magalogue

Maybe the next time a catalogue becomes a magalogue, a bell rings and an angel gets his wings.

WHY - While costly to produce, a magalogue creates a mystique for a product line.

Aveda, the aroma-therapy empire, has introduced a magalogue.

The "magalogue," as Neiman's calls it, will not replace the company's separate mail-order business, which will still produce some 40 catalogues a year.

As for the undressed models, as typified by magalogue pages showing streakers, "that's part of college life," he said.

WHAT - A&F Quarterly, the latest in the magalogue trend.

Will the Nordstrom magalogue become a holiday tradition like fruitcake or "It's a Wonderful Life"?

WHAT'S A MAGALOGUE?

The campaign for Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing retailer that aims its apparel at college-age consumers, has been centered on a quarterly "magalogue" or magazine-style catalogue featuring lubricious images of toothsome campus types.

And Now, a 'Magalogue' Neiman Marcus will turn its 40 or so store catalogues issued throughout the year into a monthly magazine that not only sells products but also includes service articles, designer profiles and the like.

But Neiman Marcus raised the stakes in 1996 with the debut of The Book, a magalogue with heavy art-book paper, avant-garde photos and articles like Christopher Buckley's on his night out with two supermodels.

Ms. Crain, 30, a former design editor at House and Garden and a confessed "product junkie," conceived of this so-called magalogue after fielding hundreds of calls from House and Garden readers trying to track down goods.

Now the playful sexual attitude that infuses the print campaign - popular enough to generate sales of about 220,000 copies of each quarterly issue of the magalogue - is coming to life in commercials that will run on cable television and on monitors in Abercrombie & Fitch stores nationwide.