the rights of SPRING

When April arrives, it takes just one whoosh of warm, scented air to make spring official (and to render the feel of wintry wool against the skin inconceivable). As our thoughts turn to salads and sonnets, our limbs cry out beneath sandpapery tweeds for cotton, linen and silk -pretty much in that order. Menswear designers suddenly have used some imagination with these fabrics, resisting the pastels and nostalgia of springs past. Instead, they’re including strong, handsome styles and very few flimsy ones. Fashionable men can now maintain some sense of a structured wardrobe – good sweaters, loose jackets, cool trousers – and stay perfectly comfortable in the heat.

Spurred on by the emerging Japanese designers – who sent tremors through the fashion industry last fall by using thick, soft cotton fabrics in winter overcoats, sweaters and suits and who seem to have rescued us from certain seasonable traditions – American designers are showing a broadened range in their spring lines. This range encompasses the varying needs of shoppers in different climates (and the particular needs of the man who travels from the Sun Belt to Boston and then to St. Tropez), and it addresses the intrinsically American attitude toward fashion with clothes that are sophisticated yet relaxed.

Cotton sweaters, which form a relatively new category of spring styles, make the sophisticated-yet-relaxed statement most succinctly. Cool and casual, yet obviously more substantial attire than sport shirts, the new cotton sweaters come in this season’s bolder colors and favorite pattern-stripes-or in pure and simple styles, stitched evenly in washed-out neutrals such as tan, gray or off-white. Sweaters tend to look great and a little more modern when pulled over a favorite T-shirt or when just worn under one of the new unconstructed sport jackets, which are as loose and soft as a sweater and are made of cotton or blended with linen and silk.

Shirts, too, have bold patterns this season (such as stripes) or are just plain white-one or the other. They’re neither complicated nor particularly subtle. The cut is fuller, again an effect of the Japanese influence. Spring trousers are-across the board-linen. Available from almost every designer and manufacturer at nearly every price level-in pleated or plain-front styles, cut baggy or tapered-linen pants are not only cool and comfortable, but they also lend an air of elegance to the otherwise casual looks of spring. And, significantly, the new linen pants serve to update the casual chic heretofore expressed for an entire generation by the mix of blue jeans with sweaters and more expensive clothes. Although the switch from denim to linen may take some adjustment at first, the addition of trousers to a casual wardrobe gives this season of quality basics a good deal of its edge; it’s another fashion choice that will separate the men from the boys.

BROOKS BROTHERS available only at Brooks Brothers.



CALVIN KLEIN available at Saks Fifth Avenue and Sanger Harris.



GENE PRESSMAN AND LANCE KARESH FOR BASCO available at High Voltage, Sakowitz and Sebastian’s Closet.



KENNETH GORDON OF NEW ORLEANS LTD. available at Harrison & Co., Outfitters, Pockets and Reynolds & Penland.



POLO BY RALPH LAUREN available at The Polo Shop.



WILLIWEAR/WILLI SMITH available at High Voltage, Neiman-Marcus, Pinky’s and Sanger Harris.



YOHJI YAMAMOTO available at Bloomingdale’s.



Black-and-white striped shirt available at Neiman-Marcus, Sanger Harris and Saks Fifth Avenue.