Slim Suits Help Lead Gains in Men's Wear MEN are notoriously averse to shopping. Who can blame them, given the gantlet of women's fragrances, makeup and handbags that confront them at the entrances to many stores and malls? So why do men appear to be shopping for themselves in record numbers? Men's wear sales are surging at double-digit rates. Suits, sports coats and outerwear, nearly all bought by men themselves, are leading the gains, according to Steve Pruitt, founder of the fashion and retail consulting firm Blacks Retail. Blacks projects that men's suit sales will be up 10 percent this fall and holiday season, and sports jacket sales will be up 11 percent, while women's ready-to-wear sales remain flat. "Men are the new women," Bret Pittman, director of J. Crew's Ludlow Shop in TriBeCa in Manhattan, told me when I stopped in recently for a tour of the new store, the prototype for a line that will feature men's suits and tailored clothing. Entering the store is like stepping onto the set of "Mad Men" or "A Single Man," the film-directing debut of the men's wear designer Tom Ford. Millard Drexler, chief executive and chairman of the J. Crew Group, showed me around, pointing out a vintage Mies van der Rohe black leather sofa and a Marantz sound system from the 1960s. Some weathered military file cabinets and an assortment of hardback books completed the retro look, a not-so-subtle reminder of an era when men looked sharp. Mr. Drexler, who is known as Mickey, was wearing 484 Selvedge jeans, a white cotton Thomas Mason shirt, a navy Ludlow blazer, and brown Crockett & Jones wingtip shoes, all from J. Crew. "It's a uniform," he told me. Even so, Mr. Drexler has recently had to refresh much of his wardrobe. "Men's styles are very slow to change," he said. But I walked around New York and I saw all these young guys wearing skinny lapels and narrow ties. I came back and looked in the mirror. My lapels looked freakish. Mr. Drexler and his design team set out to reinvent the suit. "What does a modern guy want to look like?" he asked. We went to people we admire. How were they dressing? What he and his team discerned was a once-in-a-generation change in the basic shape of a man's suit, from a boxy design meant to conceal the body to a fitted look meant to reveal it. The Ludlow suit was born: slim, fitted, with narrow lapels. "It's our version of the iPhone," said Mr. Drexler, who sits on Apple's board. We wanted it to be simple, consistent, iconic, with great attention to detail. Use the best fabrics. Don't charge what name designers charge. And why does buying a suit have to be so complicated? We basically sell one model. That was the vision. Like Apple, J. Crew controls both the manufacture and the distribution of its clothing. Suits sell from about $500 to $1,500. "The Ludlow shop was a hit right out of the gate," he said. Guys want their own space. They don't want to walk by the perfume counter. As a private company, J. Crew doesn't disclose sales figures, but a spokeswoman said men's wear accounted for 24 percent of the chain's sales and was growing. In contrast with J. Crew, the upscale department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue offers a vast array of men's wear on two full floors of its flagship Fifth Avenue branch. Options range from private label suits starting at around $900 to the hand-tailored Italian Kiton brand, whose suits go for about $7,000 to well over $10,000. I met Eric Jennings, a Saks vice president and director of men's fashion, on the seventh floor. "Older suits made men look like executive fat cats," Mr. Jennings said, as he guided me past boutiques featuring brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna and Isaia, to name just a few. Men today are exercising. They're more slender. Clothes are showing their physique. Even the classic lines are slimmer. Mr. Jennings himself looked very fit in a Burberry suit with a trim silhouette, vest and narrow lapels that he'd just bought. "The fabrics don't change," he said, pointing to the classic gray flannel of his suit. But the fit does. If you're wearing a suit from four years ago, it's dated.