Sweet Home Bergdorf Goodman Oct 16, 2007 4:41 PM
, By Jim Tierney
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High-end apparel retailer Bergdorf Goodman is delving into decor, launching its first standalone home products catalog. The 16-page Decorative Home book launched Oct. 15, according to Nicholas Manville, vice president and divisional merchandise manager for Decorative Home.
Decorative Home will mail annually to all Bergdorf’s customers, Manville says, though he would not disclose the size of the file. The new title is divided into five themes: curiosity cabinet, classical dining, casual table, boudoir, and Art Deco bar.
Bergdorf Goodman includes two stores: a women’s apparel store and a menswear counterpart, both on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The retailer is part of Dallas-based luxury merchant Neiman Marcus Group, which includes Neiman Marcus and Horchow.
While Bergdorf Goodman has been the only Neiman Marcus Group brand without a print catalog, “we have had gift books in previous years,” Manville says. The gift and fashion catalogs also included some home items; thanks to growth in the décor category, “we literally outgrew the gift book format we were using,” he says.
“Past books focused on specific, single items but we wanted something that represented the spirit of the [store] floor better,” Manville says. With this book we pulled back the lens to reveal a lifestyle that gives all of these great items a context.”
Customer feedback played a key role in the launch of Decorative Home. “Our clients have always been excited about receiving our fall gift books, and I think this gives them something more,” Manville notes. Especially for people who don’t have the opportunity to come to the store often, “this book shows them what we are doing stylistically on the floor and gives them a larger part of the Bergdorf Goodman experience.”
Could this lead to other Bergdorf spin-off titles in the home category? “We certainly hope so,” Manville says. “The exercise of rethinking this book has been a fun one.”
