Teddy Gunter can offer you a dress formerly worn on Sex and the City or a torn up, corpse-bride style gown from the 1930s (just in time for Halloween). Gunter is a stylist and also the co-owner and archivist of Stash Wardrobe Rental, a fashion library of sorts.
She owns the North Miami store with veteran stylist Danny Santiago, who has styled for Vogue and other magazines. Santiago has also worked as a costume designer for TV and movies like Sex and the City, Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Devil Wears Prada, and Burn Notice. When Santiago and Gunter finish working on a project, the clothes often go to STASH. Then, Gunter meticulously catalogs them by look and time period.
Photographers, models, stylists, fashionistas, and vintage lovers can rent clothes or ensembles at STASH. Halloween is around the corner. Need to look like a '70s rock star? Done. Require a 1920s beaded dress to go with your raccoon eyeliner for the Gatsby Gone Goth party (which Danny Santiago is helping throw)? Gunter and the STASH team of stylists will help you put it together.
It's not cheap, with a rental costing perhaps $80 for a dress and
$150-$200 for a full costume, but Gunter likes to point out, "It's not
just vintage for vintage's sake. It's done with an eye towards fashion
and collected by one of the top stylists in the world. Where can you
walk into a store and possibly get a stylist who's just done a huge
movie to dress you? It's pretty unheard of."
So far, STASH (105
NW 23rd Street, Miami) is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12 to 5:30 p.m., with
additional hours coming soon. Reach them on Facebook or at 305-318-3973.
New Times: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
Teddy
Gunter: You're going to laugh. I had a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich. I'm on a diet right now, so I'm trying to eat things which
allow me to count calories easily.
What are your top 3 places to eat in Miami right now?
Right
now, I only go out close to STASH. I love to go to Michael's Genuine
for brunch on Sundays. I like to get the steak and egg. You know us
fashion people--we can never be thin enough. So, I avoid carbs.
And
then, Sugarcane is fun and new and that's also in the same vicinity. I
remember the appetizer that's really interesting is bacon-wrapped
dates. It sounds really uck, but it's actually really good. You know
how chefs dream up stuff. Just like we're creative with fashion,
they're creative with food.
Mercadito is another place I've
been going to. I have the corn on the cob with cheese and the shrimp
tacos. I'd never tasted shrimp tacos before I had them here. They are really good.
And
then too, as a joke, but it's also true, the best food in town is at
Danny's parties. We just had a party at STASH, because we also
entertain there, as part of the art walk. So we had a party there for
our friends. We had pesto pasta and rum cake and I completely broke my
diet.
What's in your fridge right now?
Well, I have a
twelve year old so I have to have kiddie food. So right now, I have Granny Smith apples and Tollhouse cookie dough. I also have salad.
It's mostly either junk food or yogurt or diet stuff.
What are your favorite foods to cook?
I
like to cook and watch the Food Channel when I have time, but really,
once again, I make a lot of food that kids like. When I go out to eat, I
prefer to eat super sophisticated food because at home I'm cooking for a
twelve year old. As much as you'd like it, they don't appreciate it.
You can put a gourmet meal in front of them, and they're like, "Can I
have tater tots?" They don't care. I've had a chef in the past that
cooked for us and dropped off meals, and when he moved away, I started
making these less sophisticated foods and my son was happy to have chili
dogs. To him, that's gourmet.
What is your favorite comfort food?
I
would have to say soul food, because that's my background. That bright
orange macaroni and cheese that my mom would make. Almost like a
Thanksgiving dinner type menu. Or candied yams.
My favorite
comfort food is also sinful eating like fried chicken, which my mother
makes the best. Or smothered pork chops with gravy and grits. It's
stuff that I only eat at a restaurant that knows how to make it or when
it's made by my mom.
Do you have any regular food rituals?
Well,
my son and I make smoothies every Saturday morning. That's the first
thing he says to me every Saturday morning: "Are we going to make
smoothies today?"
Every Sunday morning, if we don't go to brunch,
then we make pancakes and we add a different fruit each week. One week,
it might be blueberry pancakes, then bananas or fresh papaya the
next.
