Let me introduce myself…
Hello everyone! And welcome to my first blog post on Christina Marie-Joy. This is such a brain child of mine, something that I’ve always wanted to do but never knew the right timing or how exactly to launch my vision. Growing up just outside of Anchorage, Alaska I always felt out of place. I would follow fashion trends and wear my bright girly looks out and constantly be asked “what are you all dressed up for?”. Let’s just say that coming from America’s proclaimed “worst dressed city” had its difficulties. While working on my Journalism and Public Communications degree everyone was writing political and current event news stories and I was creating a fashion blog about how to dress in the frigid north and still be hot. I’m sure my professors thought I was crazy or that my fixation with fashion would lead me nowhere, maybe both.
I packed up my bags and decided it was time to leave my home state for more opportunities. I always dreamed of working in fashion! I wound up in Austin, Texas working at a tech startup. Not quite what I had envisioned, but now I had access to all of the designers and stores that I had only seen on TV or read about online. I remember the first time I walked down The Domain, a well known shopping center in Austin, I thought to myself, “this must be what heaven is like”. Was I being dramatic? Absolutely. Did I care? Not a bit. Some of my male coworkers would complain about women not being interested in them and I would point out that they need self-confidence and to look good. Thankfully I can help out in the looking good department and the confidence will come after. I would throw said coworkers into a Neiman Marcus dressing room and run around the store pulling looks together. I often joked about how I should be making commission off of these looks. My happy clients, I mean coworkers, would rave about how great they look and feel and that I should be styling more people. I often laughed and awkwardly shrugged off these compliments but always kept it in the back of my mind.
The Austin startup eventually moved me to Silicon Valley so I could work out of the new offices. I was housed in the ultra trendy Santana Row in San Jose. If you aren’t a Bay Area resident then you don’t know that Santana Row is the Rodeo Drive of San Jose. It is a place to be seen, with outdoor eateries, boutiques, luxury apartments, and fancy cars parading down the palm tree lined street. This was my introduction to the Bay Area and I was impressed! I often found myself browsing through the boutiques and venturing to the nearby Westfield Valley Fair. I started to transition my Texan wardrobe to be the ultimate California beach girl meets tech professional. As I started a family I yearned to somehow get into the fashion industry. I moved to my dream city of San Francisco and started a role at Saks Fifth Avenue. This gave me the introduction to first hand luxury. I worked with other San Francisco stylist pulling looks for top clients, celebrities, and publications. I was able to meet various designers like shoe designer Edgardo Osorio of Aquazurra, fragrance designer Eric Buterbaugh, and luxury women's ready-to-wear clothing designer Joseph Altuzarra. I was living a dream! Every year I worked on the Oscar de la Renta Resort fashion show in partnership with the League to Save Lake Tahoe. This is where I realized that I LOVE a good fashion show.
My dream of working in the fashion industry was coming true and I couldn’t be happier about it. I was offered a big position at Bloomingdale’s and I couldn’t believe my luck. I was able to continue my skills in fashion on a whole new level. I loved being the first to know about the seasonal trends and how to mix and match different price points. I often worked with stylist pulling looks for celebrity clients or fashion publications. During this time I produced a lot of fashion shows. I did everything: selected models, pulled the fashion looks, worked with influencers, arranged catering, marketed the show, and often hosted the presentation myself.
During this time I continued to style friends and family, finding complete looks based on occasion and budget. This is truly what I love doing and I realized that I need to form my own business and pursue this full time. Now the question was how. How do I do this full time? How do I stand out from the various other stylists in San Francisco? COVID-19 hit and I saw how everyone’s lifestyle changed. People are working from home, avoiding large mall crowds, and being cautious of public settings. But as things start to slowly open back up we all crave some sense of normalcy, that’s where I saw my opportunity to start my own business. That is where Christina Marie-Joy LLC was born. I take the stress and guesswork out of shopping, your personal style, and organizing your closet. I can’t organize your life, but I can start with your closet.
My plan for this blog is to keep you, as the reader, up to date on current trends, deals, gift giving ideas, and exciting things happening in San Francisco and the Bay Area. I will link my liketoknow.it page to my blog so that you can easily shop my looks using commissionable links. This will be a fun creative outlet where you can get the first scoop on tips and tricks into how to dress for your body type. If you aren’t quite ready to jump into having a personal stylist at the click of a button, you can directly shop individual looks that I post. Maybe you are an existing client that wants to add to their beautifully organized closet, use the liketoknow.it app to add looks that I post. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
This is exciting. I’m excited! Are you?
