MEN'S STYLE; TROPICAL EASE
By DIANE SUSTENDAL
Published: New York Times February 16, 1986

MEN ARE INCREASINGLY DISCOVERING that tropical-weight suits fulfill their business-dress needs throughout the year. What was once considered merely appropriate for warm or transitional climates is rapidly becoming the mainstay of the male wardrobe.

The reason is simple: these suits are comfortable, flexible and practical, as well as stylish.

A tropical-weight suit is made of fabric that weighs between seven and nine ounces per yard. The material may be wool or wool blended with polyester or rayon. Its cousin, the mid-weight suit, which weighs in at between nine and 11 ounces, is still popular for fall and winter but does seem to be losing considerable ground to tropical weights.

In 1984, Paul Stuart, the Madison Avenue haberdashery, began to stock versions of the tropical-weight suit for year-round wear. Today, they account for 50 percent of the store's suit sales. Barneys New York reports that tropicals amount to between 40 percent and 55 percent of all suit sales, and that the store has made a point of keeping such suits in stock all year. At Brooks Brothers, tropicals make up 75 percent of all suits sold during the spring; the mid-weight suit takes a 35 percent share of suits sold in the fall. Many large manufacturers - Hartmarx, Bidermann Industries U.S.A. and Ermenegildo Zegna, for example - originally produced these suits for men living in humid climates. Now, they say, the demand has moved northward. At Hartmarx, the most popular tropical-weight suits are made of all-wool worsteds or a blend of 55 percent polyester and 45 percent wool. These make up 80 percent to 85 percent of suit sales in the spring and 15 percent of sales in autumn. Bidermann Industries U.S.A., which produces more than 200,000 suits a season for Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent and Daniel Hechter, classifies some 35 percent of the suits it makes as tropical weight. Three years ago, Zegna developed a seven-ounce, 100 percent Merino wool suit; it and the other tropicals, account for 90 percent of the suit business done in this country for spring and 25 percent for the winter.

What makes such a suit so popular? It is a logical choice for men who work and live in climate-controlled environments, as comfortable in a heavily heated building as in one highly air-conditioned. And it is flexible. In a dark color, it is an ideal choice for travel, equally appropriate in Paris, New York or Los Angeles. With a topcoat or lined raincoat, a man can board a plane in Chicago and disembark in San Diego, or vice versa, comfortably, and suitably, attired.