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A close-knit family and its Freehold dress shop may prove whether or not viewers are over Garden State shows

BY LINDA MOSS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The characters in this TV show are boisterous brunettes, Italian-American women flashing cleavage and bling. They're also in New Jersey, generating drama and tension in the Garden State.

No, it's not Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," MTV's "Jersey Shore" or The Style Network's "Jerseylicious."

The latest entrant in the New Jersey reality-show horse race, "Jersey Couture," debuts Tuesday night at 10 p.m. on the women's network Oxygen.

"Jersey Couture," the name a play on the pricey apparel brand Juicy Couture, is about the Scali family. It owns a popular women's formalwear shop, Diane & Co., in Freehold in Central Jersey.

The ‘cast' includes: Diane Scali, the matriarch who has been in the dress business 32 years; her husband Sal Scali, her partner in the business; oldest daughter Kimberly Gambale, 29, who works in the shop, and is married with a one-year-old daughter; Christina "Chrissy" Scali, 27, single, independent, with a love life wrecked by her long hours at Diane & Co.; and brother Anthony, 24, an aspiring DJ.

The Diane & Co. store, lined wall to wall in dresses wrapped in plastic, specializes in frocks for mothers' of the bride and groom; dresses for proms and bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs; and gowns for galas and other black tie-events. Prices range from $300 for an off-the-rack dress to more than $10,000 for a custom gown.

During an interview at the 5,000-square-foot shop, which is in a small strip mall on bustling Route 9, Chrissy Scali argued that "Jersey Couture" is different than other Jersey reality programming.

"What other show portrays a family that runs a multimillion dollar business, that are there 80 to 90 hours a week, and after hours we go out to eat together?" Chrissy said. "And then we go to my mom's house, and watch TV together. And at the end of the day we're able to work those 80 or 90 hours and not be at each others' throats. And we start the whole routine again the next day."

The Scali family members "love what they do," namely finding the perfect dress for a mother of the bride or a teen-aged prom go-er, and have an "incredibly successful" business, said Amy Introcaso-Davis, Oxygen's senior vice president of original programming and development.

And the Scalis also have "a joie de vivre...a love of life, and people are really looking for that," according to Introcaso-Davis.

With the premiere of "Jersey Couture," Oxygen will soon find out if America has had its fill of reality programs based in New Jersey. When will yet another Garden State reality show be overkill, Introcaso-Davis was asked.

"I guess when people stop watching them," she said. "You're asking a girl from New Jersey, so there's never too many for me."

Introcaso-Davis, who grew up in Deal Park at the Jersey shore and now lives in West Orange, knows from successful programming.

Prior to Oxygen, she was at Bravo, where she developed that network's first breakout hit, "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy."

New Jersey-based reality shows will be around as long as the characters and situations are interesting, according to Introcaso-Davis. And "Jersey Couture," the brainchild of a producer who took her mother to Diane & Co. to buy a dress, seemed like a winner to Introcaso-Davis and other Oxygen executives.

"No. 1, we thought that the characters were great," Introcaso-Davis said. "Our tagline is ‘Live Out Loud,' and they absolutely are live-out-loud characters. We also loved the relationship of the family, but particularly the relationship between the two sisters, Christina and Kim."

The appeal of New Jersey-reality shows is that "the characters tend to speak their mind and say what's real," that "living-out-loud" thing, like the Scalis, according to Introcaso-Davis.

That's a great part of the fun of "Jersey Couture." Diane Scali, who didn't go to her own prom because her family couldn't afford a dress for it, and her two daughters certainly speak their minds when it comes to advising customers.

"Honesty is the best policy" is the policy at Diane & Co., not making a quick sale. Putting all three of their heads together, and assessing a woman's body, the Scali women are frank about what looks good, or bad, on a customer.

"We have no problem saying, ‘That looks horrible,'" Diane said.

Chrissy said she will tell a customer, "You're going to glow in this one (dress). You're going to look like everybody else in that one.' So we give our honest opinion."

That blunt approach fits right in with the personality profile of Jersey residents, according to Diane.

"We say what other people are thinking: That's the bottom line," Diane said. "You're going to see that this is the way we are."

There are 27 people working at Diane & Co., and they don't work on commission, according to Diane.

"They work with their heart," she said. "There is not one time in 17 years just out here did I ever tell the girls, ‘You've got to make that sale. You've got to close that sale.' You know what I say? ‘Let her go. She'll be back.'"

The Scalis' frankness may not be the only thing that surprises customers. Matriarch Diane, who calls herself a "boobologist," isn't shy about putting her hand down a customer' dress to insert "chicken cutlet" falsies to enhance the woman's bustline.

Diane & Co.'s approach may surprise some of customers, who travel from as far away as Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York to stand in line for the shop's one-on-one customer service. The store has also shipped dresses to as far-flung places as Egypt and Australia.

The goal is the same for all: To find the perfect dress, no matter how far they have to travel to get it.

The Scali family works from practically from dusk until dawn during their busy period, the Christmas holidays to prom time.

"We're packed (with customers) from Dec. 5 to June 15th-ish," Chrissy said. "And when I say packed, I'm talking about a two- to four-hour wait."

When the Scali women say that they really live and breathe for their store, and finding the dream dress for any female — no matter what her size or shape is — you believe it.

"Women come in here every day — mothers, young kids — and 99 percent of women are insecure with themselves," Chrissy said. "And we make it our life and our job and our passion to make these women leave here feeling glamorous, just with one piece of clothing that we pick out for them."

Yet the Scali women have to work within the framework of a customer's taste.

"You get people that want simple, chic, elegant, plain, nothing on it," Chrissy said. "Then you get people that go, ‘I want to be the life of the party,' like me. When I get married, I want to have fireworks come out of my dress."

Finding the ideal frock for customers is a tall order, and stress and drama are part of "Jersey Couture"'s reality. Chrissy has caused a stir in the family by moving into her own place. Kim, in turn, is the young mom trying to juggle the long hours of the shop with caring for her baby. Filming the TV show and keeping the business running has been tough for all the family.

Kim brings her daughter into the store on Wednesday, which is usually a very busy day. The young mother described the hectic scene one such Wednesday.

"We're helping about 25 customers, getting about 100 fittings in and out in about six hours," she said. "My daughter's screaming. We're trying to make a TV show. People are crying that their dress is too tight because they have their period. ‘I hate my boobs in this. I have back fat.' ‘Mom, can you check out the fitting?.' Steamer blows up. The racks are falling. And my father's freaking out, saying there's people waiting."

But Diane & Co.'s customers show their gratitude. The Scalis are often invited to events, like weddings and bar mitzvahs, for which they have dressed the women. Most recently, Diane did dresses for a destination wedding in Aruba. When she told the customer that the Scali family was vacationing in Aruba the same week as the wedding, they were all invited to the nuptials.

So far "Jersey Couture" has received mixed reviews from TV critics. The New York Post's Michael Starr called it "just boring."

But another Post writer, in a feature Sunday on new summer shows, seemed to like "Jersey Couture," ‘saying "behind all the noise, there's plenty of good will and love."

Introcaso-Davis said the reviews don't worry her.

"Reality shows always have mixed reaction," she said. "All the shows that I've worked on from ‘Queer Eye' to (Project) ‘Runway,' they've always had a mixed reaction. A hit is sort of visceral, that you either love or you don't love....The stars aligned for ‘Queer Eye.'...Sometimes those stars do just align."