Retailers at Chicago Collective Shrug Off Tariffs, Expect Continued Good Business

CHICAGO — The men’s specialty store contingent swooped into this city last week in an upbeat mood after a string of successful months and hopes for continued solid results the rest of the year.

Although the ever-changing tariff situation was a frequent talking point, most merchants took it in stride. While prices have inched up on some merchandise for fall and spring 2026, other brands were holding back, adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

Retailers were prepared to pay between 5 and 10 percent more for goods going forward, and will need to pass the increase along. But stores serving a better or luxury customer are not expecting any pushback from their well-heeled customers.

At the Chicago Collective trade show, merchants caught up with their top brands and were on the hunt for items that were fresh and different to offer their loyal shoppers something new to buy. Sportswear and gift items were on the top of their shopping lists since many stores had already placed the bulk of their spring orders.

While the Chicago Collective was the primary draw, two other shows were also in town last week: Show & Tell, which focuses on streetwear, and Outpost, an independent brand showcase. The addition of competing fairs shows the strength of the Collective, which has become the must-attend show for independent men’s stores.

Monique Kielar, vice president of marketing, apparel for the Chicago Collective, said 1,800 buyers attended the show, which was consistent with the attendance last August. Special events included Piloti’s opening-night party, which drew around 1,000 people, and the Italian Trade Agency’s Monday night event.

The newly added fourth floor, which joins the seventh-floor flagship location at the Merchandise Mart, has been well received, she said. The floor houses mainly showrooms such as Triluxe and M5, which were pleased with the results. “The brand assortment was strong and we want to make sure the assortment stays relevant and flows with the seventh floor,” she said.

Going forward, Kielar said the goal is “continue the cadence of success. We are at a peak and we want to make sure that we keep the quality and experience up for the retailers.” She said in the future, she’d like to attract more international buyers. Although some retailers from Europe and Japan shopped this edition of the show, the opportunity going forward is enormous, she believes.

Right now it’s Italy that dominates — at least from a brand perspective. The Italian Trade Agency brought 62 companies to Chicago, including seven new vendors, and Kielar said the group is clamoring for more space, a request she hopes to be able to accommodate in the future.

Alessio Nanni, head of the fashion and beauty division of the ITA, said in addition to the country’s core tailored clothing and high-end sportswear, there was more emphasis on leather goods this time. He said the goal was to showcase the “style and craftsmanship” of Italian brands to American retailers and he will continue to push to add more vendors at the next edition.

The ITA’s annual party was held on the rooftop of iO Godrey, a local watering hole. But the group wasn’t the only one partying: Gladson, a fabric mill that focuses on custom products, hosted a dinner Sunday night at Smith & Wollensky and held a panel discussion on Monday afternoon on the opportunities for women’s custom clothing featuring a panel of experts from the U.S. and Italy. Accessories brand Tateossian celebrated its 35th anniversary with an event at the residence of the British Consul General in Chicago.

The Collective added a preview day on Saturday and ran through Tuesday and most retailers were on the floors for the duration.

Ken Giddon of New York-based Rothmans sang the praises of the Collective, calling it “the most efficient show in the business. They do a good job of bringing a curated group of vendors, and if you’re in the men’s business, you have to be here.”

Giddon said his business is “surprisingly very good,” on top of what was his best year ever in 2024. Even so, he said he was “waiting for the tariff shoe to drop” when shoppers realize that prices will be going up. He said for fall, he will raise prices by around 5 to 10 percent.

At the show he was shopping with his son Will, who oversees a department called Rothmans Next, which highlights more fashion-forward brands. “Men’s fashion continues to change and we have to cover it with a wider net,” Will Giddon said. “Every shopper should feel represented. We can’t be everything to everyone, but we can be a lot to a lot of people.”

“We have done a good job establishing what Rothmans is,” Ken Giddon added. “We have a broad base of customers and to make all of them happy, we need to test the fashion edge.”

He said Rothmans Next has allowed the company to add 10 percent more vendors to its assortment since it debuted two years ago. 

At the show, they shopped Circola for its soft sport coats, along with Surfside Supply, Hedge, Rails, Marine Layer, Latorre and Fradi. 

Richard Penn, president of Puritan Clothing, which operates three stores on Cape Cod, said since the pandemic, the Cape has been bustling with the influx of people moving and living there year-round, which has boosted his business. “We’ve really benefited,” he said.

He said sportswear represents the largest part of his business, but tailored brands such as Canali, Jack Victor and Samuelsohn are also strong because the area is such a big wedding and event destination.

Although the tariff situation impacted sales early in the year, by May business rebounded strongly and the Puritan stores had their best July in several years, he said.  As a result, he’s optimistic about fall. And although “tariffs are not going away,” he said vendors and retailers are working together to minimize the impact.

At the show, he was looking for elevated casualwear for men to wear to both work and events.

Hill and Richard Stockton of Norman Stockton in Winston-Salem, N.C., said their business has been “great” since relocating four years ago next to Wake Forest. Students — as well as their parents — have discovered the store, picking up both tailored clothing and sportswear.

The students who are getting ready to enter the work force are stopping by for interview or first job suits, Richard Stockton said, generally opting for classic styles in charcoal or navy.

Hill Stockton shrugged off the tariff situation, saying, “We can’t worry about it. There’s something new every day and we’re not just looking for lines not affected by tariffs.” His son added, “If it actually happens, we’ll figure it out.”

At the show, they were shopping Billy Reid as well as their two biggest vendors — Peter Millar and Johnnie-O — to check out updates for spring. “They don’t change a lot,” Hill Stockton said, “but if it’s working, why shoot yourself in the foot.”

Craig DeLongy of John Craig in Winter Park, Fla., said business at his eight Florida stores remains strong, despite a slower-than-normal summer. And as a “staunch supporter of tariffs,” he is absorbing the extra cost right now and will pass it along if necessary in the future. 

He said he is “bullish on fall,” and confident that his “incredible staff” will help drive momentum through the remainder of the year.

At the show, he said he was looking for “odds and ends” to complete his assortment. “We’re not looking to reinvent our vendor mix, but there’s one item we might have missed,” he said.

Lindsay Morton Gaiser of Andrisen Morton in Denver said some ups and downs at the beginning of the year have smoothed out and June sales were up 12 percent while July was up 4 percent. “So we’re really optimistic going into fall.”

She said spring sportswear sales were up 9 percent, suits rose 10 percent and sport coats were flat. “Sportswear is having a run,” she said. Contributing to her optimism is that some true luxury items such as a Brunello Cucinelli outerwear piece for $15,000 have already started selling.

Her opinion on the tariffs was that “there’s no reason to panic until we fully understand the impact on business.” And the anticipated price increases of 3 to 4 percent “are pretty minimal for the luxury customer.”

At the show, she liked the look of Paul & Shark, which she said has “evolved and changed,” and she was looking for sportswear, small leather goods, jewelry and holiday items because the bulk of her buying was already completed.

Dana Katz of Miltons, based in Braintree, Mass., said he had a “decent first half” in terms of business. Although he’s concerned about the impact of the tariffs, the special occasion and wedding business continues to be strong and is fueling sales.

“The tariff situation changes almost daily so we’re taking a wait-and-see attitude,” he said. He said for fall, there will be a few “strategic” price increases, but he expects the customer impact to be negligible.

At the show he was looking to fill in his fall assortment to replace pieces that were not put into production because of the tariffs while adding some fresh items for spring.

Ted Silver of Weiss & Goldring in Alexandria, La., said the tariffs have caused most of his vendors to raise prices by 5 to 7.5 percent,  a cost he will have to pass along. 

So far this year business has been good, he said, adding that the gift items he has added in recent years to augment his apparel business have helped lift sales. So at the show he visited with his regular vendors and was searching for belts as well as other potential gift items.

Here are a few highlights from the show.

Billy Reid

The Alabama-based designer got relaxed and refined for spring, tapping into his now-signature innovative fabric choices to update his collection for the season. “We work so hard to get the finishes right,” Reid said.

“[Our customers] love seeing the techniques, whether we’re playing around with embroidery or jacquarding or printing or working with dobbies,” he added. He said the goal for his collection was to offer versatile pieces that can be worn eight or nine months with a soft hand that makes a customer say, “I love the way this feels,” he said. “At the end of the day, you want them to fall in love with the piece you’re working on.”

Among his most popular pieces for spring 2026 was a knit chore coat with a cardigan fit that Reid said could be worn to a black-tie wedding or dressed down with ripped jeans. He also singled out the array of textured knits in the offering that included a polo with a rollback sleeve and a “start-stop pocket” as well as a jacquard camp shirt with a bold botanical graphic.

He reached into his archives for the striped Tuscumbia shirt that delivered an array of shades and fabrics in a button-down silhouette. While the texture and patterns were most evident in the tops, the collection includes chinos and five-pocket bottoms in a variety of colors and patterns. And there was also a whole indigo capsule that included a chambray field shirt and a shirt jacket.

Caruso

Casual luxury was the focus of Caruso’s spring collection.

The Italian luxury brand defined that as “a relaxed yet refined attitude that blends natural elegance with high-quality craftsmanship.” What that translated into was a collection of suits and sport coats in silk, wool and linen that were elegant and easy to wear at the same time.

One highlight was a lightweight double-breasted silk and linen blazer in a pale tone that would work for steamy summer days as well as warm evenings.

Another key style for spring was a Donegal-inspired jacket in wool and linen with red silk slubs on an orange base that spoke to the brand’s history in tailoring but in an updated, more modern silhouette. There was also a linen and silk herringbone jacket in a soft lavender color.

“The spring/summer 2026 collection presented at the Chicago Collective revolved around the jacket — our core product — reinterpreted with a playful and effortless spirit,” said Marco Angeloni, president and chief executive officer of Caruso. “Fully canvassed yet exceptionally lightweight, it embodies a relaxed elegance, further enhanced by soft pastel shades and unexpected takes on classic fabrics.”

As the company summed it up: “The inspiration here is about attitude — effortless, a little undone, but always intentional. These jackets aren’t meant to be crisp or too precious. They wear like your favorites, but look like you care.”

Duck Head

It all started in 1865 when brothers George and Joe O’Bryan came up with the idea to repurpose surplus army tents into work pants. This heavy canvas was known as “duck,” so they used that as the launching point for their company’s name, adding “head,” and the now-famous mallard head as their logo to appease the U.S. Trademark Office.

Duck Head has had many lives — and owners — over the past 160 years, but has been under the umbrella of Oxford Industries since 2016. Today the company is being revived under James Kokalis, its head of brand, who is committed to returning the line to prominence with a new, modern aesthetic that continues to be rooted in heritage.

At the show, Kokalis said the collection — titled “Refined Utility” — included three segments: the outdoor/field-inspired pieces; traditional items for a more cleaned-up offering, and a more trend-forward segment.

The line is still rooted in pants, led by the brand’s signature Gold School chino in a cotton twill and piped seams, which retail for $115. Then there is the Briar pant for the sportsman made from a heavy cotton canvas, the performance-inspired stretch Harbor chino and the five-pocket Shoreline.

But Kokalis said Duck Head is putting more emphasis on shirts including “elevated” button-downs in a cotton-cashmere blend that retail for $108 to $148, a wide selection of oxfords, as well as polos, linen poplin models, cotton twills and a garment-dyed canvas overshirt. There were also sweaters, including the requisite quarter-zip, and even an assortment of blazers.

In 2026, Kokalis said the brand will be relaunching denim, a category it had produced as far back as the 1920s, under the moniker Duck Head Denim Co. Initially there will be two fits — a classic straight and a slim straight — in two washes, and they will retail for $178.

Also, in celebration of its anniversary, the company created four special capsule collections, two earlier in the year and two remaining drops: the Ivy in September and Workwear in November. Those collections are available through select wholesale distribution and online.

Meyer

The 60-year-old Meyer trouser company has pants for seemingly every occasion. From chinos, denim and wool to five-pocket, golf and dress slacks, the German brand has numerous styles from which to choose.

A variety of fits are offered, ranging from regular and modern to “Italian,” which indicates a slimmer silhouette. A perennial favorite at independent specialty stores, the trousers are high quality, whether they’re for the office or the local watering hole. Many of the styles have a pickpocket-proof pocket and a patented contour waistband for added comfort. For the summer months, cottons are king while in the cold weather, corduroy, flannel and thermal fabrics rule.

The family-owned company, officially Meyer Hosen, launched in 1960 and is being run by the second generation of the founding family. The pants are designed in Germany and manufactured in the company’s production facility in Romania.

Richard Wheelhouse, the agent for the company, said Meyer is the largest privately owned trouser company in Europe, producing 2.5 million pairs of pants a year. It sells only specialty stores in 35 countries and has been in the U.S. market for a decade.

Wheelhouse said that in the U.S., 60 percent of Meyer’s business derives from dress pants, the exact opposite of that in Europe. “There’s more formal business here,” he said. Its most popular fabric is a washable wool-polyester stretch that is highlighted in the fully tailored Bonn 2500, the model “that put us on the map.” Most retail for around $295.

Although based in Europe, Wheelhouse said that as of now, the company hasn’t raised prices due to the tariffs, and in fact, even reduced prices on some five-pocket models. “We’re hesitant to pass along speculative increases, so we will probably just absorb it,” he said.