Men's Fashion -- Thread Of Change -- Fitted Suits, Biker Jackets: Casual And Dressy Compete For Attention In Seattle's Restructured Menswear Market

The closures last year of two men's stores whose cornerstone was suit sales - the chi-chi Joseph Abboud store in Rainier Square and Jeffrey-Michael, an expensive men's store with seven locations - could lead one to ask: Is the suit dying out in Seattle?

No, answers Butch Blum, who's been decking out customers in fine threads at his Fifth Avenue location for 20 years. "Over the last couple of years there has been a strong move toward dressing down, but if you have a serious appointment, you still wear a suit."

Lawyers scurrying from skyscrapers to the courthouse, sales managers on hotel phones zeroing in for the close and executives huddled over orecchiette pasta with tea-smoked duck at the Painted Table are all suited and tied in the midst of serious appointments.

Nonetheless, as Dress Down Friday has slowly infiltrated the rest of the work week, a larger market for casual dress wear has been created. The local landscape in retail menswear is reflecting both the trend to casual and the restructuring of the market. There's a new suit shop on the Eastside, a motorcycle clothing shop in Belltown, an alternative/designer boutique on First Avenue and a men's warehouse store in Tukwila. Here's a look at what's happened in the last few months:

-- The owners of Jeffrey-Michael re-opened last summer as Logan Drive, carrying men's casual dress clothes more competitive with The Gap, Banana Republic, Structure (the men's store usually connected

to The Limited) and Urban Outfitters. However, the marketing strategy turned out to be more casual than the clothes, and the seven-store operation, founded by Price/Costco vice chair Jeff Brotman, abruptly shut its doors last month.

-- Eddie Bauer is starting a new casual dress line under the label AKA Eddie Bauer for men and women. The line will be introduced in seven of the 60 new stores the company will open this year, including a new store opening in August in University Village. In addition, by the end of March the outdoor clothing combine's All Week Long stores will be converted to the AKA line. Although men are more reticent about buying high-priced designer clothing than they were in the '80s, Calvin Klein & Company are by no means history.

-- Barneys, Butch Blum, Mario's and Littler, all within a few blocks of one another in the downtown Seattle core, compete for the same clientele: the well-heeled man or the man who buys an expensive suit once every midlife crisis.

-- And now there's a new High Establishment men's store in Bellevue, David Lawrence, which will compete mainly with Lords Clothing For Men. "Nobody was doing this business on the Eastside since Jeffrey-Michael walked away from it," said Larry Strong, a co-owner along with his partner, David Blackham.

Strong would know. A former manager at Jeffrey-Michael, he said the Bellevue branch of the store did better than all the others. "We're going after their customers, but our store is smaller, cutting our overhead."

Like Butch Blum, his strong suit is the suit. His store carries designer names such as Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Ferre, Marzotto, Tallia and Jhane Barnes. "The casual look is temporary," he asserts, invoking a dreaded image of the past. "Remember the leisure suits in the '70s?"

David Lawrence opened in August and business is good, he said. Might he open a branch in Seattle? "We would like to, but we're waiting for downtown to get squared away a bit."

-- And then there's Savi in Tukwila. Just south of the Southcenter Mall, this new store in an old warehouse has a large men's selection stuffed with bang-for-the-buck clothes.

Doug Swerland, the former president of Jay Jacobs, struck out on his own with Savi, a cavernous 15,000-square-foot discount outlet that sells mainstream and designer men's and women's apparel at prices below department stores. "Our customers love us and the big stores hate us," chuckled Swerland.

The warehouse had been converted to an office, but Swerland said his construction crew "restored it to its original glory," ripping out the ceiling and walls. A long concrete interior wall bisecting the building was torn out, cut up and made into tables. Large cable spools have been sanded down and shined up, serving as display tables for merchandise.

Savi opened in November on a three-days-a-week schedule: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. "By opening only during peak shopping days, it enables us to keep our overhead razor-thin so we can provide merchandise at lower prices," said Swerland.

Swerland selected Tukwila for his first venture because Southcenter packs in customers and the area around it buzzes with large-format superstores.

Customers get another break at Savi: free lattes.

-- On the low-culture fashion front, men still love motorcycles. Even men who've never straddled a hog except in Brando-driven dreams buy biker jackets. The Cramp up on Broadway had a wide selection, but the owner closed his store in November and blew off to Hawaii in pursuit of new adventures. In the trail of the Cramp's exhaust, Freedom Rider rolled into Belltown, took over some turf at 2232 First Ave. and propped up a couple of vintage Harleys in the window for display.

Bob Gelb, Freedom Rider's owner, is another escapee from Jay Jacobs, the store trying to stop the flow of red ink in a bankruptcy

proceeding. After a great deal of research, Gelb and his partner, Jack Hume, opted for a specialty store featuring a variety of horsehide, lambskin and cowhide biker jackets. His key item is a $99 water buffalo-hide classic biker jacket with four outside zippers, a side entry pocket, two inside pockets and a half-belt across the waist.

In the future Freedom Rider will stock a wider variety of leather goods. Gelb wanted to set up in Belltown because "a lot of people no longer want to get sucked up in the mall rat race. They are going to free-standing locations, smaller strip malls and places like this."

He chose Belltown for one overriding reason: "This area is going to be the Melrose Avenue of Seattle," he said, referring to the popular thoroughfare in Los Angeles peppered with speciality clothing stores.

-- Indeed, pretty little Melrose-like boutiques have been filling in parts of First and Second avenues for the past few years. What may well be the centerpiece of this fashion lane opened in November: Garuda Clothier on First Avenue, a half-block north of the Art Museum.

A fitting location. The owner, Jason Harler, has been elevating fashion to an art form ever since he started sketching clothes on notepads in high school. A native of Bellingham, Harler created a splash on his arrival in Seattle six years ago when he was 18. Almost single-handedly he organized Arena, an annual alternative fashion show that has received national attention the last couple of years. Shortly thereafter he opened up Fast Forward with Harry Green. Now he is on his own with Garuda.

Most of the men's clothes at the store are designed by Harler. A taffeta rayon sports coat with chenille lining, four vintage buttons and two breast pockets has horizontal light purple stripes running down the front. More suitable at the Gravity Bar than the Painted Table.

One special detail on this sports coat: a hidden Double 0-7 zippered pocket in the right sleeve. Moreover, the breast pockets on the jackets are for looks only, never used. Works well with Garuda's straight-legged, tapered and uncuffed pants with no pockets and Garuda's dandy shirt with French cuffs that flare out at an angle way below your wrists.

Quiz: You are now slicked up and ready for a night of thundering techno-European house music at The Catwalk in Pioneer Square. But your stuffed wallet and overloaded key chain won't fit in that tiny hidden sleeve pocket. What do you do?

Wallets are out in Garuda's advanced fashion land. Says Kristyn Hanson, who works at the store with Harler: "You just put your I.D. in there with some cash. Give the keys to your partner."

Gonna be a long night at The Catwalk. Anybody for a free latte in Tukwila?