Muted shades, textures highlight men's wear - discount store buyers at the Men's Apparel Guild in California show

Discount Store News, April 23, 1990

Muted Shades, Textures Highlight Men's Wear

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- After several straight seasons of brights and deep jewel tones, the fall '90 men's wear palette will swing toward more muted shades.

Burnt orange, olive green, yellow-gold and pale teal are now the dominant colors shown at the recent MAGIC show here. Even the few brights still used are paired with darker or more muted shades and black.

Like last fall, sweaters are again popular for back-to-school, and this year's styles include crew necks, mock turtlenecks and cardigans. Here the muted colors are typically used in combination with each other and are often trimmed with black. Texture is also important, as different knitting patterns are intermingled to produce a varied treatment.

In wovens, stripes are popular for fall, with both narrow and wide patterns gaining attention. Southwest prints, madras and some batiks help round out the selection, which is again geared toward the softer colors.

Bottoms also feature the muted tones, along with black, tan and khaki. Styles typically feature pleats or at least a relaxed fit, however, the look is not oversized and baggy.

And while casual pants have taken away some of the jeans business, for many discounters, denims are still an important part of the back-to-school presentation.

Manufacturers such as Lee, Wrangler, Brittania, McGregor, Gitano, Reed st. James, Sasson and H.I.S. showed a variety of finishes at MAGIC.

At Wrangler, acid wash continues to be strong, in addition to some stone washes, according to company vice president of consumer marketing John Schamberger. Cleaner, less splotchy washes are now more popular, he noted and, as the fall season progresses, Schamberger said the denims will go darker.

Acid wash is also still strong for H.I.S., and both the five-pocket style along with a relaxed look are key, noted executive vice president Harvey Schulman. Black denims also continue to be important and going forward he said retailers will see a blue denim overdyed with black.

PHOTO : The Ames Team: Chuck Rilling, Russ Siena, Phil Marshall and Bruce Bressler were among

PHOTO : discounters at show.

PHOTO : Even the few bright colors found in Gitano's offerings are paired with darker or more

PHOTO : muted shades and black.

PHOTO : At Britannia, bottoms also feature the muted tones, along with black, tan and khaki, in a

PHOTO : relaxed but not oversized fit.

PHOTO : Sasson's fall wovens feature both stripes and attention-getting narrow and wide patterns

PHOTO : with Southwestern influences.