A Few Stores Are Big on the Latest for Men

By GAILE ROBINSON

Aug. 14, 1992 12 AM PT

Cindy Connelly says wrestler-style pants were one of the summer’s biggest moneymakers for her catalogue company.

Yes, the tropical-print elastic-waist pants are sold in every mall across the Southland. In fact, they’re even sold from cars along Pacific Coast Highway. But the men who buy clothes from Connelly wear big and tall sizes, and most chains and seaside entrepreneurs don’t cater to their needs.

“These guys are starving for fashion,” says Connelly, whose firm, King Size, is based in Norwell, Mass. “They are constantly asking, ‘Why can’t I get the same thing as the guy I sit next to at work?’ ”

Trendy, bright-colored clothing is new to the large-size men’s business where jackets are still cut like pup tents and black is considered the primary color. But a few companies stand out from the pack.

Rochester, a San Francisco-based company with a store in Beverly Hills, offers washed-silk suits, boldly patterned ties, dark-colored dress shirts and silk bomber jackets. King Size features wrestler’s pants, Levi’s Dockers, brightly colored polo shirts, chambray shirts, silk bomber jackets and denim jackets.

For years, the large-size men’s business has been one of the black holes in the apparel industry. For one thing, no one agrees on the specifics of the market because it is really two businesses.

The “tall market” is generally considered to be men 6 feet, 3 inches and over. The “big market” caters to men who are between 5 feet, 6 inches and 6 feet, 3 inches and whose chests are smaller than their waists.

Everyone in the industry acknowledges that the customer base is increasing because each generation is growing a little larger. Nonetheless, like the women’s market, there are designers and manufactures who refuse to make clothes for the large-size customer.

“We’ve been kicked out of a lot of showrooms,” Connelly says. “I think there is a certain snobbishness about the whole market. Designers don’t want to attach their names to the big sizes.”

Among the difficulties manufacturers face is the huge range of sizes and body types, which make pattern sizing a nightmare. To compound the fit problem, “not all big guys are fat guys,” Connelly says. Many of the tall men and some of the large men need athletically cut sportswear, with tapered waistlines.

“The perception is that the big and tall men’s business is a polyester, blue-collar kind of industry,” says Stan MacGinnis a spokesman for Rochester. “And much of it is.”

But pricey sportswear and $500 suits by designers such as Bill Robinson and Perry Ellis sell well at the 13-store chain.

“Whenever we open a new store it’s like we’re the first candy store in town,” says MacGinnis. “Once our customers find us we rarely lose them.”