"Refresh Yourself" stylist Sheon Ladson files this report after the Tanger Outlet opening. Don't worry, it's TV related:
Regular watchers of TLC’s “What Not to Wear” probably noticed a difference in the latest makeover, which aired Nov. 5, of a San Diego therapist named Wanda.
Usually, the makeover contestants are given $5,000 to spend on a new wardrobe and they shop in New York City. But for the first time, a contestant shopped at an outlet, this one the Tanger Outlet Center on Long Island. And it paid off: Wanda ended up with 45 outfits, instead of the 25-30 outfits that contestants usually can afford when they shop in the Big Apple. She stretched that $5,000!
And Stacy London, who hosts the show along with Clinton Kelly, was in North Carolina on Friday, helping to observe the opening of the new Tanger Outlet Center in Mebane, and inaugurate the collaboration between the show and Tanger, which is based in Greensboro.
London looked great, wearing a fitted, ruffled black leather jacket, close-fitting dress and suede stiletto booties. She is model-thin and was very chic. She confided later that it got a little hot wearing that outfit in the covered tent with plastic sides where the ribbon cutting was held. “Probably not the best idea to wearing leather in the sun. It was a little like being cooked,” she said in an interview later. But she looked cool as a cucumber.
She didn’t pull any punches at an autograph signing later, delivering zingers with a smile. Dozens of people waited in line for an hour or more for her autograph, some holding a copy of her book with Kelly, “Dress Your Best.”
“You’re coming to see me AND YOU’RE WEARING SCRUBS?!” she said with feigned outrage, to the first person waiting for an autograph, a blonde woman wearing dusty-blue hospital scrubs and a sweater. The woman looked sheepish, but pleased and explained she was in her work clothes.
In an interview later, London said that’s not unusual. When fans come unfashionably dressed to her appearances, “I like to put the fear of God in people, because then they dress a lot better,” she joked. “And they’ll say, ‘I watch your show all the time.’ The best way I can explain it is they either watch the show with the sound turned down, or they don’t understand what’s being said.”
London dished on other people’s outfits, asking one young woman to show off her trendy patterned scarf, cardigan and T-shirt ensemble, and giving her a thumbs up.
And she met one fan who was mature beyond his years: an 8-year-old whose mom confided that he had sprayed on Axe, the drugstore men’s cologne.
“I was really flattered by that,” London said later. “I asked him if he had any plans later, but I think he had an early bedtime!”
A young girl brought a photo of herself in the Halloween costume: dressed as London, gray streak in her hair an all. London liked that.
“That is a sign that you’ve really arrived, when someone dresses up like you for Halloween. It’s a little like when someone does you in drag.”
Assistant Features Editor Adrienne Johnson Martin would like to have her life turned into an animated cartoon.