Passion for Fashion?

I've got to admit to a guilty pleasure of mine. First, let me frame it for you. Back in the early 1980s the daily soap opera, "General Hospital" (GH), was a huge hit. Perhaps the biggest draw at the time was the "supercouple" Luke and Laura. They ushered in a new era of action/adventure for a daily serial and the actors who played them had incredible chemistry. They were even featured on the cover of Newsweek during this period. I can remember the lounge of my college dorm being packed with kids watching the Luke and Laura wedding in 1981. It really was quite a phenomenon. The show is still on the air and, though I don't watch it, I admit I still stay somewhat caught up with it via a daily recap blog called Daytime Confidential. The other day I was reading the reader comments that follow the recap (there's still a passionate, if smaller, following.) Oftentimes readers will comment on the characters' clothing. Either expressing how gorgeous someone looked or their fury over the costume department dressing a favorite character too frumpy. Soap opera fans are very protective of their favorite stars. One commentator shared a link to a site that identifies a television personality or character's outfit, where it came from and whether it's still available to buy. Pretty cool! The site they shared is called WornOnTV (www.wornontv.net.) Of course I had to look it up and was amazed at the number of shows and the number of stars that were featured. There's hundreds of them! For instance, I clicked on the menu of shows and the sub-category soap operas. Every daytime soap is represented and when I clicked on good old GH, virtually the whole cast appears. Well, more of the female characters than male. I clicked on the first image of Laura (yes, she's still on 40-something years later.) She was wearing a green jacket. The site identified it as "Virgin Wool Military Jacket in Hunter Green Melange by Theory". I guessed Theory was the brand name. Below that was a photo of just the jacket and an "Exact Match" dot meaning that yes, it's the exact jacket. It's available at Neiman Marcus. It's original price is $575 but is on sale for $198! I don't know how the site administrators do it because there are hundreds and hundreds of outfits shown from soaps, reality TV, scripted shows and talk shows. I did notice that they also identified who submitted a particular featured item so perhaps there's a whole bunch of contributors, and I did read that the site gets paid when you click on the link that shares where the item is sold. For instance, when I clicked on the "catalog" photo of just the jacket, it took me right to the Neiman Marcus site where I found that wool flannel jacket was on "final sale" status. Another neat feature, especially for those of us who are thrifters, is if the item is available pre-owned on eBay, Etsy or some of the pre-owned clothing sites like ThredUp, Poshmark, etc., they also include that info! Sometimes instead of "Exact Match", you'll see a "Similar" tag which gives you a very similar article of clothing. It will also tell you if the piece is simply no longer available. I hopped over to talk shows and clicked on a photo of Kelly Clarkson wearing some pretty wild looking floral pants and lo and behold, they were "Floral Print Mid Rise Flare Pants by Wrangler"! Who would have thought? They were sold by the department store, Dillards, but unfortunately are no longer available. WornOnTV is a good way to kill an hour or two so prepare yourself. It left me with questions, though. On a soap opera, where you see the same characters day after day, do they ever wear the same outfit twice? Are the clothes on loan from brands? I'm pretty sure soap operas are produced on very tight budgets but some of these outfits are hundreds of dollars. Do the actors get to keep the clothes? When a guest star shows up on a talk show, do they wear their own clothes? In any event, the next time you want to perk up your wardrobe for a night out, click on WornOnTV and see if you can find that beige knot waist maxi dress that Meredith was just wearing on "Grey's Anatomy." You'll look fabulous!