Stylist Cristina Ehrlich has built a career dressing some of Hollywood's biggest names. Her clientele includes a wide variety of creative women, from those who love taking fashion risks to those who prefer keeping it simple, and her intimate understanding of who the client is and what she wants to represent allows her to emphasize individuality and use fashion to tell a story. Her work is characterized by the ingenuity of her approach and the unparalleled interpersonal relationships she’s made over decades of experience.
In honor of Mother's Day, we spoke to Cristina about her mothers—plural.
"I am lucky and blessed because I've had both a mother and a stepmother since I was nine, and both are very high-fashion minded. My mom was born and raised in Italy and is larger than life; she's a presence when she walks in a room," she explained. "She has a very classic style with her own '70s, high-fashion, bohemian twist. She came from a time when people got dressed up before they left the house. There was a relationship between your shoes, your bags—you told a story with every look."
Her mother's favorite looks resonate with the stylist decades later (and prove the value of classic silhouettes and styles). Cristina described one particular outfit—high-waisted jeans, a fitted turtleneck, and a Gucci belt—which could have been something she just worked on for a client.
"When I look back at most of the outfits my mom was wearing when I was a little girl, they're all outfits I want to wear now," she said. "I grew up watching her dress up all the time. It was an outfit when we were in the kitchen in the morning; an outfit when she picked us up from school; an outfit if they were going out at night."
Despite the many years she spent studying professional dance, her family history reveals that fashion was always in the cards.
"I grew up with two moms who were in fashion: My mom was a showroom model and my stepmother was a jewelry and couture clothing designer. She had a more gypsy, European feel and sensibility than my mom did," she explained. "Between these two women, everything became about how life is a performance. What do you want to wear for our performance today?"
We're celebrating Mother's Day with special interviews and chats with women in our community. Read advice on family life in quarantine and approaching motherhood as a journey, collected from some of our past Gaux Girls.
Top image by Stevie Danelian; additional images courtesy of Cristina Ehrlich