Clothing: Wooing the Cautious Male

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Rare Skill. If basic styles have changed little, a great deal has happened otherwise to the clothes men wear. Ten-month suits of medium weight (many men actually wear them for twelve months) are the most popular clothing for today's customer, who usually works in an air-conditioned office and may have to jet between blustery Chicago and balmy Miami on the same day. Stretch fabrics ease wear-out at the elbows, knees and seat. Synthetics are treated with chemicals, shaped and oven-baked; as a result, some sports slacks are now designed to be permanently pressed and wrinkle-free.

With sales finally turning up, men's wear makers are building new plants with greater capacity and as much automated equipment as possible. This will force out still more small operators from the apparel industry, which has shrunk from 60,000 to 29,000 companies since World War II. Hardly any hand-tailoring is used any more except for shoulders and armholes and to make coat collars lie properly. To pay the increased wages commanded by this hard-to-find skill—Botany alone had to import 115 Italian tailors last year—the industry this year will present the customer with at least one innovation on his suits: a price tag that is $5 to $10 higher than last year.