Новые владельцы возвращают бренд Paul Stuart к истокам классического американского мужского стиля

Paul Stuart is focusing on its glorious past — but in a contemporary way. Last December, the menswear retailer, which was founded in 1938, was acquired by Middle West Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, in partnership with Peerless Clothing. Since 2012, Paul Stuart had been owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui & Co. A separate Japanese business is owned by Sanyo, which purchased the rights from Mitsui in 2021. When the deal was finalized, the new owners overhauled the management team, bringing in John Hutchison, the former chief executive officer of Bonobos, as the new chief to succeed Trevor Shimpfky. Also exiting was creative director Ralph Auriemma. You May Also Like Hutchison has brought in his own team, headed by Hazel Morley and Brett Wagner, who both hold the title of vice president of design. Together they have drilled down into the company’s history and are working to restore its position as a bastion of classic American menswear. Almost in unison, the trio said they look at themselves as “stewards of a heritage brand” and have been working for months to study the retailer’s archives to inform the future collections and messaging. “Our estimation is that Paul Stuart didn’t get the love and attention that it needed,” Hutchison said. “Our ownership team felt like this is an incredible American luxury menswear brand that had just kind of fallen by the wayside, but still had all the elements that were needed. The product quality has always been really high — unmatched — but maybe it didn’t have the best merchandising.” He said the company’s “brand equity,” particularly in the New York area, is high, “but it falls off considerably as you get outside New York.”  Paul Stuart also operates stores in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Southampton, N.Y. The new team’s work was already visible during a visit to the New York City flagship on Madison Avenue, which had been downsized several years ago and now has around 15,000 square feet of selling space. The floors are much cleaner with less product and the famous 17th-century Flemish tapestry that had graced the wall inside the front entrance for decades has been returned to its former home. The tapestry had actually been taken down, rolled up and stored in the basement for the past couple of years as Paul Stuart sought to attract a younger customer. “We cut the assortment by 49 percent,” Hutchison said. “We pulled fixtures off the floor because we don’t want it to look like a department store’s menswear floor.” But it’s not just the physical store that has changed. The assortment has been reworked, albeit gently, to return to its roots. Paul Stuart has long been known for its soft-shoulder look in tailoring and is believed to have been the first American retailer to bring side vents to the States, as well as the three-button suit. All of the merchandise at the store bears the retailer’s name. Under prior management there was a push to attract a younger customer and modernize the business, but Hutchison doesn’t believe that’s the right route. “I don’t mean this to be disparaging, but I think they were doing things that were at odds with the brand that had been established for seven decades. We don’t have to be different to attract that next generation.” He pointed to the tapestry’s return as an example. “That’s kind of a symbol of what we’re trying to do. There’s this amazing heritage here and we’re going to embrace it in a way that feels relevant to today.” Although the sale was only finalized in December, the fall ’26 collection hadn’t been completed, allowing the new team to immediately make its presence felt. “We were making quick decisions and sprinting,” Morley said. Although the changes will be visible now, there’s still a lot of work to be done, they believe. “John intentionally didn’t want to bring in a big hotshot designer to impose their capital F, ‘fashion,’ point of view on the brand,” said Morley. “We have almost 90 years of catalogs, and we’re really just trolling the archives. We’re shopping the vintage market. We’re trying to look back to indicate what we’re going to do in the future. We’re just polishing off the dust and restoring the luster that the brand used to have. We’re not here to reinvent the wheel.” The “high-quality craftsmanship” that Paul Stuart built its reputation on remains, as does its propensity for color and pattern, she said. And in terms of models, “we’re not going to suddenly bring you a three-legged pant. We’ve got the foundation that’s needed, and it’s really just finding the right fabrics, colors and factories to create the new American luxury.” Wagner added: “We’re classic and American. It’s stylish, it’s timeless.” So expect less of a skinny, European aesthetic and more of an American expression in the tailored offering. And the younger-skewed Phineas Cole collection that had been a focus of the prior team will also be discontinued, although some of the hallmarks of that brand will be incorporated into the core collection. “It’s very challenging to have such a small business trying to support two labels,” Hutchison said. “We’re not going to walk away from that customer. We’re going to service him through the core brand, but we want to become famous for Paul Stuart.” He said the overall goal is to “bring it back to its haberdashery roots. That’s going to mean a smaller assortment, but we hope to still provide everything he expects of us, which is actually quite a lot of categories.” Morley, who oversees the more-tailored offerings of the brand, studied menswear at Parsons and worked at Original Penguin, Patrik Ervell and The Gap before joining, where she spent 13 years. “That’s where I met John and he brought me over here,” she said, adding that she’ll also have oversight of marketing and e-commerce. Wagner cut his design teeth at Vineyard Vines before also joining Bonobos — although he didn’t overlap with Hutchison or Morley — and spent several years overseeing private brands at Belk. At Paul Stuart, he will focus more on the sportswear as well as stores and visual merchandising. “Having both of them is a big opportunity for us,” Hutchison said. “We’re known for tailored clothing, but sportswear is a tremendous growth opportunity and that’s the reason for bringing in more firepower here than you would normally to a company our size.” They said that a lot of the manufacturers Paul Stuart has been working with for years have been retained while others have been added. That includes a push to use more American manufacturing wherever possible. Case in point is Hamilton Shirts in Texas that had formerly manufactured the custom shirts for the store but is now producing all its dress shirts. And while Canada’s Samuelsohn continues to produce some suits and sport coats, Paul Stuart has also begun working with the Rochester plant in upstate New York. “It’s one of the few factories in North America that can still do a fully canvassed suit,” Hutchison said. Other tweaks include shell buttons that now have an etching on the back of the company’s signature “man on a fence” logo, and an updated belt collection made by longtime partner W. Kleinberg from Atlanta, some of which will include silver belt buckles created by the former Tiffany silversmith. The sweater assortment will still offer bright colors, but more subtle shades such as navy will be added back into the line again. Ditto for olive and navy pants to complement plaids and other patterns. Other key pieces for fall include a double-breasted coat in super 170s wool, a checked sport coat in cashmere Loro Piana fabric, a gray herringbone sport coat, a Harris tweed bomber with a cashmere lining, cashmere overshirts, five-pocket trousers, ties with whimsical patterns and other classic American items they believe were missing from the line. Pajamas will return for holiday as will robes made in the company’s Madison Avenue store. To introduce the new Paul Stuart to customers, the team has created a catalog which will be mailed to customers this week. Recently, the marketing push had been on digital channels, but the focus going forward will be on events and activations. “We’re taking the brand on the road where we don’t have stores,” Hutchison said.  “It’s about getting out and meeting people and sharing what we’re doing.” He added that once the business is stabilized, the plan is to open more stores, as many as 10 to 15 across the U.S. in cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles. One of the other things he did after coming on board was to close the outlet store that was operating across the street. “We’re not in the business of liquidating our own product in that way. We’re trying to reestablish a full-price, well-assorted, beautiful-product business.” And don’t expect a return to womenswear. Although the store had put a lot of effort into building a women’s business over the years, it never accounted for more than 10 percent of sales and it was shut down. “I don’t see us bringing women’s back,” Hutchison said. Instead, “I think there’s an opportunity for us to expand around the United States and around the world. We have the worldwide rights to the brand outside of Japan, so there’s more growth for us in expanding stores globally than trying to break into a completely different category.” He said Middle West’s management team is fully committed to investing in Paul Stuart. “They keep a low profile, but they’re multigenerational customers of Paul Stuart. They know and love the brand and really want to steward it. That’s an incredibly appealing sort of ownership structure, as was the trust they’ve put in me and this team to turn this ship around.”