September 4-10, 2003

mixpicks

The Philadelphia Fashion Coterie Showroom show

After suffering what seems like a season of plague -- floods, severed phone lines, street construction -- Molletta's two floors on North Third Street prepare for a busy fall (that hopefully doesn't include locusts or pillars of salt) with its showy unveiling of its just-finished Philadelphia Fashion Coterie Showroom on First Friday. Like a cross between London's Camden Market and Manhattan's Sunday SoHo collection of local designers, the basement's permanent trade show booths (and this night's event) reveal a constantly changing array of PFCS' ideas and goods -- from Heyne Bogut's high-collared shirts in hand-painted splashy colors, through Melanie Maggio's self-stitched handbags and accessories, to the Afro-Caribbean vibe of Karen Spiro's Baubles4U line, all in constant rotation. Add to that, Molletta's constant display of Upsee Daisee sleepstuffs and U.K. clothier Vicars and Tarts' silks and tweeds (to say nothing of the store's September 29 appearance on TLC's A Makeover Story) and Molletta seems set for full swing. Bring an umbrella just in case.

The Philadelphia Fashion Coterie Showroom show, Fri., Sept 5, 5 p.m., Molletta, 55 N. 3rd St., 215-925-7733.

—A.D. Amorosi

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