Fashion Is Now Tailored for the Tall : Colorful Clothes Come to Big Men

Since his high school days, Dan Wilbanks has seen clothing stores give tall men like himself short shrift.

When buying clothes to fit his 6-foot, 7-inch frame, Wilbanks found garments that were dreadfully out of date.

“I wear a 50 extra large jacket and my waist is 40. I used to have to order my clothes out of catalogues,” says Wilbanks, 35, vice president of marketing for Remote Imaging Systems in Anaheim. Not only was the selection in his sizes limited, the clothes that did fit were “dowdy,” and they rarely went on sale.

“I’d pay premium prices for products that I wasn’t enthused about,” Wilbanks says.

Like Wilbanks, other men who do not fit into regular sizes have typically found themselves shut out from the latest styles. Out of desperation, they pay high prices for clothes that often fit poorly and look dated.

Curt Heidenreich, a geologist who lives in Rancho Santa Margarita, found himself in a clothing buyer’s Catch-22. At 6 feet, 6 inches, he was too tall for regular sizes but too small through the middle for tall sizes.

“I felt I couldn’t keep up with the styles of today,” he says. “Everything seemed to be out of date, and there was a lot of polyester.”

He especially had trouble finding casual clothes he could wear out in the field.

“I actually didn’t feel good. Either I was overdressed and uncomfortable, or I wore something old and practically worn out,” he says.

Large men need not, however, resign themselves to a life of polyester. There are encouraging signs that the big-and-tall market is growing up.

Taking their cue from the success of large-sized women’s wear, menswear manufacturers and retailers are expanding their big-and-tall lines to serve a growing population of men who need large sizes.

Scott Linnell, a former clothing buyer for a specialty store, noticed a big gap in contemporary casual sportswear for the big-and-tall man. Nine months ago, he opened his Xtra Xtra Big & Tall shop in Tustin to promote clothes with a “younger mentality.”

“There’s a stereotype that goes along with big-and-tall men--that the purpose of having clothes for them is just for function,” Linnell says. “The idea was, ‘Oh, we don’t want them to wear bright colors. They might draw attention to him.’

“We’re saying a big-and-tall guy can wear fashionable things. One way to reduce the conspicuousness of a large guy is to have him dress in clothes that are available to everyone else.”

His shop carries colorful sportswear and beach clothes in bright neons and washed cottons, the kind found in most Southern California surf shops but that somehow have yet to turn up in most big-and-tall stores.

“A lot of guys come in here and say, ‘I didn’t know they made these things in my size,’ ” Linnell says.

Instead of the traditional plaid sports shirts, men can find cotton shirts by Active Culture Mix with geometric and batik prints in bright colors such as coral, purple and turquoise for $34. The shirts work well with washed sailcloth shorts by Newport Blue for $34 or cotton pleated pants by Zeppelin for $44.

“Some customers aren’t comfortable with the new colors and fabrics, but most like them. They say, ‘It’s about time,’ ” Linnell says. “The reaction ranges from ‘I’m going back to what I know,’ to those guys who almost get choked up” because they can now wear contemporary clothes.

Heidenreich, for instance, has stocked his closet with the colorful cotton shirts and pants from Xtra Xtra, and his colleagues have taken notice.

“I get a lot of compliments like ‘I like that shirt,’ or ‘That color looks good on you,’ ” he says.

Wilbanks, an avid golfer, finds he can now keep up with the styles he sees on the golf course.

“For years all I could buy was red, green, navy or black. That’s it. I got tired of wearing the same colors. Now I might throw in a neon. I feel better. It’s like I have a whole new look.”

Large men can also find style-conscious clothes at Nordstrom. The store has paid special attention to big-and-tall customers, offering everything from pajamas to fine suits in larger sizes.

Nordstrom carries suits, slacks, dress shirts, sweaters and sportswear for men who are big, tall or both. Each store has an entire case filled with extra long ties. Even socks, which traditionally come “one size fits all,” are available in six different sizes. The largest pairs fit size 13 to 15 feet.

“It’s uncommon for a man to walk into a store and be able to buy pants with a 34-inch waist and 36-inch length without alterations,” says Buckleh Reynolds, merchandise manager of the men’s division for Nordstrom stores in Orange County.

Nordstrom began stocking big-and-tall sizes to satisfy customers’ requests, according to Reynolds.

“They’d say, ‘Just because I’m big doesn’t mean I don’t understand fashion,’ ” he says. “They’re label-conscious too.”

Buyers for Nordstrom first had to persuade leery manufacturers that there was a large enough demand for big and tall.

“But as sales grew, it gave us more ammunition,” Reynolds says. Big-and-tall clothes now make up about 15% of Nordstrom’s menswear, he says.

Many of the clothes are made under Nordstrom’s private label, but a growing number of outside manufacturers are offering such lines. The Polo crew sock now comes in a king size, and the classic Polo knit shirt is available up to size double extra large. Hickey Freeman suits also come in large sizes.

“There’s no segment of the market we can ignore if we want to continue to grow,” Reynolds says. “We don’t want to exclude anyone.”

Linnell also foresees big and tall as an untapped market. He plans to open a second Xtra Xtra store in 1991 and eventually start a chain of stores.

“The growth potential is scary,” he says. “It’s because of the changing physical nature of the population. People are growing.”

For Wilbanks, the expanding market means he no longer has to buy clothes out of a catalogue.

“Now I can buy clothes like the rest of the world,” he says.