ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170018
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: MARKETPLACE
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
What's the well-dressed cigar smoker wearing these days?
Depends on whom you ask.
A quilted silk smoking jacket, says Lorraine Wardy, president of Lorraine Wardy Enterprises of El Paso, Texas.
A bathrobe and slippers, counters Don Roy, owner of Milan Brothers tobacco and cigar shop in downtown Roanoke.
Whatever is comfortable, agrees Pete Milward, partner and branch manager at J.C. Bradford & Co. in Roanoke.
Wardy is betting that she can change the minds of cigar smokers like Roy and Milward. Her sportswear company just introduced its first line of smoking jackets, the sophisticated after-dinner loungers that had just about disappeared from the fashion scene until cigar smoking recently began to come back into vogue.
Wardy's jackets - with names such as "The Havana" and "The Montecristo" - come in styles for men and women, and each is available in 40 fabrics, including silk, velvet and rayon. Prices range from $260 to $390. Right now, they're in the Saks Fifth Avenue catalog, and both Nieman Marcus and Bloomingdale's are interested, she said.
Whether local cigar smokers will be remains to be seen.
Roy, for one, said he changes into his robe when he gets home from work because he wants to be as comfortable as possible when he smokes his after-dinner cigar.
"If I had a smoking jacket, I may or may not use it," he mused, "because I would have to wear pants."
Fair enough. And anyway, who's going to spend $390 on a jacket that will probably just get burn holes in it?
First of all, Wardy said, smoking jackets aren't just for people who smoke. The women's styles make splendid dinner jackets; the men's can be worn by anyone who wants to be "impeccably dressed for any evening in or out," according to her brochure.
And second, there are plenty of dedicated, well-to-do cigar smokers out there who have, you might say, money to burn.
"The smoking scenario is almost like a culture," Wardy said. "It's becoming a state of mind. It's something people are very proud of doing."
There's no question that Roanoke's cigar smokers have been coming out of the humidor in recent years. Since Roy and his wife, Myriam, bought Milan Brothers in 1994, they've hosted four "smokers," black-tie events dedicated to the appreciation of fine cigars, that have drawn hundreds of people. Another is planned for November at the Greenbrier resort.
Cigars and cigar-related merchandise account for about 60 percent of Milan's business, Roy estimates. "The cigar industry has exploded," he said. Industry-wide, he said, there are 55 million cigars on back-order. And now that women and younger men are discovering cigars, the demand is even greater.
"But we've never had a single request for a smoking jacket," he said. "Not one."
Milward is one of the regulars at Milan Brothers. He's been smoking cigars for almost 15 years, but he can still remember his first one.
"The pleasure of holding it, clipping the end, lighting it properly ... " he trailed off, then chuckled. "Some people call it a male pacifier, you know. But it was a truly delightful experience."
He now smokes about 10 cigars a week. He always has one after dinner, sometimes another at lunchtime. He usually smokes outside, on the boat dock at their Smith Mountain Lake house, unless it's too cold outside.
Does he wear a smoking jacket, out there on the dock?
He let loose a burst of laughter. "No, ma'am," he said, and laughed again. "That's not going to enhance my enjoyment of a cigar. When I get home from work, I like to dress down."
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB