A model, actress and stylist plays the ultimate fashion game
By Christy Marshall
Wherever Katy Maak Yelkencioglu goes, she turns heads. Wherever she’s been, she’s shown up in the newspaper. In New York, it was the “On the Street” section of The New York Times. “I’ve been in over 20 magazines just because of my clothes,” says Yelkencioglu, 32.
On this sunny spring day, she’s wearing a cotton spaghetti-strap babydoll sundress over jeans. A signature look? Nope. “I have too many looks,” Yelkencioglu says. “I never know when I wake up who I want to be.”
At the moment, she is co-proprietor of Paper Dolls, in the refurbished Bee Hat Building on Washington. The store carries about 15 clothing lines, including Saffron, Spy, Daniel K, Sean John, Gasp, Ever Young and Ocean Drive; accessories (but not shoes); and lingerie. Sizes run from 0 to 15; prices start with $26 T-shirts. Yelkencioglu says four complete mix-and-match outfits (excluding accessories) would cost about $2,000.
For the person who neither knows nor loves clothes, Yelkencioglu will consult. First she gets to know the shopper’s personality: “You have to grab onto that. You need to make people feel comfortable. And every woman has her own style. They aren’t all over the place like I am.”
She does have her rules:
- You have to try absolutely everything on.
- Forget big and baggy: “You have to mold your body with your clothes to look taller and thinner.”
- Buy the right shoes. She suggests Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Soul Shoes.
Want Yelkencioglu to shop with you and for you outside Paper Dolls? She charges $65 to $75 per hour.
Before moving back to St. Louis in 1999 to help launch her family’s bar (Churchill’s in the Central West End), she worked as a fashion coordinator in Los Angeles and as an actress on Baywatch (one of the babes in a bikini) and Pacific Blue.
“Acting wasn’t one of my favorite things,” she says, grimacing. “I’ve always had a passion for fashion.”
Paper Dolls, the Bee Hat Building, 1021A Washington, 314-241-3655, www.paperdolls-stl.com. Hours: 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Mon–Sat.
