HubThreads: Celebrating Boston Street Style

Photo by Diana Levine

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.

GILLIAN

Where did you grow up? On Lake Erie and I most recently lived near Cleveland.

What brought you to Boston? I studied fashion merchandising at Kent University, I minored in media and concentrated in sustainability. But after graduating I didn’t really have a route. My sister lives on Cape Cod and she offered for me to live with her, so I moved there. I came to Boston to visit friends and just fell in love with it. I worked four parttime jobs for six months on the cape before moving here a week ago.

What?! What were they? I worked at Ocean Edge Resort, Consigning Women and I also did remote work for a small company in NYC for their social media. Within the last month I connected to Tara West who is a stylist and fashion consultant here, and now I’m her new digital marketing director.

Have you always been interested in fashion? Yes, my grandparents were tailors and they owned a dry cleaning business, so I grew up on a sewing machine. For the longest time I wanted to be a designer. Then high school hit and I made a shift and realized that it takes a certain person to be a designer and I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I’m really interested in visual direction and creative direction and product development now.

How would you describe your own style? Kind of cliché, but I would say eclectic because it’s a good mix of high and low. Sometimes I wear designer things, but I usually find them at thrift stores or consignment shops – that is my absolute favorite thing to do. It creates this special attachment that you have with the clothing, especially in vintage shops because the sizing back then was so different, so when you find something that fits, it feels like it was meant to be. This leather jacket is one of my treasures, I bought it in Florence, Italy.

Do you have any style icons? I found most of them through Instagram because that’s the kind of world we live in! I love the creative director of LPA, Lara Pia Arrobio. She’s really relaxed and confident with her body, and she doesn’t seem to care what people think. She got married in a vintage dress, which I loved. I also love Eva Chen. I’m obsessed with her kids, she’s the total mom that you want to be; she’s all over the place with style and outrageous, but then in bed by 9pm, which is ideal for me. There’s also a company I like in NYC, called Dannijo, started by twin sisters who design their own high-end silver jewelry and they also curate really good vintage.  I love looking to them for how they style pieces because they pair things that you would never think of, like a pink tutu with a leather tank and fur coat, it’s just crazy. Not that I would go that extreme, but it’s inspiring.