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Hat hijinks at Devon Ladies Day, Sizing up the new SoulCycle Ardmore, A Gateway getaway & much more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Smashing, surreal, sublime or silly, the hats turned more heads than the horses at Devon Ladies Day Wednesday.

So, deepest apologies to the dedicated riders in the ring; our eyes were elsewhere.

A record number of hopefuls sashayed before a nine-judge panel.

The maddest hatters told us they’d been perfecting their ensembles for months; others claimed they’d just rustled something up that morning.

Sure, if you say so.

The parade was a study in stunning artiface. A few talked about rising at 4 a.m. for hair and makeup calls – beauty rest be damned.

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Handicapping the hats for Devon Ladies Day contest; Racial Justice Town Hall & scoops around town

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The Greatest Show on Turf is right around the corner.

Not the Devon Horse Show Grand Prix – although that night’s exploits are pretty swell, too.

No, the spectacle of which we speak comes on Grand Prix Eve when gals from far and wide converge on Devon for the Ladies Day Hat Contest.

What began as a homespun affair with a handful of hopefuls in horsey-trimmed straw toppers (extra points for Devon Blue!) has exploded into a paparazzi-packed proceeding of the first order.

Judge Carson Kressley Presiding. per usual.

(A blue-ribbon Saddlebred competitor as well as a style savant, Carson will be upping his hat game this year, sporting a custom design by la-di-da milliner Christine A Moore. Hey, if she’s good enough for J. Lo and Katy Perry, she’s good enough for our guy, Carson.)

Truly, the whole hat show has vaulted way over the top.

But that’s the fun of it.

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The kids AREN’T alright: A Prep ’12 grad’s searing story; Bluefin in Bala (!); DELSETTE’s Ardmore debut; Willows update & LOUSY lax luck

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

If life-sucking depression has a Main Line face, surely it couldn’t belong to tall, athletic, bright and charming Drew Bergman.

But more and more, the 2012 St. Joe’s Prep grad who had everything to live for – but tried twice to end it anyway – has become that face.

His demons at bay, Drew now makes the rounds of area schools, one of 11 speakers for the Rosemont-based Minding Your Mind (MYM) Foundation.

In two years, he’s told his story 250 times – to your son or daughter, perhaps.

And he’ll tell the abridged version again this Thursday at the inaugural MYM fundraiser he’s organized, “A Celebration of Life: Philadelphia.”

When Drew speaks at schools, 15 to 20 students typically line up afterward, seeking a private word with the 22-year old who just gave a public face to the anguish they’ve long felt.

Who just told them it’s OK to speak of the unmentionable.

Who gave them warning signs and coping strategies.

Who bared his soul, shared everything, so they might, too – to someone who can help.

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New Autograph Brasserie’s a stunner in Wayne’s Eagle Village Shops, iFly over K of P, a Stoga video you gotta see & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Jaw-dropping, trippy and altogether original, Autograph Brasserie is like nothing the Main Line has ever seen.

And see it you must.

Not since the 2004 debut of Nectar’s big-boy Buddha has a suburban restaurant arrived with such flash and splash.

After a yearlong total makeover, Autograph is now open in the former Peppercorn/georges/Le Mas Perrier space in Wayne’s Eagle Village Shops.

So sign up now, chowhounds; reservations are going fast.

Autograph is the latest head-turner from Main Line-bred restaurateur Marty Grims, the EA/Cornell grad behind White Dog Cafés in Wayne, Haverford and West Philly, and a pack of other places.

While the Dogs are playful romps with man’s best friend, Autograph is an homage to Man himself.

Specifically, to the stars, men and women, who’ve shaped our closets, our iTunes libraries and, yes, our kitchens.

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Who’s Coming, Who’s Going, Who’s Growing in Wayne, Stoneleigh in Nova saved for ALL & Mom’s Day ideas

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Turning the page on Bryn Mawr, Main Point Books is heading west to Wayne.

Score one for Wayne in the Main Line Downtown Showdown.

Dusty, down-at-the-heels and now officially defunct, Wayne’s old-timey Reader’s Forum will get re-incarnated as Main Point Books in mid-summer.

“I wouldn’t have moved if I hadn’t been offered this specific space,” says bookseller Cathy Fiebach, a Wynnewood mom who will pack up Bryn Mawr after a three-year run and open on North Wayne Ave. the last week of July.

‘Cause Wayne’s got what Bryn Mawr’s still pining for: foot traffic.

“People understand how to park in Wayne and how to walk around town,” she tells SAVVY. “Bryn Mawr doesn’t quite have that worked out.”

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3 New Spots You Need to Try: Biga in Bryn Mawr, Brandywine Branch Distillers & Wayne’s Christine Shirley, plus Covered Wagon Inn SAVED!

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Hallelujah! It has been SAVED!

A few months ago, we told you about the fire ’n brimstone fight to spare Strafford’s old Covered Wagon Inn from CVS’ wrecking ball.

Well, Praise Be: preservationists’ prayers have been answered.

CVS’ developer has submitted a new plan to Tredyffrin Township that keeps the small circa 1780 building – once the Covered Wagon Inn, now Thomas Moser Fine Furniture – standing tall at the corner of Old Eagle School and Lancaster.

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A Devon Yard Uh-Oh; Big 5 High Fives; Malvern’s new Scoops – the next Handels? Verge Yogi’s book & more

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Well, what do you know? We’re getting a Pizzeria Vetri after all.

Just not in Devon. Not yet. And maybe never, the way Devon Yard’s going lately.

Urban Outfitters Inc. is clustering four of its brands near its Urban Outfitters store at the King of Prussia Mall’s Pavilion.

By mid-fall, we’ll get another Anthropologie, a Free People (relocated from the other end of the Court), and yes, that Pizzeria Vetri (with bar & lounge) that we’ve all been pining for. At the mall.

Meanwhile, back in dear Devon, the Yard project is as mired in weeds and thorns as the old Waterloo plot on which it would sit.

Yuck runs amuck: Neighbor vs. neighbor. Little guy vs. “big, bad” developer. Homeowners’ concerns vs. township interests. Threats and counter-threats.

Ugh.

The latest: Red “Promote Easttown: Support Devon Yard” signs dueling with blue “Save Devon” yard signs around town. (And yup, the first homeowner to put up a red sign last week – architect John Toates – says he found it lying in his mulch the next morning – which is exactly what allegedly happened when the blue signs went up a few months ago. Oy.)

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Villa & Shipley alumna/author J. Knoll comes clean about the gang rape in Luckiest Girl Alive, plus other brave souls & a mansion worth saving

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

We all thought Villa Maria and Shipley alum Jessica Knoll was living the dream.

Her debut novel, the Gone Girl-esque thriller, Luckiest Girl Alive, was an award-winning bestseller.

Lionsgate optioned the movie rights with Reese Witherspoon (!) to produce; Knoll wrote the screenplay.

Her publisher – Simon & Schuster, no less – green lit a second novel, due to drop in spring 2017.

Noll had made it in magazines, too, landing coveted senior editor jobs at Cosmo and Self.

Oh, and she was attractive and happily married, too.

At 32, she was, well, the luckiest girl alive, right?

No and yes.

Two weeks ago, Jessica Knoll dropped a bomb.

She published an essay admitting for the first time that the horrific gang rape in her novel was based on her own experiences.

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Heroin strikes again: RIP Tyler McCloskey (Stoga ’12); Phoenixville’s Colonial Theatre goes BIG time; baby- & dog-napping news

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

The Tredyffrin and Conestoga communities are mourning yet another young life tragically lost.

Tyler McCloskey, 22, died of an apparent heroin overdose over the weekend.

Tyler was the younger brother of Reilly McCloskey, the 2010 Stoga grad/photographer who only a few weeks ago shared his own addiction struggles with SAVVY Main Line.

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Parents, kids & coaches unload on Conestoga and T/E officials at football hazing public forum

/ By Caroline O'Halloran / /

Hey, Adults: you failed the kids in your care.

That was the bitter takeaway from an impassioned public meeting on hazing at Conestoga High School Monday night.

The school district called the pow-wow, seeking input on ways to handle the football hazing scandal that’s roiled top-rated Stoga since the Chester County DA announced juvenile assault charges against three senior players and a separate school district investigation uncovered hazing that goes back years.

What school officials got instead was an earful: an ardent defense of ousted head coach John Vogan and his staff and a lot of lip about how adults – from the DA to the district – had let kids down.

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