I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it or not, but in the back pages of English music newspapers like the New Musical Express ot Melody Maker there are tons of clothing ads. Mail order ads for things like loon pants (a form of bell bottoms) t-shirts and scarves ... as opposed to the “Get Rid of Lice” and the occasional STILETTO ad that will appear in some rock mags here. Now I personally have never related to the mail order catalogue, especially for clothing. (I once mailed away for a flannel nightgown in some New England catalogue and it was A Good Investment but UGLY, and what was an attractive cotton dress in last spring’s FBS catalogue turned out to be hideous for $35.00.) But I am aware that there are people all over the country who have this mystical faith in the likes of the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue, long after they realize that they can never wear anything from it again.

The Montgomery Ward and Speigel catalogues also cater to middle America: those Gerry Ford type families who don’t like to shop much in the big cities and adore getting mail. The Eleganza Catalogue, after which this column was so lovingly named, supplies that percentage of the Black population who still want to look like Super Fly with those pimp-snappy duds. Fredrick’s we all know about by now, I should hope. But where is the mail order catalogue for ... well, I dare not say hippies, I can’t even Say the alternative or the rock culture with a straight face. Anyway — you know who I mean. Think about it for a minute.