b'Matters heart of thematterThingsthat Matter Since 1990 In aFeaturing Local People, Places and PUBLISHER& EDITOR IN CHIEF Black-Tie BindEllen DonkerASSOCIATEEDITOR &SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERAnne Mandell Our families have gone formalADVERTISING CONSULTANTS BY ELLEN DONKERRene ConlonH. Leslie GilmanAmy Power GRAPHIC DESIGN B y the time you are read- For my husband, we thought the drill Ellen DonkerCOPY EDITORSCharles Hammer ingthis,myhusbandshouldnt be too hard. Although he once Jayson Rodriguez Rob and I will have at- hadatuxedo,probablyfromourwed-tendedtheweddingofding, he had given it away. Over the years CONTRIBUTORS hiscousinsson.Ordi- he had slimmed down and was long past Omosede Ayinde, Kristen di Gennaro,narily,thepreparationwhat my daughter calls his Goldfish days, Adrianna Donat, Donny Levit, wouldnt have been hard.when after a long day of work he would Amy Lynn-Cramer, Ilysse Rimalovski,Rob would wear a suit and I would findlean against the pantry door and eat many Harriet Sigerman, Maribeth Theroux, a dress either in my closet or newly pur- handfuls of the orange snack. Julia Maloof Verderosachased. We had just done this in July for aWe had a choice: buy a tux, rent one, wedding in Boston. borrowoneorthriftit.Thelatterwas All of that was nullified when we re- my son Christians recommendation. He ceivedtheinvitation:itwasablack-tiehas an eBay business curated from thrift affair. Of course, I knew this meant thatstores and says they always have lots of Rob needed to wear a tuxedo. For me, Ituxes. The only problem is that 2nd Av-suspectedthattheoccasionrequiredaenue Thrift, our go-to in Union, separates floor-length evening gown or at least something elegant.the jackets from the pants. And they have no changing Some Googling confirmed my hunch. rooms. Please address all correspondence to: Im pretty sure I havent worn a long dress since myWhen Rob and I went there last week, I told him Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. wedding many moons ago. My life is not very fancy.I intended to be relentless once we found a jacket. I P.O. Box 198 Working from home for too long will do that. Althoughwould go through every size dress pants until we found Maplewood, NJ 07040 I will occasionally wear a dress, I am decidedly out ofthe matching pair. It was a good plan, but it didnt work. 973-763-4900 practice in the art of dressing up. Before we left, I called Christian. He said to move on, mattersmagazine.comFor starters, where does one go to find a long dress?but he had an idea. Rob could wear his tux. He would info@mattersmagazine.com To the mall seemed the most expeditious answer. Fortu- send his Brooks Brothers suit and all the accoutrements Matters Magazine is owned and publishednately, my friend Joanne offered to go with me to Short(thrifted, of course) from Washington D.C. that day.by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., P.O.Hills. As the mother of the groom for a summer wed- Problem solved!Box 198 Maplewood, NJ 07040. Matters Magazine is free, with editions direct mailedding, she also needed to find a dress.But wait, we just got another invitation in the mail seven times a year to the residents of Maple- The two of us started in Macys and compared notesformyniecesweddinginNovember.Itprominently wood and South Orange and distributed to businesses and surrounding communitieson the size wed need, the styles and colors we liked andnotes: black tie required. What is happening with Gen totaling 16,000. Subscriptions are availablethe fit that worked for us. Then we grabbed armloadsZ? Is formal wear a thing for them or is it just that my to non-residents for $30 (U.S.) $40 (Foreign)and headed to the dressing room. None of the dressesfamily is trying to level up?annually. No part of the publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced withoutworked for us, but we began to zero in on what we liked. Luckily, Im safe to repeat my dress choice as this af-writtenpermissionfromVisualImpactWe repeated the same exercise at Nordstrom, shar- fair is on my side of the family. But Christian is also Advertising, Inc. ing in the frustrations of other dressing room occupantsinvited and will be the one wearing his Brooks Brothers CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY who were struggling to find the dress for their spe- tuxedo. U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. cial occasion. Eventually, I tried on a very heavy, beadedOnce again, Rob will be on the lookout for a tuxedo. READ & RECYCLE dress that fit well and looked suitably black tie. I onlySo, if you know someone who is 42R with size 34 pants needed shoes to deem it a done deal. . Never mind. He can rent it this time. 8/ matters magazine / fall 2025'