Men's Clothes, Now In Technicolor...
Spring wardrobe memo to men: Think pink. And orange, lilac and cobalt blue, while you're at it.
As stores start filling up with spring fashions, the blacks, grays, navys and beiges that have long reigned in menswear -- even in spring -- are giving way to a rainbow of Crayola colors.
'It's one of the key trends for us,' says Tommy Fazio, men's fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman, who says the high-end store has stocked up on bright sweaters, shirts and sport coats. Color is flowing into traditional labels like Kiton, designer lines like Bottega Veneta and even Bergdorf's private-label collection. Color is 'cheery, happy and new,' he says. 'It's a good time' for color, he adds, alluding in part to the current economic blues.
This spring, even labels that have long favored muted shades -- including Theory, Perry Ellis, Bamford & Sons, Tony Melillo and Band of Outsiders -- have added brighter colors. Spurr, which typically sells sleek black clothes and dark denim, now includes lilac sweaters and turquoise jeans in its lineup.
For spring, Macy's will stock its private-label polos in 24 colors at all of its stores. In the past, it offered the full collection only at big-city stores, with other stores carrying just 12 to 16 shades. Displays will encourage men to layer different shades of blue from head to toe -- for instance, a sky-blue shirt with a royal blue sweater and navy pants, topped off by a cobalt blue anorak -- and salespeople are being trained to reinforce the message. Layering blues offers a fresher, 'more contemporary edge than just putting blue and white or blue and tan together,' says Stephen Cardino, a men's fashion director at the Macy's East division.
The new emphasis on color comes at a time when consumers are reluctant to spend on anything but essentials. Some fashion experts say that designers should take heed of the sober mood and focus on conservative styles and basics.
The counterargument is that color will put men in the mood to open their wallets, since it will look fresh and different. Purple took off in a surprisingly big way in menswear last year, emboldening some designers to get more aggressive about color.
Retailers are 'out of options to try to get the customer to shop, so they have to be bold,' says Mike Kraus, a retail specialist at consultant AllBusiness.com, who believes color will play well among men this spring.
Of course, many of the clothes hitting stores now were in the works long before global financial markets melted down in the fall. But in hard times, men respond best to clothes 'they don't already have,' says Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of the menswear design department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
He adds, however, that 'I don't think in bad times men are going to buy the most outrageous, colorful items.'
Indeed, some of the bolder head-to-toe uses of color seen last year on the spring 2009 menswear runways could be a tough sell. Jil Sander, for instance, showed a suit in 'sunflower' yellow, along with a blue and white jacket with red half sleeves, worn with red slacks. And Calvin Klein's show included suits in highlighter yellow and fluorescent red.
In the view of Calvin Klein Men's creative director Italo Zucchelli, men 'are willing to have some fun with color.'
But Dean Ayer, a 45-year-old independent software developer, in New Haven, Conn., says that he would be more likely to buy a colorful casual item, such as a polo shirt, than a colorful spread-collar dress shirt. And forget about a bright sport coat, he says. 'A sport coat is a larger investment than a shirt,' he notes, adding that it's easier to tone down a bright shirt with a dark jacket than vice versa.
Bright colors are not for everyone. Bold shades look best on 'high contrast' men with light skin and dark hair or those with dark brown skin, says Alan Flusser, author of 'Dressing the Man.' Men with pale skin and hair should opt for softer shades.
Men should avoid head-to-toe color, says Robin Walker, a Chicago-based image consultant and host of BlogTalkRadio's 'Tailored Edges,' a style advice show for men. Instead, she suggests balancing any color with a neutral like gray. 'You want to give the eye a place to rest,' she says. To achieve a balance, she notes, the neutral needs to complement the color, rather than contrast with it. 'Yellow and black is harsh, but yellow and charcoal is delightful,' she says.
She also recommends limiting bright colors to the upper body, close to the face. 'If you wear it on your lower half,' she says, 'that's exactly where people are going to look first.' |
