of the business was in suits for spring, 'but sport coats moved from 20 percent of the volume a year ago to 30 percent today.
'Dressy, dignified business sport coats led, and the best model was an updated traditional single-breasted with a slight extended shoulder, mostly with two buttons. Fabrics were lightweight worsted wools in primarily small neat checks and glens in two or three subdued colors. Retail is $375 to $425.'
At Assets by Andrew Fezza, Susan Taylor, vice-president, sales, reports, 'Sport coats are 40 percent of our spring business and growing. This is obviously an item business and the coat has to say something.
'But what's also happening is a tailored garment that gives a man the feeling he's not wearing sportswear. And the coat is not too dressed down to wear to the office on Friday.'
Best spring sellers here are one- or two-button single-breasted sport coats with a 20 1/2-inch shoulder and a fuller lapel. Best patterns are very neat, such as a mini-herring-bone or check in several color families. In wool/silk, medium tones in biscuit and celadon sold well, and in all-wool, combinations such as navy with dark taupe.
Taylor observes, 'We also did well wth blazer ideas, but not necessarily blazers. These are solid coats with textures or subtle tonal patterns. Both groups retail of $295.'
Joe Conti, executive vice-president, Intercontinental Branded Apparel, also claims the sport coat business is item-driven, 'but blazers still sell extremely well.
'The big feeling in sport coats is soft, regardless of the fabric. We're doing them on our Cardin as well as Cerruti Rue Royale lines. The makes allow the jacket to be worn in both a dress and casual way for either business r weekends.'
He notes the best-selling jackets are single-breasted with a 19-inch shoulder. 'They're more updated than our regular blazer line. Frankly, we designed them to wear with better trousers.'
Conti reports that pastels sold well in all-silk as well as silk/wool blazers. 'Part of the reason for the move to pastels has been the predominance of blues and grays in retailers' stocks. Coats got too dark and monochromatic.'
