Time: December 1998 Location: Spruce st Philadelphia

This story is told to us by Maria Vigleone;

A nice thing about Philadelphia are the small individually owned shops, they give such character and atmosphere to the city, I love searching out for shops that are off the beaten track, and that is how I found this great dress shop.

My 7 year old daughter, Maria, loved to sing and she was a regular virtuoso, I aways encouraged my kids to do what they loved,so, she had an audition coming up for a play and I wanted her to look her best.

I found this little shop where you could bring an idea for a dress, and they could either make it from scratch or modify an existing dress to what you wanted, they were not cheap, but they did terrific quality work, besides the dress would not go to waste, I could always pass it on to one of my sister's kids when Maria out grew it.

We went there one day for a fitting and I met the owner, she was a woman in her 60s , her skin was as flawless alabaster, she wore her silver grey hair pulled back into a severe bun and her light blue eyes seemed as if they were dead, I took one look at her and I thought she would be perfect for my brother Johnny.

I asked one of the seamstress there what was the boss's problem, she went on and on about how this woman and her husband had started this business when they were younger, they had poured everything into it , her husband never wanted children, but she always believed the wife did, the husband left her for another woman and left for California, and to top it off he wants her to sell the business, I just thought to myself, she would be perfect for my brother Johnny, who is also a lawyer by the way.

I have to pat myself on the back, I just have a talent for matching people up, I made sure that when that dress was ready, my brother Johnny went to pick it up.