Tweet
What's Inside Your Suit
'Super' is that fabric? Makers are using numbers to tout quality. We
subjected suits to a battery of lab tests -- and found some don't live
up to their labels. Which ones deliver.
November 11, 2006
The men's floor at Barneys New York has racks of suits
in a wide range of prices, colors and cuts. But many have one thing in
common: The now-ubiquitous labels that promote the quality of the
fabric with numbers like "Super 110s" and "Super 150s."
Just as sheets trumpet thread counts and gas has its
premium octane, suit manufacturers are using these numbers to tout
their wool. Higher numbers translate to narrower fibers, which makers
say are softer to the touch. It's one of several tactics the suit
industry is using to combat slowing sales. On the high end, makers are
pushing suits in the Super 220s range for thousands of dollars.
Discounters are also adopting the system, hoping to convince shoppers
that a superior suit can be had for $300 or less.
Industry groups and some lawmakers are now calling
these numbers into question, prompted in part by makers of superfine
wool fabrics concerned about lower-priced suits being labeled with high
Super numbers. But the issue isn't limited to inexpensive suits.
In a test of 10 suits by The Wall Street Journal,
ranging in price from $290 to $1,995, four came back with a Super grade
below what was advertised. We also tested for durability and
wrinkle-resistance, and found that some suits with higher Super numbers
didn't deliver superior performance on those measures. A $1,595
Corneliani suit purchased at Saks Fifth Avenue, for instance, was
labeled as Super 170s. Our lab test showed the fabric was actually
Super 150s.
Roger Cohen, president of the U.S. division of
Corneliani, says the company uses an Italian lab to conduct random
tests on the fabric received from suppliers, which provide certificates
noting the diameter of the fiber. Its policy, he adds, is not to
"mislead or misguide any consumer."
Though there's no way for shoppers to verify a suit's
Super number without access to a textile laboratory, there are a few
simple tests shoppers can perform themselves in stores to gauge the
quality of a suit. One trick to figure out how easily a suit will
wrinkle: Clench a sleeve in your fist for a few minutes, then let it go
-- a good quality fabric should rebound quickly. Rayon linings known as
Bemberg are generally more durable than silk or other materials, while
twills, like Herringbone, tend to be stronger materials than plain
weaves.
The boom in S-numbers is part of a broader move by
suit makers to set their garments apart from the competition. Sales
have cooled from the torrid pace of a couple of years ago, when men
started dressing up again and the casual style of the dot-com era went
out of vogue. Through September this year, sales are down 10% from the
same period a year earlier, according to market researcher NPD Group.
Last year, sales rose only 0.4%, NPD says.
The fastest-growing category in the U.S. market is
suits under $300, which now account for more than half of all suits
purchased. These include imports from China, Mexico and other countries
that have improved their quality, helping to push down prices overall.
The average cost of a suit in 2005 was $138.26, down from $142.32 in
2004, when suit sales rose 18% over the previous year. Hartmarx, which
owns the Hart Schaffner Marx and Hickey Freeman labels, is among the
biggest suit makers in the U.S., along with Jos. A. Bank and Brooks
Brothers.
Many lower-priced suits now identify S-numbers, too.
Men's Wearhouse sells a $399 private-label Pronto Uomo suit marked
Super 120s. Others name the fabric mill or the country where a suit was
made. Some Arnold Brant suits, for instance, tout their provenance as
"Vitale Barberis Canonico," an Italian fabric maker.
Makers say S-numbers are proving the most effective.
While women typically look for items that appeal to their sense of
style, using their instinct or the opinions of friends, many men have a
harder time deciding what to buy. The numbers add a quantitative
dimension that makes decision-making less intimidating. There are also
bragging rights. S-numbers give men "something to discuss at a cocktail
party," says Corneliani's Mr. Cohen.
That was the attraction for Craig Weiss, a 51-year-old
psychologist in Holland, Pa., who bought a $3,000 navy blue Brioni suit
made of Super 150s wool a few years ago. He says he thought a higher
S-number was "a thing to aspire to." But Mr. Weiss says the suit let
him down, wrinkling when he traveled more than his less-expensive suits
did. It also felt so light and delicate that he worried about it
ripping. "It took all the fun out of wearing it," he says, adding that
he now wears the suit only for special occasions and buys lower
S-numbered suits for everyday use. Brioni says it has not heard any
complaints about its Super 150s.
Part of what makes the S-number system confusing is
that higher quality wool doesn't also mean more durable wool. The
number relates only to the diameter of the fiber, measured in microns.
Thinner fibers are usually more fragile. These suits tend to bunch up
when tailored and can wear out after a few dry cleanings.
"A very high S-system number doesn't guarantee the
best garments," says Andy Gilchrist, author of "The Encyclopedia of
Men's Clothes." "Such wools wrinkle almost as much as linen. They are
delicate and not as durable as less-fine wool."
The fineness of the fabric is only one measure of a
suit's quality. Strength is also a factor, and depends on the length of
the yarn and whether it's reinforced with another strand to make it two
ply. In some cloth, only yarn that runs vertically is reinforced, while
in others, reinforced yarns run horizontally as well. The latter,
called "two by two," tends to be stronger and better at recovering from
wrinkles. Ply is rarely noted on a label, but is sometimes mentioned in
descriptions of products on the fabric maker's Web site.
Suit makers acknowledge that fabrics with high
S-numbers are delicate and lightweight. But some say that a suit made
of high-quality Super 150s or above could be worn to the office once a
week and would last four or five years, if it's rarely dry cleaned.
That's roughly half as long as a good-quality Super 120s suit under the
same conditions. Several salespeople at stores from Saks Fifth Avenue
to Barneys New York advised us not to buy suits with high S-numbers for
anything but special occasions.
To determine the accuracy of advertised S-numbers, we
purchased 10 suits at retail outlets and sent them to Vartest
Laboratories, a New York firm that tests fibers and fabrics for
retailers and manufacturers. One suit made by Italian label Canali,
priced at $1,800, came back with results indicating that the S-number
was overstated. The lab also measured the fibers in a $417 Donald J.
Trump suit labeled Super 150s, and found them to be the diameter of
Super 130s -- the same grade it found in a Lauren by Ralph Lauren suit
we bought on Macys.com that was described online as a Super 140s.
A spokeswoman from Canali says its fabric was tested
by an Italian lab and determined to be Super 150s. Peerless Clothing,
which manufactures the Lauren suit, says the description applied to a
previous version of the suit and should have been changed on the Web
site (the site has since been updated). A lawyer for Marcraft Apparel
Group, which makes suits under the Donald J. Trump label, says our test
was "inappropriate" because it is not possible to determine wool
quality from a finished product. Other industry executives said testing
finished goods is not unusual and is often used to check quality.
Six of the suits we tested passed with flying colors,
with results that matched or exceeded their promised S-numbers,
including two of our least expensive choices -- an Arnold Brant and a
Jos. A. Bank, both Super 110s that cost less than $300. A pricier
Hickey Freeman Super 120s was found to have Super 130s fibers. Hickey
Freeman declined to comment.
Our overall winner in the other two categories --
strength and wrinkle-resistance -- was that $300 Arnold Brant suit,
which we found marked down from $895 at Sierra Trading Post. Its warp,
or vertical yarns, withstood nearly 83 pounds of pressure before
ripping -- that's about 40 pounds more than the industry's minimum
standard. We also tested the weft of all our suits, or horizontal
yarns, since some fabric makers reinforce only the warp; experts say a
suit that has a strong warp and weft will last longer.
suits from popular makers at a wide range of price points and Super
numbers. We didn't test any suits above Super 170s, since most of those
are only available made to measure or by special order.
Super numbers, we tested two other factors that are important to men
shopping for suits: durability and how susceptible the material is to
wrinkling.
analyzed by Vartest Laboratories in New York, which is accredited by
the International Organisation for Standardization in Geneva,
Switzerland, and has conducted tests for retailers and manufacturers.
To check the suits' Super numbers, the lab measured the diameter of the
wool fiber in microns. Vartest said that while there could be
differences between measurements of raw wool fibers and those in
finished products, they probably wouldn't be large enough to change the
Super number.
The first SUPER 100s wool was developed in the 1960s,
by an English fabric mill that worked with yarn from sheep bred
especially for that purpose in Australia. It was far silkier than
anything available at the time.
The first merchants to see it "were so astounded that,
in a fit of exuberance, they dubbed it Super 100s," according to the
book "The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style," written by
Michael Anton under the pen name Nicholas Antongiavanni. Italian mills
soon developed looms that could rapidly weave the fine wool without
tearing it.
For years, the terminology was used mostly by fabric
and suit makers. By the mid-1990s, as competition was heating up in the
U.S. suit market and luxury labels were taking off, high-end clothiers,
custom-suit makers and Italian mills began using Super numbers more
often to market directly to consumers. Soon, the numbers began
appearing on labels inside suits or on the sleeves. Sales people in
department stores started receiving training on how to explain why the
super wools cost more.
"The label says 'this is special,' 'this is unique,'"
says Arnold Brant, president of the clothing company that bears his
name. "If it's a navy suit and it says Super 120s, it tells the
customer this is a wool that's a better grade. This is not a typical
navy suit."
In part because of the profusion of S-numbers across
all price levels, the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute
decided to test the veracity of these claims. The Boston-based trade
group that includes makers of superfine wool fabrics started testing
finished products two years ago, at the urging of some of its members
who noticed lower-priced suits were increasingly being labeled with
high S-numbers.
In its test of 20 suits, the institute found that
roughly two-thirds of them were mislabeled, including suits purchased
from Men's Wearhouse, Filene's (now part of Macy's) and Sierra Trading
Post. The group then notified the stores and manufacturers, which
either stopped selling the suits or changed the labels.
There is no universal standard for defining S-numbers.
The International Wool Textile Organisation, a trade group, has issued
guidelines, but suit makers say mills in some countries don't follow
them. In our test, we used those guidelines.
At the urging of several trade groups, the U.S. House
of Representatives in September approved a bill that would codify the
IWTO's guidelines, setting specific measurements for S-numbers up to
Super 250s. The bill would give the Federal Trade Commission the power
to fine fabric suppliers, garment manufacturers and retailers that
don't abide by the standards.
The proposed legislation would "give our industry
protection" and "help the consumer so that they are going to get what's
advertised," says Hickey Freeman chairman Duffy Hickey, who is also
president of the Tailored Clothing Association, a suit makers' trade
group.
Some suit makers think S-numbers have been overdone.
Oxxford Clothes, whose handmade suits are sold for thousands of dollars
at stores like Barneys New York and its own shops in Chicago and New
York, plans to stop labeling everything below Super 150s, starting next
fall. A key reason: "You're seeing very inexpensive suits advertised as
Super 120s and that muddies the water," says Mike Cohen, the company's
chief executive.
J.C. Penney stopped labeling the Super numbers on its
Stafford suits last year because the number "doesn't reflect the entire
quality story of our product," says Richard Honiball, Penney's Stafford
brand director. The suits are made with many fabrics that qualify for
Super designation, up to and including Super 120s, he says.
Others, like Ermenegildo Zegna, an Italian firm that
makes fabric as well as suits, don't tout the S-number on their labels
either. Djordje Stefanovic, executive director of communications for
Zegna, says the company relies on its reputation for making fine
fabrics: "As yarn producers, wool producers and suit producers, we
didn't want to play that numbers game."
Comment