Wayne, NJ September 2025 by City Lifestyle

Fashionably

Stylish

THAN

We Are All About Style

Style. It’s a word that speaks volumes without saying much at all. It’s how we show up in the world. It’s how we express who we are, how we feel, and how we dream. This month, we’re celebrating style in all its diverse, dynamic, and deeply personal forms.

Style can be an attitude, it can be a point of view, or even a way of living. Whether it’s the quiet confidence of a well-curated wardrobe, the bold expression of home design, or the everyday rituals that add beauty to our routines, style is what makes life feel uniquely...you.

In this issue, we explore style as more than just fashion. Let’s start with the big news from one of our stories. In our May issue, we brought you the story of the USOA Miss New Jersey reigning queens and told you that they would be heading off to Vegas to compete for the national title. We are excited to tell you that Diana Meyer (the reigning Mrs.) took home the national crown and is now the reigning United States of America’s Mrs. and we couldn’t be more proud of her. Congrats, Diana!

We mentioned style in home design earlier, and we weren’t kidding. Hannah Kern (NJ Living By Design) put together a great article on the benefits of and why not to be afraid of using wallpaper. Hannah also provided us with her time-tested Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe...yum!

We also introduce you to Joey DeFilippis and Matthew Ferrara, a couple of Wayne’s own who took their own style of storytelling to write and star in an OffBroadway hit play, “Sacco and Vanzetti Are Dead”

Lastly, after receiving many, many…many requests to see some of the shots from our New York Swim Week adventure, we included a special gallery for you, sharing some of the newest styles coming from some of the greatest designers.

As always, our goal is to inform, inspire, and invite you to think about how style shapes your world. Because when you feel good in your skin, your clothes, and your space, it changes everything.

Here’s to self-expression, bold choices, and effortless elegance.

Until next month, go with style!

September 2025

PUBLISHER

Phillip Barone | phillip.barone@citylifestyle.com

EDITOR

Don Seaman | don.seaman@citylifestyle.com

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

Officially Social | jamie@officiallysocial.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Don Seaman, Hannah Kern, Bailey Hall

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Altenburg Studio, Grant Kelly, Janie Jones, @Mike.Wake, Rich Weinberger, Thania Arango, Phillip Barone

Corporate Team

CEO Steven Schowengerdt

COO Matthew Perry

CRO Jamie Pentz

VP OF OPERATIONS Janeane Thompson

VP OF SALES Andrew Leaders

AD DESIGNER Rachel Otto

LAYOUT DESIGNER Kelsi Southard

QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Hannah Leimkuhler

Photo by West Essex High School Photographer Xavier Rosairo

SEPTEMBER 2025

city scene

WHERE NEIGHBORS CAN SEE AND BE SEEN

1: Thania Arango held another successful event at her Pequanock M&T Bank branch. 2: Do I go Beef or Chicken at Guacamole in Wayne? Either is a Win/Win! 3: Dave Faccone put together a great beSure event at Gyro World in Caldwell. 4: Nearly 35 members from various beSure chapters shared food, stories, laughter, and business! 5: Spaziani's Catering & Food Design in Butler brought out a special treat for their customers! 6: North Jersey Chamber Of Commerce unleashed their patented Helicopter Drop at their Annual Golf Invitational! 7: One numbered ball out of the helicopter gave one lucky golfer a huge prize!

Want to be seen in the magazine? TAG

THANIA ARANGO

PHILLIP BARONE

ARTICLE BY DON SEAMAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALTENBURG STUDIO

United States of America’s Mrs. Diana Meyer Inspires Confidence Beautifully

The Beauty

Pulpit

If there’s anyone who personifies the words “empower women, inspire others, uplift everyone,” it’s Diana Meyer. She’s not only upheld the motto of United States of America Pageants, she’s imbued them into everything she does as the reigning United States of America’s Mrs.

Those words were echoed at least five times during the course of a half-hour conversation.

For Diana, those words are a personal mantra, not only as a pageant contestant, but throughout life.

“Pageantry is a confidence competition,” Diana explains. “To be confident, you have to step boldly into your full potential. Pageantry encourages you to do that. People ask me all day every day ‘how do you win a pageant?’ What I tell them is you have to become the best version of yourself in every aspect of your life: mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually - everything. Because if you become the best version of yourself and work hard in all of those areas of competition, those judges that you're speaking to in a private interview will believe you're the best person to represent a state or national organization, because you will be.”

“Pageantry is so much more than what you look like or what you do on stage. Preparation requires you to be successful on that stage and even after you walk off that stage. Being prepared is extremely crucial to building professional success in pageantry but in life. These women who walk across that stage are incredible: they’re doctors, they’re teachers, they’re mothers, they’re daughters, they’re lawyers, they’re veterinarians, and the best thing about competing and pageantry is being able to be surrounded by these beautiful powerful like-minded women at the same stage as life as you and you can't get that anywhere else.”

As a young girl, pageantry was probably the furthest thing from her mind.

“As a kid, believe it or not, I was a tomboy. I was a competitive gymnast and I still consider myself an athlete today. Growing up I never wore heels. I never did my make up. I never did anything to my hair. Then I happened to get a letter in the mail one day asking me to participate in a pageant and my mom was the one to encourage me to try it out. So I went to the informational session, and immediately I was hooked. I still remember seeing the title holder at the time who was younger than me. I was a junior in high school and they were probably 13 years old. They were wearing a two-piece white suit and could talk to adults. They were extremely confident and poised and I said ‘I need to be that’, and the rest was history.”

“I think that's what makes me relatable when I'm speaking to people across the country as a national title holder, helping them recognize their own beauty and build their confidence. When I first started, it really helped me build that poise, confidence, being articulate, things that I didn't have before. I was able to have success in my college interview, every single job I interviewed for, I really credit that to pageantry.” CONTINUED

“This journey really reminded me that my voice matters. I've traveled the country speaking to teens across the nation as a public speaker, in schools, with Girl Scout troops, in community groups, helping to empower them to reach for a fearless future, to help teens to step boldly into their full potential and silence self doubt.”

In doing that, Diana helps them to realize that their voice matters. Every one of them.

“Sometimes when I recruit women to compete in United States of America Pageants, they say to me ‘Oh, I could never do that. I have a tattoo or I'm not tall enough or you know I need to work out more. I could never compete in a bathing suit on stage.’ And I tell them ‘Well guess what? I'm 5”1’, I have a tattoo and I still do have self-doubt.’ Walking on that stage will give you an outlet to inspire others who also feel that same way that they can't do it for whatever reason, and often times those insecurities hold us back from being in spaces that we truly belong. This is something that I also share with teens across the nation, helping them build confidence. What makes you different is what makes you beautiful. Being unique - that is truly your superpower. When people see me being authentic, skydiving, hiking, scuba diving, running, working out, being an army wife - all of those things help them relate to me and that authenticity is what is beautiful and hopefully through my year of service they can look at me and say ‘Wow! She can do it and so can I!”

Where it ultimately happened was especially gratifying for Diana on a personal level.

Before she was the national title holder, Diana was United States of America’s Mrs. New Jersey. She’d moved to New Jersey from upstate New York as her husband is in the Army and stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. In a “full circle” moment, her grandfather served in World War II and was fiercely proud of having graduated from Seton Hall. Until she moved here, she didn’t realize that Seton Hall is in New Jersey.

“This journey really reminded me that my voice matters...and that being unique truly is your superpower.”

“After all those years of competing in New York, it makes sense that I'm representing the state that meant so much to my grandfather, becoming a national title holder in the state that meant so much to my grandfather. They never met, but I truly believe my husband was a gift from my grandfather. I feel so proud that I was able to represent New Jersey on that national stage and bring home that national title and be the first one to do it from the state of New Jersey. I believe that it was destiny that it was right here in New Jersey, all because of my grandfather.”

Empowering women, inspiring others, uplifting everyone, all while honoring family? That’s called leaving a lasting legacy.

- 10:00

Joey And Matt Are Alive!

WAYNE PLAYWRIGHTS GIVE HISTORY

ABSURDIST STYLE OFF BROADWAY

ARTICLE BY DON SEAMAN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY GRANT KELLY

As we go to press, Sacco and Vanzetti are still dead.

Nicola Sacco and Bartelomeo Vanzetti were at the center of the bombshell trial in the 1920’s during America’s first “Red Scare”.

Joey DeFilippis and Matthew Ferrara are very much alive and have put the Sacco and Vanzetti case back into the spotlight.

Joey and Matt are lifelong friends from Wayne who have written, directed, and starred in an Off-Broadway play called “Sacco and Vanzetti Are Dead”, a dark, absurdist comedy that retells the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. The play had a limited run this summer at The American Theatre of Actors from July 17- July 27th, each to a sold-out house.

According to Andrew DeFilippis, executive producer of this play (and Joey’s brother), they were inspired to write the story of Sacco and Vanzetti from a podcast called “Things You Should Know.” They became fascinated with the absurdity of it all, especially since it was a true - albeit ultimately tragic - story. The more they read up about it, the more they thought that they could actually make it into a great comedy. So they started working on that about a year ago, which led up to this production.

The friends leveraged the success they had two summers ago at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest independent arts festival in the world. There they performed for a month-straight their first play, “Hey, That’s My Wife!”, a Mel Brooks-ian spoof of a post-war, Mad Men sort of situation.

The reaction to their show, especially among such a large, creatively-minded group of peers, reaffirmed to them that they were going in the right direction, says Andrew.

While period-piece history might not be their overall style, writing and performing, especially comedy, certainly is. They’ve also honed their comedy skills performing standup throughout Manhattan.

And while the chance to see the play during it’s OffBroadway run may have passed, the friends hope to take the show to a larger venue in the Spring of 2026, and possibly a road show which would include northern NJ, as well as the Boston area, to be near where the trial happened in nearby Braintree, Massachusetts. They have also considered adapting it into a screenplay for a movie.

The play has been met with high praise in their reviews. Malini Singh McDonald, from Theatre Beyond Broadway, had this to say about the play: “Joey DeFilippis and Matthew Ferrara embody Sacco and Vanzetti with captivating energy. On top of that, they directed the play. It’s a monumental task for any artist, yet their passion and command of the material thrust them into a unique zone where they juggle writing, acting, and directing with effortless grace. They’re a magnetic duo, bold and unforgettable, who held my full attention from start to finish.”

That’s not bad for a couple of late-twentysomething friends who first met in a Wayne middle school. Their ambition, talents, and dedication allowed them to put together a dynamite young ensemble cast, including Mike Gardiner, Bret Raybould, Dan Yaiullo, Francesco Baldino, Ilana Schimmel, Danielle MacMath, and Ryan O’Toole. These are seasoned national performers who have worked with stars such as F. Murray Abraham and Eric Bogosian - all showcasing their genius in the grandest theater market in the world. And they’ve done it all without the big financial backing that most Broadway productions enjoy. They’ve done this all on their own.

Some would call that a pinnacle of lifetime success. For Joey and Matt, there’s no reason to think that this isn’t just the start of something bigger.

Let’s just hope that Mel Brooks can find out their phone numbers. He might want to pick their brains about a few things.

They became fascinated with the absurdity of it all, especially since it was a true - albeit ultimately tragic - story.

“‘Sacco and Vanzetti Are Dead’ sold out all ten shows during its recent Off-Broadway run. But this show is very much alive - that was just the “End of the Beginning.” This team is just getting started with where they plan to go.”

- Executive Producer Andrew DeFilippis

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

FASHION WEEK

WAYNE LIFESTYLE TAKES A SNEAK PEAK ON FASHION

ARTICLE BY DON SEAMAN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY @MIKE.WAKE

Wayne Lifestyle was invited to New York Fashion Week earlier this year, where we got a preview of what's buzzy in the fashion world. Here's a quick look at some of the designs from that caught our eye during this sizzling event.

FASHION FORWARD | STYLE + BEAUTY

Don’t Be Afraid of Wallpaper

THE SECRET TO BIG IMPACT IN SMALL (AND LARGE) SPACES

ARTICLE BY HANNAH KERN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICH WEINBERGER

If the word wallpaper immediately brings visions of dated florals from your childhood home, it’s time to rethink. Wallpaper has had a serious glow-up. From modern, sophisticated patterns to easy-to-use peel-and-stick options, today’s wallpaper is a design tool that can completely transform your space—without the commitment anxiety of decades past.

As a local interior designer, one of my favorite places to use wallpaper is in bathrooms. Why? Bathrooms are often treated as purely functional, but they’re actually the perfect space to add personality. Because they’re separate from the rest of the house, you can go a little bolder. Whether it’s just one statement wall behind a vanity or wallpaper enveloping the entire space, bathrooms are where wallpaper can shine. Trust me: nothing surprises guests more than a beautifully wallpapered powder room.

CONTINUED >

Guest rooms and even closets are other great places to experiment. Imagine opening a walk-in closet to find a chic, unexpected pattern wrapping the walls—it’s the kind of detail that makes everyday moments feel special.

Not sure where to start? Stick to a clear color palette and pay attention to your art and decor. Wallpaper should complement, not compete. Oversized art works beautifully against patterned walls, creating balance and giving the eye a focal point.

Whether you lean toward bold prints or soft textures, there’s a wallpaper out there that can help tell your home’s story. So why not let your walls do the talking?

Let’s explore how wallpaper can transform your next project. Your walls are ready for their moment.

If you are thinking about your next project or to learn how to make wallpaper work for you and your space, contact Hannah Kern at NJ Living By Design at (215)266-1500 or visit @NJ_livingbydesign

Bottom: Hannah Kern is always up

S TRETCH INGYOU R

DOLLAR

Investing in Your Wardrobe Without Compromising Your Style

ARTICLE BY LISA WOLF

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

IT’S POSSIBLE TO SHOW YOUR UNIQUE STYLE WITH NICE CLOTHES WHILE ALSO STRETCHING YOUR DOLLAR

One’s wardrobe says a lot about a person and it is important to dress to the occasion whether it be work or play while still expressing yourself. Building a wardrobe can be a costly expense but it’s possible to show your unique style with nice clothes while also stretching your dollar.

A FUN, SUSTAINABLE WAY TO BUILD A HIGH-QUALITY AND STYLISH WARDROBE

Second-hand and vintage-style clothes are a fun, sustainable way to build a high-quality and stylish wardrobe without breaking the bank. Buying handmade and second-hand also reduces the demand for new clothing production, which helps reduce waste and the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

SOME PIECES ARE SIMPLY BETTER WHEN THEY ARE SECOND-HAND

Some pieces are simply better when they are second-hand like worn denim and lived-in boots or leather that’s softened over time. Get creative and add touches to your old favorites with patches, embroidery, and even natural flower colors transferred to fabric. Grab your old t-shirts, family vintage fabrics, or lace, and pull it all together into something new and memorable.

IT WAS SO PERFECTLY HER AND ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS

My sister, Haley, used an 1800s petticoat and blouse, salvaged Edwardian style Christening gowns and a tablecloth, and other fabrics to create the most amazing vintage-style wedding dress. It was so perfectly her and absolutely gorgeous.

SIMPLE, WILD, CLASSIC, COLORFUL; DON’T BE AFRAID TO SHOW YOUR STYLE

The best way to keep your wardrobe fresh is to look for either trendy or classic new pieces and match them with your favorite vintage or second-hand pieces, like a new dress with your grandma’s old leather jacket or a recently purchased foundation piece with a skirt made from vintage fabrics. Simple, wild, classic, colorful; don’t be afraid to show your style and your financial fashion savvy at the same time.

Phillip turned a magazine into community.

City Lifestyle isn’t just a publication — it’s a pulse. A rhythm of voices, neighbors, and stories woven together by someone who believes in the power of connection. As we expand, we’re looking for people ready to turn care into community. Are you ready to be that spark?

Wayne Lifestyle

Published by Phillip Loved by Wayne

Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

In addition to being a talented interior designer, Hannah Kern also makes some world-class cookies. Here’s her recipe for her impossibly good sea salt chocolate chip cookies.

Makes 20 to 24 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie scoop

DRY INGREDIENTS

• 3½ cups all-purpose flour

• 1¼ teaspoons baking soda

• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

• 1½ teaspoons coarse sea salt, plus more for sprinkling (I like Maldon)

WET INGREDIENTS

• 1¼ cups unsalted butter (2½ sticks)

• 1¼ cups light brown sugar

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

• 1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

DIRECTIONS

Step 1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt. Set aside.

Step 2. Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Don’t skip this step—it helps create that perfect chewy texture. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined—don’t overmix.

Step 3. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the chocolate chunks. Use a rubber spatula to fold them in gently so they stay whole.

Step 4. Using a small cookie scoop, portion out the dough onto a baking sheet. The cookies can be placed close together at this stage since they won’t be baked yet. Freeze for at least 1 hour (this is my secret trick!). Once frozen, you can either bake them (see next step) or transfer to a freezer bag to store for later.

Step 5. When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Step 6. Place your desired number of frozen cookies onto the prepared baking sheet. If needed, gently reshape. Sprinkle each with a little sea salt.

Bake for 14–16 minutes, until golden on the edges but still soft in the center. Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes (if you can wait).

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just as they are—there’s no wrong way to enjoy them!

Tip:

There’s nothing better than a warm, freshly baked cookie—but you don’t always want to bake a full batch. That’s why I keep these in the freezer and just bake a few at a time. They’ll last a month (or longer) frozen. I usually double the recipe so I always have some on hand. Whether you have last-minute guests, a long day, or a sweet craving, you’ll have fresh cookies ready in just 20 minutes.

ARTICLE BY HANNAH KERN