Macy to Convert I. Magnin Store to a Bullock’s : Retailing: The South Coast Plaza outlet will become a giant menswear store that will offer everything from socks to necktie clips.

In what is likely to be a closely watched experiment in the retail industry, R. H. Macy & Co. announced plans Friday to open the largest and most complete menswear store in Southern California at Orange County’s premiere shopping mall.

The New York-based retailer said it will convert an I. Magnin store at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa into the first Bullock’s men’s store.

At 70,000 square feet--about the size of one-and-a-half football fields--the new store will be one of the largest upscale menswear stores in the nation. It will adjoin the 270,000-square-foot Bullock’s department store at the mall in Costa Mesa.

Company officials said the new store marks recognition that men are increasingly fashion conscious and will support a large store that offers one-stop shopping for everything from socks to necktie clips.

Analysts, however, were surprised by Macy’s move. The company, which bought both the I. Magnin and Bullock’s chains in 1988, has been saddled with financial problems stemming from its management-led leveraged buyout in 1986.

The company disclosed Friday that December sales--the key month during the crucial holiday shopping season--were off 11.8% over the same month in 1989 on a same-store basis.

Macy officials gave no reason for closing the I. Magnin store. There is another I. Magnin a few miles south at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. The company also said it is “in discussions” about opening a new and larger I. Magnin at South Coast Plaza.

A Macy’s spokeswoman said the conversion of the I. Magnin store, first opened in the plaza in 1977, will affect about 100 employees, who will be transferred elsewhere.

Barbara Wedelstaedt, a retail analyst for Duff & Phelps in Chicago, said that I. Magnin, a speciality chain, has been losing money since Macy bought it and that other stores have been closed or converted around the country.

She said Macy’s decision to create a mammoth store for men was intriguing. “That’s going to be an interesting test,” said Barbara Wedelstaedt. The store’s size “is a lot more than most men’s stores can handle.”

The retail industry has shown a growing interest in menswear lately. The menswear section of the Bullock’s store in Sherman Oaks was expanded six months ago. And New York retailer Bergdorf Goodman recently opened a successful menswear store on Fifth Avenue, across from its flagship store, that offers full lines of clothes, plus a barber shop and putting green.

Kurt Barnard, publisher of the Retail Marketing Report Newsletter in New York, said the Bullock’s menswear store could succeed by appealing to well-heeled men who want buy all their clothes in one place.

“If they position themselves as purveyors of virtually everything a man could want, they could be formidable,” he said.

It could also mark the coming of age of men’s fashion.

Bob Beauchamp, fashion director of Esquire Magazine in New York, said men have become increasingly conscious of what they wear, largely as a result of the fitness craze. “When you got the body, you are going to dress it up and take it out,” Beauchamp said.

He said men are buying more accessories, which they can use to create new looks. And accessories, ties and belts and such, have high markups that make them attractive to retailers as well.