Chain Reaction : Fashion: Sears, Target and other stores are out to change their image with trendy but affordable clothes and head-turning displays.

A funny thing happened to Claremont shopper Linda Silva on her way to buy tissues at Target.

“I just walked in and there was this great oversize cotton knit sweater right in the front of the store,” Silva says. She bought the sweater--and the tissues--and later returned to buy a denim shirt. “Theirs was much cheaper than the ones I had seen in catalogues,” she says.

Thousands of customers may be surprised to find themselves standing in line at Target or K mart with hip, reasonably priced clothes--as well as sundries--in hand. And chains such as Sears and JC Penney are even further along in their fashion make-overs, offering clusters of trendy merchandise amid typical, more traditional fare.

Stores like K mart are going for the impulse buys. “I don’t think the customer who is used to shopping in Nordstrom or Bloomingdale’s is going to transfer her shopping needs to Wal-Mart,” says Marjorie Dean, owner and publisher of The Tobe Report, a New York-based fashion forecasting service. “But what happens is she stops in to buy a new tire, passes the fashion area and suddenly ends up with a sweater. These stores are putting fashion near the front door on purpose, a marketing ploy similar to putting candy at the cash register so the kids will want it.”

At Target, for example, the Esprit- and Guess-inspired collections by Merona--including tennis shoes, tights and accessories--for men, women and children hang near the door. The clothes are color-coordinated prints, stripes and solids. A complete outfit for a woman, with shoes, runs about $50.

Target’s fashion strategy also involves what store officials like to call reality shopping: “the idea of putting together the $200 Vittadini sweater (purchased elsewhere) with $19.99 Target stirrup pants,” explains Corbin Seitz, style consultant for Target stores.

Next year, the chain plans to launch a lifestyle collection of nautical-theme family clothing and decorative housewares, not dissimilar to Ralph Lauren’s total design for living concept. It will include beach towels, shirts, footwear, even drinking glasses. The tie that binds the items, Seitz says, is clean lines. “We don’t put ducks all over everything. We want to appeal as much to the woman who likes Laura Ashley as we do to those who subscribe to Metropolitan Home.”

Like Target, K mart is working to establish a fashion image. It has moved clothing to the front of the stores, widened the aisles, brightened the lights and introduced mini-billboard-sized ads to catch shoppers’ eyes as they enter.

But it may take time and more changes before women think of the chain as a forward-fashion resource. Although the junior clothes are trendy, most of the women’s styles won’t tempt those who can afford to buy elsewhere. “Their quality and styles are not as good as what I find elsewhere, but it is improving,” says Sherrill Smith, 37, of Tustin..

The upgrading effort at Sears, which started with the Cheryl Tiegs collection, has been under way for several years. But next year, the store plans to phase out all its celebrity-named collections. Design, not labels, dictates the styles in stores these days, says Lee Hogan Cass, who joined Sears 2 1/2 years ago as the national fashion merchandise director.

“What was right for the ‘80s won’t work in the ‘90s. The average shopper doesn’t really care about celebrity labels or spokespersons,” says Cass.

“Before I came, the most important thing to Sears was giving women wearable merchandise at a value. Fashion was not an issue--and neither was the way the clothes were presented. When I arrived here, we had dresses for $12--I won’t get into what they looked like,” she says.

Those dresses--and days--are long gone. Today, the chain’s women’s apparel ranges in price from $9.99 for a turtleneck to just more than $100 for a better dress. Changes in the fashion mix have resulted in “high single- to low double-digit sales increases in the women’s and junior departments--as well as in intimate apparel and accessories, Cass says.

Like fashion directors at more upscale stores, Cass attends domestic and international designer fashion shows, but she works with a merchandise team long before collections appear on the runways. They review color- trend reports and meet with fashion forecasters before instructing the mills how to translate the trends for Sears’ customers. But price sometimes forces Sears to bypass hot trends.

“We wish we could afford (to duplicate) some looks, but we have to hold the price. We can’t and don’t try to duplicate the texture of a Chanel jacket for $40 to $60 retail,” Cass says.

Its junior and lingerie departments represent the best of Sears’ trendy fashions. Juniors can choose from unitards, sheer chiffon tops and other stylish offerings. But the women’s clothing remains fairly traditional.

Some of the most striking changes at some Sears stores are in the presentation of merchandise. In Main Frame, the junior department, music videos blare from a trio of monitors affixed to the ceiling. Elsewhere, elegant oak armoires house everything from fragrant sachets to luxurious peignoir sets.

Cass believes more women will shop at stores like Sears as the ‘80s snobbiness begins to wane. The rise of the Hanes T-shirt and the fall of Ivana Trump and Nancy Reagan excesses exemplify the emerging new order. Says Cass: “There is no snob appeal about kids’ clothes, and that is something adult women are coming around to now.”

The JC Penney fashion make-over began in the early ‘80s, recalls Lucille Klein, fashion director for the store’s women’s division. Unlike stores such as Target and K mart, whose customers may be initially attracted by merchandise other than clothes, JC Penney made a concerted effort to increase space for clothing.

“In 1983, we decided we would no longer carry certain things in our store like paint and batteries. Our catalogues could service our customers with those items. We wanted to make a stronger fashion statement,” Klein says.

Store officials compiled five customer profiles and then created departments to reflect them. In some stores, a television screen showcases skiers in the sport apparel department. Floral wallpaper lines the walls of an intimate-apparel area accentuated with armoires. Neon signs and white grids laden with accessories reflect the look of specialty junior boutiques.

Popular styles are offered, but to cut prices, synthetic blends replace pure cashmere, cotton and wool fabrics. A black, Calvin Klein-inspired slip dress has brushed gold-tone stars affixed to sexy spaghetti straps. Leather miniskirts from Jacqueline Ferrar are paired with sweaters and feminine, tailored rayon career suits.

The Tobe Report’s Dean says shoppers are excited to discover they can buy trendy clothes at stores such as JC Penney or Target at relatively low prices. “They realize it is fun to be in these stores, put together a new outfit at home for very little money and feel like a whole new woman.”