When Mary Santorella walked through the doors of the Secaucus Public Library earlier this year, she was struck by how much she loved the place, and how much she owed to it for her upbringing.
"I was there all the time when I was younger," Santorella said. "It was like a second home to me."
And people she met there, especially the staff, were like a second family. She remembered particularly the former director, Margaret Grazioli, who had taken Santorella under her wing.
"She kept telling me that I was going to do something important some day," Santorella said.
Grazioli was not the only public official who saw big things for Santorella, or supported her when she became the first and only Secaucus resident to compete in the Miss America competition in 1971, but Grazioli was special.
"She acted like another mother to me," Santorella said, "And so did Kathy Steffens [the current library director.]"
So when Santorella heard the library needed help in raising funds to fulfill Grazioli’s dream of an expanded library facility, Santorella wondered what part she could play. Construction of a new library is presently underway on Paterson Plank Road. The Friends of the Secaucus Public Library were scrambling to find ways to raise money, from selling bricks to renting space on town property for a billboard, but Santorella wondered if there was something more dramatic she could do.
"Then it hit me," she said. "Why couldn’t we put on a fashion show?"
Santorella wasn’t talking about the annual show Secaucus High School students put on as part of their home economics class. She meant instead a high-style show using professional models to display cutting-edge fashions.
"Reflecting on my past accomplishments, I thought I could help," Santorella said. "I asked Kathy, ‘How about a hometown girl saying thank you to her favorite library by putting on a gala fashion event to help raise money."
Santorella, who has been named to the Who’s Who of Professional Businesswomen, Outstanding Women in Business, Women Executives, Women in Communication, 200 Notable Women, and other accolades, knew many professionals willing to help her, and decided she would call on all the resources in order to help the library.
She is a consultant to the fashion and beauty industries, and specializes in high profile events, including runaway shows – the kind of which she was proposing to raise funds for the library. Recently she worked with Fernando Sanches, the creative force behind collections of homewear, lingerie, eveningwear and men’s wear.
"I knew I could bring in top designers and my own models," she said. "After all, anyone who does business in Secaucus is going to benefit from the business resource center planned for the library, and I thought we could help fund that with our gala."
The result is a gala event set for Wednesday, which will include top brands in the fashion industry.
The gala
The "Colour of Elegance" fundraising gala will be held at the La Reggia Ristorante in the Meadowlands Plaza Hotel on Oct. 10.
The gala will have three parts. The first will be an upscale cocktail session at $500 per person from 6 to 8 p.m., where the movers and shakers can hobnob as three video television screens sing the praises of the gala’s primary sponsors: Escada Company designs, Repechage Cosmetics and Barbizon modeling.
Those buying tickets to that session will get a mention in the event’s ad journal.
"This will have corporate and industry people from inside and outside Secaucus," Santorella said. "The videos will give them an education as they wander around prior to the show."
After the cocktail hour, these people will move into the show area, where they will be seated according to prearrangement, along with others who purchased the less expensive $40 tickets.
From 8 to 9 p.m. Models will parade down the runway showing off the best of Escada’s fall/winter fashions.
Santorella said the show will take place against a backdrop of solid white with specifically selected music – which she is keeping secret for the moment to enhance the mystique of the event. She hinted of numerous other special speakers and eye-opening surprises.
After the show, all guests will be treated to Venetian Hour, in which they will be served coffee and deserts. They will also be treated to special exhibits by Escada and Repechage. Representatives from the three companies will talk about their products and services.
Each guest will leave with tote bags from Escada and Repechage, containing yet more surprises. During the course of the event, raffles will be sold. Repechage donated 15 $85-gift certificates. Escada donated 100 gift certificates and will raffle off mystery fashions valued at $1,000. Barbizon will offer a complete scholarship valued at $1,500.
Tickets for the gala can be purchase from the library, Town Hall or any of the public schools.
Santorella said she would like to make Secaucus a center for fashion and beauty, and would love to conduct tours of the town, showing off the amazing fashion treasures that are already in Secaucus. She predicts that Secaucus could become a center of fashion.
Proud to live in Secaucus
At 51, Santorella looks like a model. With her dark hair drawn back and her features sharpened by aptly applied make up, she looks as if she just stepped out of the 1980s Robert Plant video "Addicted to Love." She has the same oval features as the models from that video, except that she’s dressed in a sharply tailored suit to fit the epitome of an executive.
Santorella always speaks with great excitement, whether she’s talking about the upcoming plans for the fashion show or about how she got to where she is.
As for the latter, Santorella was born in Hoboken, and her family moved to Secaucus when she was six years old. "I’ve been here all of my life," she said
Santorella chooses to live in Secaucus, defying the concept that high-level fashion executives must live and work in Manhattan. Indeed, she has her office in her home and feels quiet comfortable here, saying she is only 15 minutes from New York.
In high school, she envisioned herself as becoming a fashion designer. While she didn’t quite do that, she works closely with designers. It was competing in beauty contests that eventually led her to the field she is in now. She achieved several titles before her crowning glory with the Miss America competition. She competed in the local and state preliminaries for the Miss America pageant in 1971, and was voted Miss Congeniality by her peers. She said then-Mayor Paul Amico insisted that the town sponsor her.
"The town threw its support behind me," she said.
She was 21 years old and didn’t exactly know where her life was going to take her. Although she had dreamed of being a fashion designer when she was a girl, she decided to get into the hospitality business, and took up a position with the Sheridan Hotel chain. But she eventually came back to the fashion industry and took up work with the Revlon, helping to start up a cosmetic system, breaking in new lines on the East Coast.
One thing led to another and she found herself back into fashion industry, serving as a consultant for high-profile clients. During the early 1990s, she did publicity and promotion. She began to work for all the most prestigious companies such as Christian Dior, Chanel, Elizabeth Arden and others.
"I monitored the media for the fashion and beauty industries with an information services company," she said.
The death of her parents in 1995 stunned Santorella. Her mother, a housewife, died of cancer, and her father, a service technician, died of lymphoma. Both died within six months of each other.
"They were the anchor of my life," Santorella said.
At which point she made up her mind to become a success, using them as inspiration.
"I was never going to let them down," she said.
The library can be reached at 330-2084.