By Katie Pelech
Photograph by Katherine Bish
Tell me about this outfit. It’s a silk pajama top from the Gap. I’m wearing Chloe jeans and my shoes are Casadei. I think they’re pony hair [leans over to pet shoes]. Yup, definitely pony hair. Where do you shop for your clothes? Each season I’ll get one or two big-ticket items that I really treasure. Those are things that I’ll have, hopefully, for the rest of my life. For all the other fun, trendy things that I think won’t even last a season I love going to Target, H&M or Forever 21. What is one of your favorite items? A Missoni scarf. You can wear jeans and a T-shirt, and if you throw that on you’re automatically stylish. How would you describe your style philosophy? I gravitate towards nice, clean lines and I always try to put a modern twist to it, but there’s not one particular style. I just wear what I love and what I think looks good on me. What’s your first fashion memory? In the third grade I had purple bell-bottom hip-huggers and a matching purple bodysuit with a white collar and white cuffs and a white belt. I was hot. I couldn’t have worn that outfit more. Has being a style-conscious woman in a serious profession been difficult? Twelve years ago I came out of residency. I was in practice for a few months and realized I needed to tone myself down for credibility. I felt sometimes that the patients I was seeing didn’t believe I was a doctor. I got a lab coat with “Gina Marusic, M.D.” written on it and I wore it over my clothes. That “M.D.” made a huge difference. Have things changed since then? What’s interesting is that now I get lots of comments from the moms, dads and even the little kids, all complimentary. They seem to focus a lot on my shoes. I had this little girl who came in and said, “Dr. Gina, look! I’m wearing Dr. Gina shoes!”
