Stuff@Night

BOSTON IS renowned for a lot of things: universities, hospitals, sports teams. Still, we’ve never been known for our fashion scene. That’s not a dig — it’s just the truth. But thankfully, that’s changing. Gone are the days of pearls, ribbon belts, and conservative spending. We’re now flooded with independent fashion boutiques; major luxury retailers are popping up everywhere, and even Boston Fashion Week has made a respectable comeback.

But what about a decade ago? Rewind 10 years and you’d find an abundance of chain stores, a dearth of high-quality independent boutiques, and one fashion mecca: Louis Boston. The store, pioneered by Murray Pearlstein and then taken over by his daughter, the famous (and at times infamous) Debi Greenberg, was the first to bring European brands such as Marni to Boston, and one of the first local retailers — Alan Bilzerian and Riccardi being the others — to teach Boston women about a European sense of style. The store’s prestige made Louis a fertile training ground for some of the city’s — and the country’s — best young talent.

For Leila Moore and Pam Santorelli, co-owners of South Boston boutique and blooming personal-shopping and custom-design shop Habit, who met in the late 1990s while working at Louis, their time at the store offered an invaluable fashion education. “Debi is the best teacher I’ve had in my life,” says Moore. “She took time to actually teach us about the designers, the fabrics, the cuts. She made us appreciate and love the clothing as much as she did. She taught us to blend together different styles. We learned to mix designers to create unique looks for our clients. It wasn’t about recreating the runway look — she didn’t want each client to walk out with the same exact thing on. It was about customizing a look for each individual client.”

Greenberg smiles — even blushes — when she hears what Moore has to say about her. “My staff has to have an eye,” she says. “It’s half inherent and half training. Leila has that eye. She saw the value in the design and it was a total turn-on for her. When she and Pam go into market to buy, they have that eye. They can zone in on what’s really good, at any price point. I’m really proud of them.”

Though Greenberg is known to be outspoken and tough, she’s gracious and thoughtful, maternal even, when talking about the people who’ve worked for her and gone on to successful careers in fashion.

Tina Burgos and her husband Dave Nauyokas are two such talents. They met while working at Louis and later hooked up with Jon Callahan to open Stel’s, an edgy Newbury Street boutique carrying avant-garde labels and small independent designers such as A.P.C., United Bamboo, Leif & Tooya, and Rachel Comey. Like Louis, Stel’s only carries Boston exclusives; from reworked vintage dresses to perfectly tailored blazers, their merchandise is well-edited and unique.

“What Louis has grown into is amazing,” says Callahan. “Debi Greenberg deserves so much credit for what she has done — not only in Boston, but in America.”

What is Greenberg’s formula for success? Following her father’s lead, she brings in new designers, takes chances, and doesn’t pay attention to price tags. And why should she? Greenberg is catering to people who have money, care about fashion, and are willing to pay the price for high-quality clothing.

Shoe designer Kristina Kozak, another Louis alum, learned to appreciate fashion’s finer things while working at the store. The young entrepreneur creates one-of-a-kind shoes for clients and stores, aiming to offer footwear that not only stands out in a crowd, but is well-made, sophisticated, and reflective of a “lighthearted” approach to fashion. “While always a shoe lover with an eye for fashion, it was my time at Louis that really influenced my love for distinctive pieces, especially shoes,” Kozak notes.

So how does the Louis staff get its education? It all starts at the top, with Greenberg training her management staff, who in turn train the sales teams. Still, Greenberg says there’s no real hierarchy at her store, and when she’s in town, she makes the rounds to every floor, talking to her staff about new products, why she bought them, and what makes them special.

As she speaks about the Louis Boston philosophy and the thinking behind the Louis retail experience, Greenberg sounds more like a political or religious leader than a store owner. And though she has her critics, she comes across as genuinely passionate about what she does and the people who’ve learned from her. “Creating an idea and executing it is the whole idea — that’s why I do this,” she explains. “There’s integrity in it. Integrity is a big word that no one really uses, especially in retail. For me, it’s the guiding light, and if you believe [in] it, you stick by it.”

That light is what guides the entire Louis staff, including the salespeople working on the floor. “If they are on the front lines, they better have that feeling, that substance behind what they are doing,” Greenberg says. “No one comes back here and says ‘You are charging too much for that item.’ Everyone in the store needs to understand that quality and value. We are not sales-oriented here; in fact, there is no commission.”

The Greenberg school of fashion is so renowned that John Erickson, a former banker, accepted a job as a stock boy/fitting-room assistant, making $10.50 an hour, in order to get in the door at Louis. “I’ll never forget, the HR person at Louis tried to talk me out of wanting the position, but the more she spoke, the more I wanted the job,” he remembers. “The things she considered to be bad, I was totally attracted to.”

The decision eventually paid off. Erickson went on to work for Italian luxury suit makers (and Greenberg favorite) Kiton. The label, first brought in by Pearlstein, Greenberg’s father, is still a top seller at Louis. Erickson is now an aspiring writer specializing in men’s fashion; he was recently published in T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

Stephanie Seeley, another Louis Boston alum, went on to become head buyer at Los Angeles–based American Rag Cie and is rumored to be opening up her own retail shop in Los Angeles soon. Greenberg smiles when talking about Seeley. “Stephanie suffered through this, she loved the creativity but not the business,” she recalls. “She had to grow up and she did. She’s done well for herself.”

So has the Stel’s team — and Jon Callahan thanks Louis Boston, in part, for that. Now, he says, it’s time for Boston’s fashion world to band together as it moves forward.

“We need to form more of a fashion community here,” says Callahan. “We can all approach fashion in a different way and learn from each other, but who better to learn from than the masters? And that was/is Louis. We all came out of the road that they paved for us, and we formed our own paths or takes and interpretations on fashion.”

So what lies ahead for Louis Boston? And for that matter, other local style pioneers like Alan Bilzerian and Riccardi? With the expansion of fashion in Boston comes competition. Will the local fashion revolution and influx of luxury retailers help or hurt the Louis cause? @

[Photo (of building-front) by Michael Khachadorian]
[Photo (of high-heeled shoe) Jeff Smith]