Growing fantasy league lets fashionistas call the plays
By Beth Teitell
Boston Herald Columnist
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Erica Salmon might phrase it differently, but the football widow’s motto could be this: When life gives you lemons, make diet lemonade, and when life gives you a spouse dedicated to Sunday football, tailgate parties and a fantasy league, create your own hypothetical sport. Enter the Fantasy Fashion League.
It’s not rotisserie, but poached.
Salmon, 32, the mother of two, a former magazine editor and the author of ‘‘Dogma: A Way of Life” and the ‘‘Mommy File,” got the idea for the league some four years ago. Now she’s got some 15,000 players paying $20 per season (or $10 for the mini-season), with many fashionistas in Boston and even around the world visiting her delightfully girly Web site, www.fantasyfashionleague.com.
Unlike real-world fashion, with its unforgiving pencil skirts, unflattering leggings and impossible dictates to layer, Fantasy Fashion actually makes sense. Here’s how the league works: Players form teams made up of their favorite designers and celebrities, and when they appear on the red carpet or in a fashion magazine, points are scored.
The league, now in its second season, comes at a time when many women feel like failures for not being able to pull off the latest silhouettes - who looks good in a bubble skirt? The beauty part is that it tilts the balance of power toward us, the little people (or, as the slip dress reveals, the not-so-little people). No longer are you failing to meet Zac Posen’s expectations (by looking like you’re trying too hard for the party-girl look), but he’s not performing for you. Where’s the Oscar night presence, Zac? Sorry pal, time for a trade.
Alas, no points are scored for making snarky comments about designer clotheshorses such as Lindsay Lohan or Gwyneth Paltrow - that would be the Fantasy Fashion Police League - but even so, FFL does allow normal shlubs to become players in the fashion world, and even gives them an occasion to dress up for ‘‘draft parties.”
The league started its second season with the Emmys on Aug. 27, and it runs through the Oscars, with a mini ‘‘red carpet” season in January and February, when there are six awards shows.
Besides the impressive number of players, the Fantasy Fashion League also boasts its own official drink: Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio.
To borrow from Monday Night Football’s peppy catch phrase:Are you ready for some fashion?
