SPRING FEVER AT MITCHELLS

An impromptu visit to Mitchells in Westport this week got me truly excited about business prospects going forward. The menswear selling floor looked terrific, with strong presentations of fresh spring looks attracting happy lunchtime shoppers.

[ABOVE: Enjoying an upward trend, menswear GMM Dan Farrington and Westport Store Manager Tom Maleri.]

“Our business, lately, has been very strong and we’re optimistic for the future,” says Mitchells’ co-president Bob Mitchell. “We’ve seen a surge in Tailored Clothing driven by social events, back to the office, and travel. We expected this surge, but what’s taken us by surprise is that Sportswear is accelerating even more. We’re experiencing renewed demand in categories that had softened during the pandemic including woven sport shirts and polished casual pants. This is happening without a big downshift in the more casual business.”

Mitchell credits menswear GMM Dan Farrington and his team for an aggressive and well-balanced buying plan. Says Farrington, “We’re streamlining our offer in active and lounge categories that were supercharged during the pandemic, but we’ll still keep and develop those businesses. The demand at the moment is for both casual and dress clothes. MTM is also coming back, which will be crucial to getting us back to a full recovery of Tailored. We see a similar situation with shoes: the sneaker wave continues while demand for dress and semi-dress also increases.”

“Like everyone, we’re challenged with supply issues,” confides Mitchell. “But we’ve decided to be more aggressive and secure our own inventory so as to not leave sales on the table. We take nothing for granted and realize business could be lumpy month by month. But the overall momentum is strong, we’ve recovered our men’s volume and we’re now resuming growth.”