Men, Too, Can Achieve That Discount High : Fashion: Guys who know how it feels to get a great deal stick to sale racks and dress-for-less stores. They ‘pick through a lot to get the good ones.’
You’re a guy on a budget and you don’t like to shop. You don’t even like to read about shopping. But you need to buy some “professional” clothes for work, so let’s cut to the chase:
To build the best career wardrobe for the least amount of money, many men are better off buying their suits, slacks and sport coats at established, full-service department and clothing stores--but only when the garments are on sale. No fancy, one-of-a-kind boutiques or trend-setting fashion emporiums where prices--even during a sale--are wallet-busters. Just stick to safe, steady stores with classic styles.
“The reasons are relatively simple,” explains Donald Charles Richardson, a men’s fashion writer and author of the newly released “Men of Style,” a compendium of men’s grooming tips. “These stores carry the greatest selections. You can return your purchases if you have problems. The quality is generally good and the prices are acceptable.”
But what about all those discount chains, outlet centers and name-brand-for-less stores?
A lot of guys don’t have a fully developed but oh-so-critical shopping gene and don’t have the knowledge, interest or patience to paw through bins to find the terrific bargains these shops can offer. Or, as Aram Gaboudian, a 26-year-old import house marketing manager who moonlights as a computer salesman at Silo in Temple City, put it: “Discount stores are places for women to shop for their husbands or boyfriends. They know what they’re doing there.”
But so do some men (See accompanying story, E19).
Consider Matt Klink, a 25-year-old public relations consultant at Cerrell & Associates in Los Angeles who admits he loves clothes--and shopping for them. Klink, who says he spends about $2,000 of his less than $30,000 annual salary on clothes, has gathered his workaday wardrobe from a variety of stores.
He swears by Ross Dress for Less stores for ties, but acknowledges that you have to “pick through a lot to get the good ones.” It takes time, he says, and he often leaves the store empty-handed.
For socks and fun accessories, Klink prefers Structure, a relatively new mall shop exclusively for men operated by the Limited. Similar to the Gap and Banana Republic, Structure’s offerings lean toward the casual for the young-minded, if not the truly young. (Socks cost $6 a pair or three for $15.)
Structure, with outlets in several area malls, including Century City and South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court in Costa Mesa, carries no suits or hard-core business attire. But it does have a few loose-fitting sport jackets and wool slacks, both of which sell for about $100 each, that can be worn with a traditional shirt and tie and pass muster in most workplaces--especially around here.
Klink orders his button-down work shirts from the Lands’ End catalogue. He claims its pinpoint oxfords are the “best anywhere for the price” (ranging from $29.50 to $34.50) and likes the company’s no-questions-asked policy on returns of faulty (even if worn) merchandise.
Other men report finding quality bargains in shirt, ties and socks at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx.
Suits and sport jackets, by far the most expensive parts of a man’s wardrobe, often pose the greatest challenge for shoppers untutored in the art of careful buying.
In the last two years, two super-discount, warehouse-style outlets have opened in Southern California: Mens Clothiers in Santa Ana and Suit City in Fountain Valley and Corona.
To keep prices in the $100 to $200 range for suits, these stores are open only part of the week and offer no tailoring services or expert sales help. In addition, some of their clothing either has no labels (because manufacturers do not want it known that they send their overruns to these outlets) or labels unfamiliar to the average shopper.
Suit City, open Friday through Sunday, offers suits from $97 to $167 and sport coats from $69 to $98 along with a full assortment of shirts, ties, socks and other men’s furnishings.
Mens Clothiers, open Thursday through Sunday, was founded by Bob Correnti, the original “C” of C&R; Clothiers, specifically to offer business attire to the “average working-class man,” explains Sue Correnti, Bob’s wife. Suit prices range from $114 to $264.
Meanwhile, C&R;, which struck a chord with its memorable “what a difference a day makes” ad campaign, remains open while undergoing a bankruptcy reorganization caused by overexpansion. However, some customers report that selection has narrowed in recent months as the chain appears to be pulling back from its move toward more upscale clothing in the late 1980s.
Dorman Winthrop, a 44-year institution among Los Angeles bargain shoppers, offers an entirely different type of deal for the suit buyer: fancy labels 25% to 30% below everyday department store prices. The chain, with stores in West Los Angeles, North Hollywood and Westminster, mainly carries suits, slacks and sport coats from such upscale manufacturers as Hickey-Freeman and Hugo Boss. Its suit prices range from $300 to $1,200.
Nordstrom Rack, the discount outlet with sites in Santa Ana, Chino and Topanga Plaza, is another source of out-of-season and overstocked merchandise. Like other stores of its kind, the quantity and quality of the selection varies greatly and the best buys are scooped up by shoppers who regularly stop in to check for new merchandise.
Alandales in Los Angeles also offers discounts of up to 30% off labels that include Perry Ellis and other high-end manufacturers.
Nick Charles, a discount emporium on East Olympic in the warehouse section of downtown Los Angles, offers a broad array of out-of-season and overstocked clothing. Prices for suits range from $99 to $675; labels range from no-name to best-name.
Still, for suits and sport coats, some men say they prefer the Nordstrom men’s department because it offers tailoring, personalized service and a liberal return policy. To be sure, Nordstrom prices, which range from $300 to $1,500 for suits, certainly can’t rival the deep discount emporiums. But during its twice annual sales--take note: the next one starts at 8 a.m. Dec. 26--prices are cut 20% to 33%, and sometimes more as the sale wears on.
Mike Jimenez, a 29-year-old legislative liaison for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, is such a determined shopper that he doesn’t wait for the Nordstrom sales to pick out his suits. You may find him there this week selecting his 1992 purchase--very carefully.
Jimenez, who spends about $1,000 of his $60,000 annual salary on clothes, bets that the suit he selects when the pickings are fat and the crowds are thin will be put on sale the day after Christmas. If he’s right--and so far he has been--he’s refunded the difference between the full and sale prices. (A Nordstrom spokesperson says, “We look at each case individually. We have no solid return policy.”)
Awakened by a course on career dressing offered by his college fraternity, Jimenez has developed a formula for shopping and wardrobe planning that includes everything from how to launder his white, cotton pinpoint shirts (“pay extra and have the laundry wash yours separately”) to getting his suits tailored (“always save the extra material from the pants hem in case you need reweaving”).
His best advice? “For the best deals, you’ve got to be willing to pay attention to the ads and to regularly drop by the stores to see what’s on sale,” Jimenez says. “You’ve got to be willing to spend a lot of time just looking around. “
