Shoppers at Billy Reid's Big Apple BBQ Event on June 13, 2009

by Tony Dokoupil

Beer doesn’t usually take center stage in upscale fashion boutiques. But that didn’t stop six men from recently slashing holes into the sides of Modelo Especial cans, hoisting them to their mouths, and sucking down the exploding contents, frat-boy style, in the rarefied inner sanctum of Billy Reid, a dandyish, mostly men’s clothing store in New York’s Bowery district. The beers, part of a promotional party held in May, add to the alcoholic accent in Reid’s northward-creeping empire of Southern charm. In New York, as well as the store’s other outposts in Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, and the Carolinas, men sip free glasses of bourbon—Woodford Reserve and Pappy Van Winkle, among other small-batch brands—while lingering over immaculate $800 bags and $1,500 suits. “It’s like spending time with a friend, hanging in the parlor of a Southern home,” says Billy Reid publicist Megan Maguire.

Such Dixie-tinged descriptions make it easy to forget what actually goes on inside Billy Reid—and that’s the point. Most men still hate to shop. They fear the crowds, the changing rooms, and the sneaking feeling that it’s all a bit unmanly (no matter the state of Vogue intern/New York Rangers left-winger Sean Avery and metrosexual America). Unlike women, they still don't call up a boyfriend to hit the stores, or casually e-mail information about a shirt that “your friend Tommy saw and thought you would like too.” But thanks to a 90-proof nudge, the fashionphobic may be poised to take their first tentative steps toward confident shopping. Over the last few years, in the same way that “grooming lounges” now offer drinks as an alibi for self-conscious guys in need of a little manscaping, a slew of shops have added hooch to haute couture, with an eye toward taking the shame out of clothes buying. And, of course, adding to their own bottom line.

So does it work? Find out after the jump.