LEGAL PROCEEDINGSMen’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank have

a court date ahead. Page MW3

Putting the ‘Ego’ in LegoPresident Business of “The Lego Movie” pulls off the boxy-suit look — save for a few out-of-place pieces. Page MW3

MAN OF THE WEEK

February 27, 2014

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BY JEAN E. PALMIERI

PEERLESS CLOTHING CO. is adding a new name to its stable of designer brands: Todd Snyder.

And it might not be the only mega-apparel group to be getting behind Snyder. Word is that the designer also has signed a license for shirts and ties with PVH Corp. The deals would represent a major vote of confidence in a member of the next generation of American men’s wear designers, adding a license with Snyder to those the two groups already have, including household names such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Elie Tahari, Tommy Hilfiger and Donna Karan.

The association with Peerless came about serendipitously, according to Snyder.

Nordstrom carries the designer’s suits, which retail for $1,495 to $1,895, in five doors but reached out to Snyder while brainstorming about how to “reinvent their designer suit department.”

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Wool suit, cotton shirt and silk tie by Todd Snyder White Label.

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David Witman, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of men’s for Nordstrom, “liked my style and asked if there was a way I could rethink my tailored clothing and pare down the price,” Snyder said. At the same time, he said, Peerless was seeking a young designer to throw its muscle behind.

The result was a license for Peerless to produce the Todd Snyder White Label col-lection of tailored clothing and sport coats, which will launch at 25 Nordstrom doors exclusively for fall. “The stars aligned,” the designer said with a smile.

The suits will retail for $795 to $995 and sport coats will sell for $695. The suits will feature a narrow lapel, a trim chest and arm-hole, a soft natural shoulder and a slightly shorter body length. The suits are half-canvas and the collar and lapels are pick-stitched. The sport coat is unlined and “very clean,” he said.

There will be one suit model and one sport coat, each available in six fabric choic-es for the first season. Snyder expects to expand the offering in future seasons when distribution will be opened up to other re-tailers in addition to Nordstrom.

White Label will be produced in the Hart Schaffner Marx clothing factory in Chicago. For Snyder, it was essential that the collection be manufactured in the U.S. And when he visited the facility, he said he was overwhelmed by the level of expertise of the workers. “They make a great suit,” he said. “To see the workers that they have and how long they’ve been there, it’s amaz-ing. And to sell it for $795 represents good value for the customer.”

But Snyder, who started his career in fashion as a tailor’s assistant in Iowa, had to

rework the stock garment in order to give it his own take.

“I flew to the factory and deconstructed their suit and reinvented it,” he said. “The younger guy can wear it but it won’t alien-ate an older customer either. It’s a tasteful, modern take on clothing.”

In order to complete the package, Snyder knew he had to offer shirts and ties and is said to have signed a deal with PVH.

Mitchell Lechner, president of dress

furnishings for PVH, would not confirm the deal, but called the designer a “real up-and-comer. He’s very dynamic and I’m very respectful of what he’s doing. He’s one of the most exciting young designers out there.” Sources said the 100 percent cotton shirts will be a mix of solids and patterns. Ties will be all silk except for a cotton-

khaki version and will be centered around navy and gray, but with some updated pat-terns sprinkled in, according to sources.

Snyder believes the line will open the door for similar opportunities for other ris-ing designers. “We want to revolutionize men’s wear,” he said. “I want to dress a lot of people and don’t want to be exclusive. This is the first thing that will have scale and [thanks to Peerless and PVH], we don’t have to do the heavy lifting.”

by JEAN E. PALMIERI

THE DANIEL CREMIEUX BRAND is planning a significant retail roll-out, one that will include the open-ing of its first U.S. store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in April.

For the past 14 years, Cremieux has had an exclusive licensing agreement with Dillard’s in the U.S., but three years ago, the up-scale French brand opened a showroom on Mercer Street, and Stephane Cremieux, son of the founder, relocated to New York City. The plan at the time was to offer the Cremieux 38 premium-priced label to American retailers.

Since the showroom opened, Stephane Cremieux said the brand has been “focusing on our existing partnership with Dillard’s.” The men’s sportswear is merchandised through in-store shops at all 300 Dillard’s doors and there are an-other 300 jeans shops in the depart-ment stores as well. Women’s wear is offered in 256 units and the home collection is in about 200 doors. “It’s the second largest men’s brand at Dillard’s,” Cremieux said. The larg-est label is Polo.

The Dillard’s business has its limitations. The company’s stores are concentrated in the South and tend to gravitate more toward ba-sics and warm-weather merchan-dise. “We love down jackets and flannel shirts and wool pants and corduroys,” he said, pointing to a $2,500 down parka that uses Loro Piana Storm System fabrics and has lots of bells and whistles. A soft-shoulder, heavy flannel suit is another product that would not appeal to the department store, he added. “This is a new avenue that we don’t cover with Dillard’s today.”

With the department store’s

blessing, Cremieux said, the line is bringing its collection to areas in the U.S. where Dillard’s has no presence. “We decided to focus on freestanding stores,” he explained. “We knew if we wanted to keep the ethos of the brand assortment, we

could only do that if we control our own stores.”

The first Daniel Cremieux store in the States will be 700 square feet at 65 Mercer Street, between Broome Street and Spring Street, two blocks from the showroom. It

will be next to Kate Spade and in the same area as Carven, Chanel, Burberry and Etro.

The store will carry the Cremieux 38 collection, which is higher priced than the Blue Label available at Dillard’s, and 15 per-cent of the mix will be created ex-clusively for the store. It will also offer some co-branded product in areas where the brand has no ex-pertise, such as footwear. Cremieux will partner with Rancourt, Joseph Cheaney and Alden for the shoe as-sortment in the store.

Because of the size of the store, it will carry only men’s wear. It is expected to open on April 24.

“We would like to open more stores,” Cremieux said, mention-ing Miami and Aventura, Fla., as well as a second unit in the New York area, possibly in the Hamptons. These areas are not within Dillard’s trading area and Cremieux already has customers in these markets, he said.

“At maturity,” we think we can have 20 stores [in the U.S.],” he said. “And two or three in the short term.”

Outside the U.S., Cremieux op-

erates two stores in France, two in Spain and another in Mexico City. In Paris, the company is relocating and expanding its store and will open a 2,500-square-foot unit at 185 Boulevard Saint-Germain on April 3. Other units are planned for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in April, Dubai, and Kaoshiung and Taipai in Taiwan in September, followed by several units in Doha, Qatar in 2015. The original unit in Saint-Tropez, which was opened in 1976, is also being expanded and the brand hopes to add several whole-sale accounts in the U.S.

Martin Miller, who represents the label in the U.S., said since he negotiated the relationship with Dillard’s in 1999, the brand has “grown significantly each year and increased its profitability.” They declined to provide a volume fig-ure, but market sources put the brand’s worldwide sales at $180 million. “This is an opportunity to expand the Cremieux brand in the U.S.,” he continued, and the open-ing of the new stores around the world “reinforces the international quality of the brand,” said Miller.

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Stephane Cremieux and Martin Miller

Models sport looks from the Cremieux 38 collection.

A rendering of a planned Cremieux store.

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Two suit styles from the line.

The dress-shirt packaging.

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Lego Man of THE WEEK President Business: B

The evil tyrant of “The Lego Movie” brings new meaning to the term “boxy suit.” But it fits him really well — it must be bespoke. We’re hoping the sequel has a fashion element: Lego Lagerfeld would be a wonderful character addition.

Dueling Men’s Chains Get Their Date in CourtBrooks Bros. Targets

A Younger Customer by JEAN E. PALMIERI

NEW YORK — Brooks Brothers is turning its atten-tion to Red Fleece, its younger-skewed collection, for fall.

For the first time, the retailer will offer a full collec-tion for men and women, including a tailored clothing component. The men’s suits will be sold as separates and will retail for $698 for the package, Lou Amendola, chief merchandising officer, said during the company’s fall presentation earlier this month. Softly constructed sport coats will also be offered for $400.

“We tested it last fall and then again this spring,” he said, “but now we feel we have the right assort-ment and swatches” to offer a complete assortment. Among the pieces are slim, two-button suits with narrow lapels and plain-front pants, and herring-bone or moleskin sport coats.

This fall and holiday, clothing “was one of the highlights” for the retailer, he said, justifying the investment into a new category of tailored apparel. “There is a real demand and we feel this will contin-ue into fall ’14,” he said. “The new generation wants to look professional when they go to work.”

Red Fleece, the latest incarnation of what was in-ternally referred to as the University collection, is tar-geted to a younger customer. In addition to the suits, the collection includes sportswear with pops of colors such as orange sweaters and skinny ties for men and pants for women. Much of the collection also features embroidery including dogs, ducks and other whim-sical animal shapes on dresses, sweaters and hats. There are also Fair Isle sweaters, colorful chinos and toggle coats. “Everything is done with a little twist on preppy,” Amendola said.

Red Fleece is a primary focus in the company’s Flatiron store here, which opened in the fall of 2011, where it shares space with select pieces from the regular Brooks Bros. collection. Since that time, two Flatiron stores have opened in Italy and five in-store shops for Red Fleece are in the works for Japan. In addition, according to Brooks Bros.’ chief executive of-ficer Claudio Del Vecchio, the company is looking for space for a Red Fleece flagship in South Korea. “We tested the University concept and now we’re there,” Del Vecchio said. The only thing that still needs work is the line’s denim offering. “We think we have a great opportunity there and we’re working on that.”

He noted that although intended to appeal to a young customer, the collection gets its inspiration from the same archive as the regular collection. Women’s also represents a higher percentage of sales in Red Fleece, he noted, around 30 percent versus 20 percent.

In its flagship collection this season, Brooks Bros. showcased a Nordic-inspired assortment of sweaters in gray, black and white. Vested suits were a state-ment in men’s while in women’s, more double-breast-ed blazers were shown. Fur was used in coats, collars and hats, and the retailer turned to traditional pat-terns such as Prince of Wales, herringbones, Harris

tweeds, flannels and houndstooths in women’s and men’s wear. The signature Brooks Bros. tartan was updated and used in a red tone this time, and the retailer also partnered with Pendleton for a capsule collection of shirts, outerwear and accessories.

Much of the same sensibility was found in Black Fleece, the Thom Browne-designed collection, which used boiled and textured wool, argyle knits, herring-bone wool, checks, plaids and Shetlands for this season’s col-lection. In men’s, shorter ticket pockets and tipped jackets were offered and formalwear focused on navy accents such as a tonal argyle jacket and a navy/black houndstooth jacket and trouser.

by VICKI M. YOUNG

THE MEN’S Wearhouse Inc. and Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. are due back in court on March 25 at 10 a.m.

Late Tuesday, Men’s Wearhouse won court approval for expedited proceedings in connection with its lawsuit to bar Jos. A. Bank from ac-quiring Eddie Bauer.

The hearing to fast track the process was done via a telephone conference before Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster.

Men’s Wearhouse initially sought a temporary restraining order, or TRO, against Jos. A. Bank, but that request became a nonissue once Jos. A. Bank agreed to give its men’s retail competitor 10 days notice be-fore the planned closing of the Eddie Bauer deal. According to the court transcript, Laster told Men’s Wearhouse’s counsel that they could return to court to seek a short-term TRO if the 10-day notice was given and a potential deal could be finalized in advance of the March 25 hearing date.

The March hearing will focus on Men’s Wearhouse’s request for a preliminary injunction to bar the Eddie Bauer transaction from happening. It’s only the first step, however. Even if Men’s Wearhouse wins that battle, both parties will still be mired in legal proceed-ings as they fight each other over whether a permanent injunction should be granted.

In granting Men’s Wearhouse’s

motion to expedite, Laster said the retailer made a “credible basis for believing that the Eddie Bauer transaction is defensive,” and that it was in response to a “hostile bid.” He also noted that the features of the Eddie Bauer transaction “totally may well fall outside the range of reasonable-ness,” noting for example the termination fee and its “alleged magnitude.”

The court also heard from the lawyers for Eminence Capital, an activist investor with stakes in both Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, which has a separate com-plaint pending in the Chancery Court. Given the dialogue between counsel and the court, it appeared that some of its shareholder claims might be addressed in the Men’s Wearhouse litigation.

As for the separate tender of-fers on the table, Men’s Wearhouse is likely to go forward with its so-licitation of Jos. A. Bank shares, which has a March 12 deadline. That will give the retailer a sense of how many are in favor of its proposed plan to acquire Jos. A. Bank. In turn, there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping Jos. A. Bank, which has its tender expir-ing on March 18, from buying back shares at $65 each.

Men’s Wearhouse earlier this week upped its offer to acquire Jos. A. Bank in what potentially could be a deal valued at up to $1.8 bil-lion. Jos. A. Bank inked a deal to acquire Eddie Bauer from Golden Gate Capital for $825 million.

the big volume of the hairpiece plays well with his pronounced square jaw; however, the lack of symmetry on both sides evokes an eighties new romantics feeling which doesn’t work for those seeking world domination.

the suit jacket fits him like it was painted on and the well-constructed shoulder empowers him. it’s too cropped, but based on his body type and movable waist, there aren’t that many options.

the flat front minimizes his wide waist, but the straight leg of the pant doesn’t elongate his stocky lower half.

there’s nothing worse than a too-plucked Lego man’s eyebrow, except maybe a

unibrow. But make sure the wax isn’t too hot — we don’t

want to cause permanent damage to his plastic forehead.

tsk, tsk — President Business is not

known for his long arms, but the hint

of a shirt cuff would help lengthen them.

the square toe shoe is totally out of style.

A rounded one would add a touch of distinction

and worldliness.

the width of the tie works perfectly with the lapel and the burgundy color is very presidential.

Looks from the red Fleece collection.

the flap pocket brings attention to the shortness

of the jacket. A slit pocket would help visually.

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