WINIFRED "WINNIE" ELIZA PEARCE
AGE: 32
BIRTHDAY: December 9th, 1992
RELATION: Half sibling
TYPE: Solo
GENDER: Cis woman
PRONOUNS: She/her
ORIENTATION(S): Lesbian
FACE CLAIM: Natasha Liu Bordizzo
JOB/SCHOOL
JOB: Owner and designer for Pretty and Pearce Boutique
ALUMNI?: Alumni
ABOUT
Despite Winnie’s outgoing personality and her mother’s hopes that her children would follow in her theatrical footsteps, it was obvious early on that she would never be stagebound. She had two left feet, couldn’t carry a tune to save her life, and the most extravagant acting she’s ever done is faking period cramps to get out of gym class. That didn’t stop her from having an appreciation for her mom’s line of work - Winnie was a Pearce after all, she was practically weaned on the performing arts. Still, while she would happily listen to her mother rehearse for hours on end, Winnie instead found a passion for her dad’s field. She grew up captivated by how the right costuming could completely change her mother’s performance, acting as the final lynchpin before the house lights dimmed and the curtains parted for the show to begin.
Her father taught Winnie how to hem a neckline by age 5, and gifted her her first sewing machine for her 8th birthday. From there, Winnie’s fascination grew into a love for fashion in general. Her parents encouraged her at every turn, even when embracing Winnie’s creativity resulted in a few too many fashion faux pas immortalized in grainy MySpace mirror photos. But hey, you live and you learn. Her homecoming and prom dresses in high school were hand stitched with love and the best embroidery thread money could buy. At 18, Winnie was fully prepared to use her dad’s connections to help get her foot in the door for something bigger, but her parents insisted she get an education before anything else. PSU was the only option she considered, and their fashion design program became her home for the next four years.
It helps to come from money. It helps even more when you’ve spent your entire childhood rubbing elbows with the right people. With her parents’ help, Winnie opened Pretty and Pearce boutique not long after getting her bachelor’s degree. The focus was on local designers, Winnie included, committed to one day going neck-and-neck with the fashion industry. The store was and still is Winnie’s pride and joy. She loves the sense of community it gives her towards returning clients and the neighborhood in general. That was what made it so difficult when she received a call from her father, inviting her back home to assist him in the costume department for a new show off-broadway he’d been hired on.
It took weeks of deliberation but finally, Winnie packed her bags and made her way back to New York. She left the store in the trusted hands of her staff, though her control issues had her calling for updates on a daily basis, and she still sent over the pieces she made in between deadlines. It was anything but glamorous, and Winnie loved every second of it. The show, a fictionalized musical retelling of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory disaster, called for designs outside of anything she’d done before, and it was the exact kind of chaos Winnie thrived in. Plus she got to work with her dad, and be closer to her childhood home. It was a win-win.
Winnie stayed with the team once the show transferred to Broadway, and then for another year until the show closed shortly after missing out on all four of the Tony awards it had been nominated for. It was a crushing blow but Winnie grew up in the business. She had her mother’s tenacity to know that that was simply the way things went. She considered staying in the city to get her name out there more, separate from her dad, but ultimately Winnie knew that she was needed elsewhere. Pretty and Pearce had continued to do well for itself back in LA, and despite the re-adjustment process, Winnie settled back into her old position quickly enough.
She’s not completely given up on one day earning awards for her role in bringing a stage production to life. Theatre is her family’s entire schtick, after all. However Winnie also knows that she can only guarantee her own happiness in life and for now, happiness is seeing customers light up with excitement when they find a piece that makes them feel like themselves. That’s what made her fall in love with fashion to begin with: finding something that finally makes you feel like you belong in your own skin. Outside of work, Winnie’s hobbies include other fiber arts, most notably crochet, and binge-watching terrible reality TV shows from the early 2000s. She had a stubborn streak a mile wide, and unless she is focused on creating, it is easy for her to lose her head in the clouds. For Winnie, every choice she has ever made has been in the pursuit of sharing her passion with the world, no matter how fleeting the opportunity may be.
