BRAVO TV ALERT & "The Mighty Macs" Movie Premiere

WE'RE ON FASHION HUNTERS!

We oughta be in pictures, as the song says, and we're getting our start by being on television. That's right! Your very own Idiosyncratic Fashionistas will be on television this coming Tuesday night, October 18. Tune in to your local Bravo TV station, and catch us on their new program, Fashion Hunters. We appear in the show's third episode. It will be on at 10:30pm in New York. Check your local listings! (Scroll down for the sneak preview video.)

At the taping, we dutifully brought our cameras with us, but what with all our inexperience, getting miked up (see how we already know the lingo?), and desire not to put a foot wrong in an unfamiliar environment, we did not see a good opportunity to whip out our digitals and ask someone around us (in our usual modus operandi) to please take a picture of us (and be sure to get the feet in). The result is that for this posting, we had to resort to freezing frames from the sneak preview (with Bravo's permission).

In April, as part of the show, we both brought some of our favorite vintage clothing to consign. Jean brought two Betsey Johnson cherry-print disco dresses from the 1980s (from Jean's infamous hoarder's storage boxes -- which still had the original price tags!), both of which got snapped up for consignment right away, and Valerie brought a two-piece Issey Miyake suit circa 2000.

Sometime after the first taping, the Bravo producers called and asked us to bring in the Issey suit again, so they could photograph it on a mannequin.

Valerie, in doing her own research years ago, was told that the suit was apparently not marketed in the U.S. and was only sold in Paris and Japan. Here is a nearly identical suit worn in by Foglia Gischia, a woman even older than we are, at the Paris fashion shows in 2000. The photograph, which appeared in the New York Times, was taken by Bill Cunningham.

We had a blast during the taping and neither of us was at a loss for words (what a surprise!).

The manager, Tara, and assistant manager, Ambria, both liked the Miyake suit but, unable to find any information about it online, could not price it, and said they'd have to call in their expert, whose identity they were very coy about. They asked if we could come back once their expert had had a chance to look into the suit, and that's where we left it on our first day.

So we departed Second Time Around, having had what we thought was a most excellent adventure.

Here's Second Time Around's storefront on Mulberry Street. Second Time Around has branches nationwide.

Here we are, in June at our second time around at Second Time Around, awaiting the expert and his expert opinion. On meeting us, the expert exclaimed that the circus must be in town.

The sneak peek is pretty friendly, but preview commercials for the show hint at controversy. For full frontal mayhem (well, the women of a certain age version of mayhem), you'll have to watch the show. So will we, actually. We filmed for probably a full two hours, all told, and have no idea what winds up in the final cut, and what winds up on the cutting room floor.

Wanna see the entire peek preview? Here it is, from Hulu (just under two minutes long).



You might also be able to watch it on Bravo.com by computer. Here’s a link to Bravo TV.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ...

THE MIGHTY MACS

On Friday, October 14th, Jean attended a red carpet gala premiere of "The Mighty Macs" at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The movie was written and directed by Tim Chambers, a Philadelphia native. Carla Gugino ("A Night at the Museum", "American Gangster", "Faster") stars as Kathy Rush, Head Coach of Immaculata College's Mighty Macs. The film traces the struggle by the coach and the players to become the first NCAA Women's National Basketball Champions in 1972. (They scored a three-peat, winning the title for 3 straight years -- 1972-1974.) David Boreanaz (everyone's favorite FBI agent in "Bones" and another Philadelphian) plays her husband Ed Rush, another Philadelphia coaching icon and professional basketball referee.

There have been no inspirational movies for female student athletes -- until now! There are countless examples out there for men: "Rudy", "Remember the Titans", "The Miracle" ...

GO SEE THIS FILM. TAKE A FRIEND. TAKE A STUDENT. Take my word for it. You will not regret it. If you or your sister or niece or daughter or grand daughter is an athlete or thinks about being one or just needs inspiration, try this movie on for size.

Philadelphia Style Magazine, one of the sponsors of the event, photographed me and my friends on the red carpet that evening with one of the nuns from Immaculata (now a university): Sue, Ginny, Rosemary, Mary Joy, Peggy, Sister Marie Albert, Pat and yours truly. Eagle-eyed readers of our blog may recognize Ginny and Rosemary from our Ace Hotel Advanced Style fashion week party posting.

We’re not tech savvy enough to embed the video (any little anomaly throws us right off, till we do our research), but you can click here to see a sneak preview of The Mighty Macs.

See this movie. Spread the word. 'Nuff said.