by Jessica Marmor

Many upscale boutiques in New York cater to the latest trends, selling of-the-moment brands and fads no matter their stylistic merit.  Linda Wolff’s shop, CPW, is not one of them. Wolff's speciality is matching customers with clothing that looks good on – and feels even better.

Wolff refuses to carry many of the “hot” brands that sell like hotcakes in Bloomingdale’s and Barneys, such as Seven jeans.  She says she could have made “tons of money” on those kinds of lines, but passed.  “They are so common,” she said – every girl walking down the street is wearing a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans and a C&C top.  And that’s not what real style is about.

Since she opened CPW, short for Central Park West, 15 years ago, Wolff has become the ultimate arbiter of what's stylish for a small but devoted roster of clients.  On one Friday afternoon, longtime CPW patron Laurie Wortman dropped in to coo over Wolff’s shop dog, Lucie, and to chat.  Though Wortman lives near 190th Street by The Cloisters, she has been making the trip down to CPW, on the corner of 84th Street and Amsterdam, for years.  The clothing at CPW, Wortman said, “feels like its yours already without even having to wear it.”

Indeed, Wolff often carries clothing that is specially designed or tailored for individual clients.  In the summer of 2004, she started carrying a line of hand “distressed” jeans – jeans that are sanded down, splattered with paint, ripped and patched by an artist friend of hers, Lincoln Mayne.  Wolff got the idea after spotting a pair of the jeans Mayne wears while working.  “Those are sick,” Wolff remembered saying.  “Can you do a pair for me?”

There are a lot of other embellished jeans out there, said Wolff, but they tend to be mass-produced, cheesy and, in her words, gross.  For $275, not including the price of the jeans, Mayne works them over to be “more tasteful, more raw.”  “There’s no glitz,” Wolff said. “They’re not girly.”

That vision for raw, sexy clothes – minus the glitz and girliness – guides Wolff in outfitting her store and in her work as a personal stylist. Wolff’s assistant, Dimitra Doupi said, “She’s not going to go and dress clients like rock stars if that’s not what they are.”  But, Doupi continued, Wolff will find a look for her clients that they would never have been able to pick out themselves. 

They call it being “Linda-fied,” Doupi said.  Though Wolff was squeamish with the eponym, Doupi insisted that it’s the right way to describe what it is Wolff does.

Especially in image-conscious New York City, Wolff understands the pressure to look good.  Just down the street from CPW, Wolff says that the store Boc only carries clothing in sizes up to eight.  “Girls will walk in there and ask for a size 10 and they won’t have them," she said. "That feels awful.”

Wolff is also on the board of Brooklyn’s largest shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.  A victim of domestic violence herself, every season, Wolff takes whatever stock is left over and gives the clothing to the women there.  Doupi said, “She dresses them up to go back into the workforce and get their self-respect back.  Because sometimes clothing has that affect on you."