HubThreads: Celebrating Boston Street Style

Meet Alexandra Cherubini. She recently organized the Shuck Parkinson's benefit held at the Samson Projects' gallery. To date, the benefit has raised over $75,000 to help fight Parkinson's disease.


Photo by Diana Levine for Boston Magazine / dianalevine.com

Critics say this city has no style. We’re here to prove them wrong. Welcome to HubThreads, where we chat with the most stylish people we find out and about in Boston. Think you or someone you know has the best street style? Let us know.

ALEXANDRA

How would you describe your style? Comfort. I need to be comfortable in all occasions and instances.

Do you have any style icons? Three come to mind; my grandmother Rose Cherubini, a dress designer who was certainly ahead of her time, the Bilzerian family and my sister, Nicole Cherubini.

How was your grandmother ahead of her time?  To my knowledge, my grandmother’s shop was one of the first female-owned businesses on Newbury Street. She incorporated materials, such as burlap, into her designs that were then photographed by Life magazine. Her use and choice of fabric reminds me of contemporary houses, like Prada. Often, when women hear my last name, they ask if I know Rose Cherubini. Then, with a huge smile, they say, “Your grandmother made my wedding dress!”

That’s amazing! What about your sister’s style do you admire? My sister is a great artist, and from the time I was young, she was always sporting cool before it was “cool.”  She taught me to think outside of the box, and not always follow the latest trends.

 Where do you like to shop in Boston? Good question. It’s really such a mix, I don’t have any one store that I rely on.

Where are you from? I grew up in Newton.

Why did you decide to settle in Boston? Love. After college, I was living in New York and I met my future husband, Camilo Alvarez. I started my business EquiFit and was commuting from New York to Boston on a weekly basis. The company was growing and the commute was getting challenging, and so here we are.

Tell me about the business you started. Thanks to Lana Bilzerian and Marisa Fiumara, and much to my parents dismay, I fell in love with horses when I was twelve and have not stopped loving them since! EquiFit manufactures and designs products for performance horses, bringing technology and innovation from the medical and sports fields to the equine athlete. Our flagship product, ShouldersBack, was popular in not only the equine world, but also the fashion, medical, health and fitness worlds. It was featured in many fashion magazines, including W magazine, and included in an exhibition at The Met’s Costume Institute called “Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed.”  From there, we went back to focusing on the equine athlete. We are always trying to better what is currently offered, and/or come up with solutions for problems that have not been solved yet.  We primarily work with, and market to the hunter/jumper disciplines. Our products are worn on gold medal olympians, the current world’s number one and two show jumping riders, as well as horses and riders at all levels.

Wow! Congratulations! Tell me more about the Shuck Parkinson’s benefit. My mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s twenty plus years ago. For the past four years or so, I’ve been wanting to put together a Team Fox fundraiser called Shuck Parkinson’s, which would be a night of oysters and cocktails. Finally, this September we decided to do it! When we first set out, our goal was to raise ten thousand dollars, and then a few weeks before the event, we decided to set a stretch goal of fifty thousand dollars. As of this morning, we are just shy of seventy-five thousand dollars. We could not be happier! One hundred percent of all ticket sales, auction items and donations go directly towards the Michael J. Fox foundation to help find a cure for Parkinson’s. We could not have done it without the amazing Shuck Team that grew organically, Island Creek Oysters, South End Formaggio Kitchen, Wicked Good Cookie, the Bruins Foundation and so many more. I am still in awe of  all of the support and generosity that Shuck Parkinson’s generated.

Tell me something else about yourself. I love anything spicy. I competitively show jump. We have two mini Dachshunds name Sia and Lula.