Fashion Trend for 2014: Country Couture on the Rise

Fashion

Cowpoke couture is back in the saddle again. A new generation of consumers is embracing western-style snap shirts, cowboy hats, boots and accessories, a trend inspired by the crossover success of bestselling country and Americana performers such as Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers, as well as prime-time TV hits like Nashville and Justified.

"Over the last two years, we've had an increase in sales, and we're getting a lot more new customers who've never been in our store before," says Richard Alcala, president of Alcala's Western Wear, a 41-year-old family-owned retailer in Chicago's trendy West Town neighborhood. "It seems to revolve around country music and concerts--when there's a big show coming into town, we see a big spike in sales."

Twenty-eight percent of U.S. music listeners cite country as their favorite genre, more than any other format, according to The NPD Group. The research firm credits country's cross-demographic appeal to its diversity and accessibility. And it's happening in major metropolitan markets: This year New York City welcomed Nash FM, the Big Apple's first country radio station in 17 years.

Steve Weil--president of Denver-based Rockmount Ranch Wear, the venerable western apparel manufacturer founded in 1946 by his grandfather Jack--credits the 1980 film Urban Cowboy for initially driving country music and apparel into mainstream popular culture. In fact, he maintains that the urban cowboy trend never really faded away, but the media simply shifted its attention.

"I disagree with the contention that this is a recent resurgence. This is classic fashion that has been in vogue for decades," Weil says. "What makes Rockmount different from other brands is that we're not trendy. We don't follow seasonal cycles that come and go. We make successful products that have extremely long life cycles. That's our secret to survival."

Weil says interest in western apparel is a lifestyle choice, not a fashion craze. "We're trying to bring out products that appeal to a wide range of people who like the idea of the West," he says. "I design for my friends. They're not cowboys--they're people from a variety of professions, from banking to retail to resort real estate."

Rockmount's adherence to traditional western style doesn't mean the company is stuck in the past. "As a small business, we're extremely agile--we work on new designs every day and bring out new products monthly, if not weekly," Weil says. "Rockmount is also known for bringing disparate things together in a new way. For example, the fabrics we use are not necessarily used by others in this category. Everything we do, we do with a distinct twist."

Most Rockmount apparel is manufactured domestically and shipped to retail partners at home and abroad. The "Made in the USA" imprimatur is essential to western wear's enduring consumer appeal, says Alcala, whose store stocks thousands of boots and hats from American companies. "Europeans appreciate it even more than we do," Alcala says. "When they see stuff not made in the USA, they ask for something made here. They know if they buy something made in the USA that it's still high quality."

Overseas visitors make up just part of Alcala's clientele--neighborhood hipsters are a constant, lured by the store's Crayola array of Levi's jeans, and celebrity customers like Robert Plant, Bill Murray, John Malkovich and Steven Tyler have walked through its doors as well. All come in search of something colorful, comfortable and unmistakably classic.

"We're not competing with Sears, Macy's and Nordstrom. We're not selling the same products they do. We have something more unique," Alcala says. "It's not just country music that people like. It's the lifestyle. Europeans come to our store because they want to take something back with them that's American. Western wear started here. It's 100 percent American."

Affordable Custom Made Suits? It's No Longer an Oxymoron

In 2009, when Richard Hall and McGregor Madden were working in Shanghai--Hall for the Canadian trade office; Madden for Groupon--the two friends didn't aspire to dress like GQ models. That is, until they fell in with a crew of stylish Swedes who introduced them to the world of low-cost custom clothing. As the two upped their sartorial smarts, others took notice. "When we'd go home for Christmas to Oregon and Indiana, all our friends would comment on how nice our clothes were," Hall says.
In 2011, after Hall lost his job and Madden decided he was ready to move on, they leveraged their knowledge of Chinese manufacturing and trade, technology and the Mandarin language to create Proper Suit, a company that sells high-quality, Chinese-made, custom laser-cut suits online. In just two years, Proper Suit reached $1 million in sales, and its founders, now based in Chicago, have launched a second, potentially more lucrative business called Hall&Madden, a subscription dress-shirt service.

In recent years, the menswear arm of e-commerce has become big business. Dozens of companies, including Indochino, Black Lapel and Arden Reed have ignited a bespoke tailoring revolution. "I think what drives a service like this comes from people in places with a strong high-tech drive," says Joseph Rosenfeld, a personal-image consultant in Silicon Valley. "It's popular with people who are tech-oriented and sit in front of a computer all day. They have a proclivity to do what comes naturally."
Hall and Madden, however, believe their particular service has an edge over the competition because it is not entirely digital. They realized almost as soon as they began that to be effective, the tailoring process required face time with their clientele. In the beginning, Proper Suit trusted consumers to take their own measurements--but some weren't getting the fit they expected.
So the partners, along with two other fit specialists, began crisscrossing the country, scheduling tailoring appointments every three to eight weeks in major cities such as Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. After an hourlong fitting, customers could place orders via Proper Suit's website, which charges between $850 and $1,400 per suit, depending on the fabric.

 A cult-like following ensued. "It's not uncommon for guys to drive four to five hours for a fitting," Hall says. "We had one guy from Singapore who was in New York and delayed his return trip to take a bus to D.C. just to do a fitting."
An observation from all that time spent with customers turned into the duo's latest venture, Hall&Madden dress shirts. They saw that even though men were willing to shell out for a custom suit, they were holding on to their dress shirts for far too long, some showing up to fittings with stained and frayed shirts. "These business guys love their shirts, but they're tired of spending $140 or $150 a pop on them," Hall says.
Hall&Madden aims to help men build their wardrobes through a subscription service that ships three high-quality dress shirts every three, four or six months, for $150 per delivery. The first order includes basics such as white, blue and striped shirts; subsequent deliveries build on the collection with plaids and seasonal fabrics.
The shirts aren't custom-cut like the offerings from Proper Suits, but they do feature more sizing points than off-the-rack designs. Hall&Madden signed up more than 1,000 subscribers in less than a year and has closed in on $500,000 in sales.
Vertical integration and lack of overhead--no retail shops, warehouses or sales staff to maintain--contributes to Hall&Madden's competitive pricing. And the founders' intimate knowledge of China's garment industry keeps styling ahead of the fashion curve. "Patterns are usually designed by in-house people at the manufacturers," Hall explains. "We're able to study the market and work with the cotton mills. We look through what they have and collaborate directly."
As they edge closer to their four-year goal of 8,000 subscribers, Hall believes he and his partner will increase profit margins. "Once you're dealing with 150,000 meters of cotton fabric, that's big-boy status," he says. "That's where you have incredible buying power."
While pushing the growth of the shirt service, Hall says he and Madden are content to keep their original company, Proper Suit, relatively small. "There are natural limitations in a field like this. Fortunately, it's a passion project and a great business," he says, pointing out that finding people who can do fittings is very difficult, and something they won't skimp on. "Quality and fit is everything in a suit. What we do is very technical, but at the same time it's very artistic. It takes a unique person to fit a suit the way we do."