Christina K. Pierce may be the epitome of style, fashion, and pizzazz, sitting in her studio dressed in a dazzling emerald-green Diane von Furstenberg blouse and a pair of blue-green suede ostrich-patterned shoes. She may also be the boldest 26-year-old businesswoman you’ll encounter for a while: She recently opened Boston’s first styling studio, right on Newbury Street.
The truth is, Pierce was styling people long before she set up shop on the third floor of 115 Newbury this past summer. She looks so elegant, so fashionable, so with it, seemingly without effort, that people came up to her even while she was a student at Boston University’s School of Management to ask where she got her shirt or shoes. Pierce notes, “I seem to have a vibe, a sort of instinct, of what’s going to be fashionable next.”
First she helped friends, gratis, to put their image together. Then, after three years in a corporate job in merchandising for The TJX Companies, the move to her own studio was seamless, as she had already begun to help local television hosts who needed gowns for charity events. Her reputation grew through word-of-mouth, and it wasn’t long before people were begging her to find them stylish clothes to wear to events and designers were seeking her help with their runway shows.
She assists plenty of people with special occasion dressing, but many of her clients have a closet full of clothes they’re unsure of how to mix and match. Therein lies the difference between a stylist and a personal shopper: “Personal shoppers,” Pierce explains, “are paid by the boutique to add pieces to your wardrobe—there is the risk of bias there. I am unbiased; I am looking in your closet to reinforce what you already have, to find ways you can wear a piece four different ways. Styling is not buying this season’s pieces but getting more use out of your existing wardrobe.”
That’s not to say her studio isn’t filled with beautiful clothing—Pierce will happily add a garment here and there to update a client’s closet. Currently her favorite designer is Michelle Smith, whose Milly collection is filled with clothes Pierce deems “classical, playful, and edgy.” For example, Pierce shows off a striking salmon-colored wool coat that would punch up any Boston wardrobe and fits in nicely with this winter’s strong color-blocking trend.
We may have been labeled the Worst Dressed City last spring, but Pierce could be the answer to all that—she’s here to help Boston fashion evolve. 115 Newbury St., 617-369-1924; christina-pierce.com
