Discount fashion man

Fridaywear: focus on fashion - clothing marketing

Discounters have not been left out of the Fridaywear phenomenon, although their approach has mainly been to offer some of the appropriate goods while playing down the connection to the office.

Each chain sends a somewhat different message, but the central theme is to offer plenty of office-acceptable gear for women, plus a smaller selection of moderately dressy goods for men.

Mass merchants know their strengths are in blue jeans, fleece, flannels and T-shirts. Some have offered casual sportswear, typically in private labels such as Caldor's Harbour Classics for men and Pride's Landing for women. But these programs seldom have been presented in-store as business attire.

Kmart's philosophy has been to display men's Fridaywear elements such as dress shirts, conservatively styled sweater vests and khaki slacks within their appropriate, category and classification, without calling attention to their utility for the office. The working theory is that the goods sell well now, but Kmart customers might be turned off by a collection aimed at the office.

Bob Luehrs, president of jeanswear manufacturer Chic/ H.I.S., believes in this approach. He said that while discounters may be selling plenty of Fridaywear items, the sell in the mass channel has more to do with fashion than function.

In other words, a pair of khakis is seen by the discount store shopper as an alternative to jeans, noy to business attire.

"The man in the household who shops at Kmart is not the man who wears a suit every day and then a sweater with pants on Friday," Luehrs observed. "This is a man who wears jeans every day. The only discount customer I would believe who wears a suit is maybe among some of the people who shop at Target."

Indeed, of the Big Three, Target has been the most aggressive in testing men's furnishings in coordinated displays that evoke department store ambiance. Target was among the first discount chain to show dress shirts in glass cube fixtures, for instance. The chain also shows the Surrey Casuals private label goods, from socks to ties to button-down shirts in coordinated endcaps.

Regional discounters are getting on board too. Hills Stores is layering in blazers, structured pants and cotton dress shirts in a new program under its Resolute Bay private label.

Venture and Bradlees, the regional chains most focused on trading up, both began using a license from designer John Weitz at Back-to-School 1996 to build coordinated office friendly programs for men.

In its John Weitz program, Venture has concentrated on slacks and dress shirts, and merchandises them separately according to category on the floor. Bradlees has treaded closer to a department store feel and is offering items more formal than Fridaywear. The chain pulls together suit separates, belts, hosiery and other categories in a program that senior vp, gmm Jim Sparks said includes more than a dozen licensees.

The Bradlees effort, while bold, is off the beaten path for discounters. Wal-Mart, for example, has long offered men's suit separates by Reed St. James. But the chain has never carved out an area with a specific Ivy League look. That could change as it works with its newly captured brand, Farah. Wal-Mart has consistently moved toward stronger coordination built around lifestyle-oriented house brands, such as its Faded Glory denim label.

But denim is dead-center for discounters; office casual is another story.

"Emphasizing the coordinated looks for the office will improve their business," suggested Luehrs, "but not necessarily for the reasons the department stores will do it. Calvin Klein did a lot of good by calling a whole collection, a whole variety of products, `khaki.' It's shorts, knit shirts, pants, jeans and sweaters."

Discount customers are buying into this general look in both men's and women's interpretations, but chances are it is because they are looking for an alternative to jeans and denim looks. The last thing mass merchants want to do is downplay their denim business.

Off-price apparel chains and the mid-tier retailers can afford to tackle Fridaywear head-on. With their access to department store brands, chains like Kohl's and Loehmann's have built customer expectations as destinations for both dressy and dress-down styles. Customers trust the merchandisers at these chains to provide mix-and-match options for a variety of office environments.

Some, such as The Men's Wearhouse, even offer "howto" brochures and videos on assembling looks that strike a balance between formal and casual.

Discounters do have a natural opportunity to expand their sportswear assortments beyond blazers and skirts, playing to working women's desire to mix and match semicasual elements such as sweaters, shells, slacks and zippered tops. While Wal-Mart's Kathie Lee Collection dominates its careerwear assortment, for instance, the chain has also laced the department with more contemporary or casual looks in its White Stag line.

Warren Flick, president and ceo of U.S. Kmart stores, asserted that his chain will offer new Fridaywear choices for women. While many women have selected Jaclyn Smith products for their normal and dress-down office needs in the past, he believes those customers seeking less traditional alternatives will find just that in another Kmart celebrity private label program.

He said the chain will extend the Kathy Ireland label from its base in activewear, swimwear and bodywear to office fashions for the less formal-minded. These looks should appeal to both younger and juniors-inspired misses customers.

With Fridaywear becoming more accepted in some offices every day of the week, America's everyday retailers have an opportunity to make a bigger impact on the non-jeans scene.