INTREPID TRAVELER; ECCENTRIC CLOTHIER PETERMAN TELLS WHAT WENT WRONG.

Byline: Victoria Colliver San Francisco Examiner

When John Peterman, the name behind the J. Peterman Co., opened his 13th store in the San Francisco Shopping Centre last November, he had no idea it would be his last.

In January, the retailer distinguished by its overwritten catalog, and made famous through the parody of it by ``Seinfeld,'' fell an estimated $40 million in debt in the middle of expansion plans that would have created 70 stores nationwide. Forced into bankruptcy and unable to find a buyer, the company found itself on the auction block and sold at the last minute to the Paul Harris Co. at the bargain price of $10 million. The San Francisco store closed in April.

Now, six months after the sale, Peterman remains the intrepid traveler who founded the company in 1988 on a sole item - a duster raincoat he had bought in Jackson Hole, Wyo. - and expanded it into the place to find that special polka-dot ascot, a 19th-century-style cuffed jacket or Florentine opera gloves.

He spoke from his home in Lexington, Ky., about what it is like to be John Peterman without the J. Peterman Co.:

Q: In February about a month after the company went bankrupt, you were desperately seeking a buyer and were frazzled and exhausted. How and what are you doing now?

A: I'm doing better. I haven't totally decided exactly what I'm going to do, but I'm very close conceptually. I just can't be John Peterman doing the same thing. John Peterman needs to do something different - he has to take the bar up a bit. I can't articulate what John's new mission is going to be. The Internet is going to be part of it.

Q: Does that mean you are planning an e-commerce site?

A: It will have an e-commerce aspect to it. I'd rather cloak that in mystery. To conceal is to excite. But e-commerce and the Internet and a Web site will be part of what I do.

Q: What was it like watching J. Peterman - the company that bears your name - go through this bankruptcy process?

A: Here's what a bankruptcy is like: It's like the Titanic. It hits the iceberg. No one thinks the ship will sink, but we have a problem. A few hours later, the ship begins taking on water and few people know the ship is in danger. A few hours later, the people down below know, and then more people know. . . . Then there is a huge flurry of activity by lawyers and consultants and accountants and venture capitalists. But everything is to no avail because the fact of the matter is the ship is going to sink.

It was an interesting process. It takes on its own momentum.

For the first time in my entire life, I realized this process - this bankruptcy - had a life of its own.

Q: Paul Harris Co. bought J. Peterman on March 5 and then just two days later turned around and fired you. Did you expect to be part of the new company moving forward, and are you angry about what happened?

A: There was a lot of, and this is the kindest way I can put it, miscommunication during the auction in the solicitation of my help during the auction as well as my help moving forward. The woman who runs Paul Harris said she never indicated anything, which was a miscommunication. I was never fired because technically I was never hired.

On the next day after the sale, that was made quite clear, that there was never any intention of my moving forward with the company. If I had, I doubt if I would have lasted because conceptionally we are opposite ends of the scale. . . . I have absolutely nothing to do with Paul Harris and the J. Peterman brand anymore. J. Peterman was John Peterman and John Peterman was J. Peterman, so divorcing yourself from that is hard to do.

What I supposed they would do is take it downscale and put the J. Peterman logo on sweat shirts and shirts and stuff, but the brand was founded on authenticity.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) J. Peterman Co.'s retail store in Lexington, Ky., was the first of 13 stores the company opened after its success in catalog sales.

Associated Press

(2 -- color) John Peterman answers questions on liquidation of his catalog retail business at Federal Bankruptcy Court in Lexington, Ky.