It used to be that this was a plain old consumer society, in which people defined themselves by the products they bought. You were a BMW kind of guy, say, or a Birkenstock kind of gal.
Then movie studios and TV networks began licensing products associated with their shows, so you could be both what you buy and what you watch in one simple purchase -- like a baseball cap with the name of a TV show on it. That worked for a while -- until there got to be too many young customers out there who were just too cool to buy stuff like branded headgear.
Which brings us to the Fox series "Ally McBeal." Fox has licensed a line of pajamas, nightshirts, camisoles and briefs with clever Ally-style sayings on them, like "Ex-boyfriends don't have rights." These are "designed for customers who don't usually buy licensed merchandise," Fox says -- so now we can be what we buy and what we watch and be above it all in one simple pair of pj's.
The line ranges in cost from about $28 to $78 and debuted at Bloomingdale's this past winter. Nordstrom is expected to begin carrying the pajamas this month.
The contest, the clothes
OK, guys, here's a contest for you, but you don't need to be 6-foot-1 and 170 buff pounds to enter. Just get to a Structure store (I saw five listed in my Metropolitan Baltimore Yellow Pages) and fill in an entry form for the chain's Xtreme Sweeps. There's a new contest every month until summer, each with a new prize. February's was a trip to Pamplona, Spain, to see the running of the bulls. This month's is a 14-day trip for two to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
And if you need the clothes for the Pamplona/ Kilimanjaro lifestyle, Structure has that, too -- it sells sportswear -- but there's no purchase necessary for the contest. -- A. M. C.
Cosmetics invasion
Sephora, the French cosmetics retailer, established its first beachhead on U.S. shores last summer, and the invasion has been proceeding apace since then. Last month, the troops made it down to our neck of the woods -- well, Virginia -- with the 15th Sephora store opening in Fairfax last month and another one opening in Norfolk this month. Sephora (pictured above) carries dizzying numbers of high-end products, arranged on racks without the traditional counters, so you can try out stuff on your own.
Women's Wear Daily reported recently that this summer Sephora would be opening stores in Georgetown and Maryland, but a spokeswoman for the chain said that "has not been confirmed." -- A. M. C.
Have the size of your life
Imagine this: You go into a lingerie store to buy some panties or a bra. The store says you can buy panties and bras only in sets, with the top and bottom in the same size. But, like most women, you have hips and a bust that don't match up size-wise. You walk out upset and empty-handed.
In real life, of course, lingerie is not sold like that, because it doesn't make as much sense as selling it in separate pieces. Yet swimwear, so similar to lingerie in the absolute necessity for good fit, always used to be sold only in sets -- until Malia Mills came along.
A few years ago, she began a swimwear line in which women could buy tops and bottoms separately. Not only could the pieces be different sizes, they could also be different colors or fabrics, so customers got an individual look as well as an individual fit.
As if that weren't sufficiently woman-friendly, this month Mills also introduces a plus-size line, not so usual in fashion swimwear. It's right in line with Mills' psychological approach. "Look in the mirror and see what is right instead of what is wrong," says one promo. I say hear, hear.
The plus-size collection will be available through the catalog at 800-685-3479, or from the Web site at www.maliamills.com. -- A. M. C.
Pub Date: 03/21/99