(Adds attorney's comment, background)

By Chelsea Emery

NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - S & K Famous Brands Inc SKFB.PK, which operates men's clothing stores, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it planned to close weaker stores, according to court documents.

The men's clothing retailer, based in Richmond, Virginia, has about 1,095 full and part-time employees and operates about 136 stores under the name S & K Menswear, mostly in the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states.

Over the past year, S & K closed 78 stores and cut jobs, but merchandise vendors began demanding cash in advance as the U.S. economy declined, making it difficult for the company to buy as much inventory as it needed. S & K told the court.

"The company found itself, like all other businesses, entrenched in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," Richard Hardy, S & K's vice president of finance and information technology, wrote in a statement to the bankruptcy court.

S & K began in 1967 and grew to more than 200 stores.

The company has asked the bankruptcy court to approve $13 million in debtor-in-possession financing to help fund its business while operating under creditor protection. S & K's existing lender, Wells Fargo (WFC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), will provide the proposed financing.

S & K told the court that DIP financing would give it time to close underperforming stores "while maintaining the value of the company's going forward business."