FABIO TRADES BOOK JACKETS FOR JACKETS
By Julia Boorstin

(FORTUNE Magazine) – FABIO IS PROBABLY BEST known for his lack of clothing. The Italian model has appeared barely clothed on the cover of some 1,000 romance novels. So it's somewhat surprising that the long-haired hunk, 45, has found a second career covering up the women of Middle America. Fabio's coat collection features down parkas, suede jackets, and classic pea coats--and Wal-Mart's Sam's Club division, which sells the line exclusively, can't keep them in stock.

Wearing tightly tapered black pants and a banded-collar white shirt (three buttons undone), Fabio came by FORTUNE recently to talk about his coats. "As a model I always wanted to go into fashion," he says. "I learned from my mother that women have the buying power and control the money, even if men have the illusion of running the world." But why coats? His fans, apparently, had complained for years about the paucity of fashionable clothing outside big cities. So in 2002 Fabio teamed up with a coat-manufacturing friend and headed to Bentonville, Ark., where he had autographed copies of his book for Wal-Mart in the 1990s.

Sam's Club warned Fabio that coats--pricey and subject to weather and economic swings--are the most difficult item to sell, but agreed to test them in two stores and to consider the line if 400 sold in three weeks. All 6,000 coats sold almost immediately, prompting Sam's Club to order the coats for all 600 of its U.S. stores for winter 2003. Fabio slashed prices from around $100 to under $55, and with the help of weekly store appearances emptied the racks again. This year Sam's Club has doubled its order and is on track to sell out once more and top $10 million in revenues.

It's no surprise that the man who parlayed one book cover into 1,000 is planning a women's sportswear line for late 2005. He'll also star in an Oxygen romance reality show beginning in March. Promos for the show will--surprise--incorporate ads for Fabio coats. -- Julia Boorstin