BOLDFACERS

Scouting StyleScout

"I do both personal styling and personal shopping," says StyleScout personal stylist and shopper Alisa Neely, "so I can assist you in refining your look and sorting through what you should keep in your current wardrobe and what you need to add or just help you with having the right dress for that holiday party. I can also take care of your holiday shopping list so that every person on your list gets the perfect present. I work on an hourly basis and am usually booked a week or two out but am happy to try to squeeze in the occasional fashion crisis."

How to be a perfect shopper

"It is better to get something that is personal that shows you truly know their personality," says StyleScout personal stylist and shopper Alisa Neely. "So listen to what your family and friends say throughout the year and keep a little list of things they have shown interest in. That could be anything from a pair of sneakers to a Broadway show. They will love knowing that they are being heard."

Wrap it up!

"I always love everything from Paper Source," says StyleScout personal stylist and shopper Alisa Neely. "My two favorite ways to wrap are using brown kraft paper with the recipient’s name hand-stamped on it and red grosgrain ribbon with a sprig of holly stuck in. Or I use only the style sections from the Globe and the NYT and wrap all my gifts with that."

Santa's Secret Stylist

Keywords: Business

Artist

Some do it over a stove. Others do it on a soccer field. Alisa Neely did it combing racks of clothes.

Family bonding. It comes in all shapes and sizes.

For Alisa, quality time arrived in the form of a lunch and shopping trip every Saturday with her grandmother. Mary Simone might well have been one of the chicest women in Hartford County. Never a brown hair out of place and often wrapped in the finest of cashmere, she was a Great Depression-era child, forced to drop out of school to take care of her family. But she must have taken note of the decade's glamorous beauties, the likes of Carole Lombard and Claudette Colbert, for Mary dressed for the red carpet every day for the rest of her life. Alisa loved it.

And now, she lives it, not just dressing herself like a movie star, but a bevy of men and women, too. As a personal stylist and shopper for her own company, StyleScout, Alisa carefully chooses the right pieces to suit her client's life and spirit. Her work has been noticed by the fashion world as well: she's produced several editorial spreads for publications for the Phoenix Media/Communications Group and the Boston Parents Paper, and she keeps her fans guessing what outfit she'll sport for the movies or a black-tie event on the blog on her website, Stylescout.net. Boldfacers knows Alisa's impeccable eye too, so we asked her to create an exclusive gift guide for the holidays. We think you'll be pleased. We know her grandmother would be proud.

Alisa Neely, StyleScout

www.stylescout.net

2012 BOLDFACERS HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE