It's History -- Bluebeards, An `Ave' Fixture, To Close

Admit it. You wore them.

Not now of course (well maybe sometime again soon, according to fashion reports out of Paris and Milan). But chances are they'll stay stuffed in a bag or box in the back closet.

No matter how hard you try, memories of them are hard to bury. And once in awhile, a photo of you wearing BELL-BOTTOMS crops up.

For Alexis Tristan, owner of Bluebeards men's clothing store, bell-bottoms are part of fashion history. She should know. Receipts from her 25-year-old store could trace the checkered - and plaid - past of men's fashions for the past quarter-century.

But now her store on University Way, which clothed thousands in bell-bottoms, denim and velveteen jackets, nylon flight pants and flowered ties, will itself become part of fashion history, leaving a gap on "The Ave" that it filled for a quarter-century.

"They have stuff you can't find elsewhere," said John Elliot, a customer for the past five years and an electrical engineer in the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory.

"I haven't found a store that sells the stuff that they have."

Attorney Cal McCune, whose law office has been in the area for 47 years, said he will be sorry to see Bluebeards close.

"It's not the kind of place I would normally shop," McCune said, confessing that he dresses fairly conservatively. "But I'd be sorry to see it close. . . . It's an interesting store, and it adds flavor to the avenue."

"We lack good shops, interesting shops," he added, saying that most of the businesses on University Way are food operations.

The store is not closing for financial reasons. It racked up about $500,000 in sales last year, Tristan said. Instead, after a liquidation sale ends in four to six weeks, Tristan, 44, wants to retire from the clothing business and take an extended vacation. She and a friend hope to market a new gift item by the end of 1993.

But the business of men's fashion has not been easy. And since Tristan and a partner first opened in a 15-by-18-foot space in the heart of the University District in 1967, she was worried that she wouldn't last the first five years.

Despite exhausting six-day weeks and hit-or-miss guesses on what and how long a fashion trend would be "in," the store thrived, moving to its present location, just a block away, at 4241 University Way the following year.

As business increased, the two expanded and remodeled the facility. Tristan's partner also opened other stores along the West Coast, although the two co-owned only three of the stores. At its peak, there were six Bluebeards stores, in Berkeley, Portland, Bellingham, Spokane and Sacramento. The stores commissioned their own private label, manufacturing then-popular items such as velveteen vests, pants, blazers and sailor pants.

Bluebeards' popularity captured the attention of Men's Wear magazine, which featured the store in a 1973 issue. Called the "fashion innovator in the University District of the city," the store fit in well with the photos of women in platform shoes and men with loud, plaid pants.

"Look at the size of those cuffs. You could trip over them," Tristan said, pointing to the magazine.

Although Bluebeards has kept pace with changing styles, trading in the tight nylon shirts with orlon bands for tailored wool blazers and pants, Tristan has held onto the past. She has kept key articles of merchandise that tell a colorful history of fashion. She puts her "museum," as she calls her collection, on display during special sales.

But the hottest seller now, drawing clients from Texas, Canada, Japan and even Finland, isn't even a clothing item.

Instead, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" presidential campaign style bumper stickers are flying out the door. The stickers promote Capt. Jean-Luc Picard with running mate Cmdr. Will Riker for the 1992 election with the slogan "Make It So," a favorite phrase of Picard's.

The stickers, which retail for $2.99 apiece or two for $5, have been so popular that Tristan has sold more than 10,000 of them since offering them in July. Although plain Picard/Riker '92 bumper stickers are sold elsewhere, the addition of "Make It So" by Tristan's friend Neal Starkman have helped sales.