We met Christine at her shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, called Challengher, on Metropolitan Ave. We started by talking about a “trunk show” recently held at the SoHo Grand Hotel.
AskaNewYorker: What is a trunk show, anyway?
Christine: Lots of vendors got together and sold stuff as an alternative to Fashion Week.
AskaNewYorker: Not a bad place to do it! Are you a fashion designer?
Christine : Yes, I am now, I guess. That’s what I am now, yeah….not what I’m here for.
AskaNewYorker: What are you here for?
Christine: I went to school for fine arts and ended up bartending for a long time. For now, I’m just trying to combine things I was doing with my painting and sculpture, things which would be more sellable and things I am less attached to.
AskaNewYorker: So, was it Mom’s or Dad’s DNA which gave rise to this creativity?
Christine: My Mom, my Grandmother, and probably even farther back than that.
AskaNewYorker: What type of sewing machine do you use?
Christine: I use a Singer home sewing machine and a Serger.
AskaNewYorker: What a great sewing machine in the window! It’s gorgeous.
Christine: It was my Grandmother’s, and when I was little my sister and I used to sit on the pedal and see-saw while she sewed. In the drawers I still have all of her stuff, her buttons and things. I kind of feel like it’s sacreligious to take it all out.
AskaNewYorker: Who is your inspiration in the fashion world, if you have any?
Christine : I like Diane von Furstenburg, but my clothes look nothing like hers do.
AskaNewYorker: Do you design swimwear?
Christine: Nope.
AskaNewYorker: How do you describe your own fashion sensibility?
Christine : I’d say well-tailored, but not preppy.
AskaNewYorker: That’s a great ring you’ve got on.
Christine : I got this ring in a store that I sell in, in Park Slope, and there are two designers who sell (I can’t remember their names; it is so bad of me) who do silversmithing, it’s all organic-looking stuff. It’s one of their pieces. The store’s name is Albert and Pichaloe, and unfortunately they are going out of business this month.
AskaNewYorker: Tell me about that tattoo on your left shoulder.
Christine : It is the Egyptian Goddess of the North, Ejo, and the cobra and the apple. My first tattoo!
AskaNewYorker: What about the one on your forearm?
Christine : It’s me with one of my sisters when we were little; and all of my sisters and I have “always four of a kind” tattooed on us, there’s four girls.
AskaNewYorker: Let me ask you now about that belt buckle you are wearing.
Christine : I got it in San Francisco in a buffalo-chips kind of store, one-of-a-kind, as far as I know.
AskaNewYorker: What do you do outside of this store?
Christine : I sleep, no, I don’t sleep. I used to bartend, but I quit, so now I just guest bartend once a month, where ever.
AskaNewYorker: What’s this you have on the wall?
Christine : Saint Claire. I got her in New Mexico in a church. She’s the paitron saint of seamstresses and optomotrists!
AskaNewYorker: What are you reading at the moment? Anything?
Christine : Anil’s Ghost. I think it was a best-seller a couple years ago. I’m a little behind the times.
AskaNewYorker: Well, thanks for sharing with me, Christine. I love your store here, pass by it all the time, and it was a pleasure to meet you.
Christine: No problem!
Readers: You can visit Christine’s shop in Williamsburg, on Metropolitan Ave between Lorimer and Union. Take the L train to Lorimer St. Or, you can email at challengher@hotmail.com.
