My Style Unwrapped: Funky but Chic Boutique

My Style Unwrapped is a tiny  nook of a store that is filled to the brim with casual and dressy clothing, scarves, handbags and shoes.

 Founder  Jessica Stambach  was the kind of friend in high school who all the girls came to for make-up and clothing tips. She had a creative flair and enjoyed sharing it with her friends at Parsippany Hills High School. When she graduated, she considered going to the Fashion Institute of Technology to pursue her dreams.

But after she took a course at County College of Morris and explored what would be involved in attending FIT for four years while living in Manhattan, she decided that wasn’t the course for her.

Married and pregnant in her early twenties, she had a lot of time to research the retail apparel business online and after a couple of years, considered she was sufficiently self-taught, and decided to open her own tiny business in Mount Tabor.

With 300 square feet carved out of a portion of Swan Nail Salon at 481 Mount Tabor Road, her boutique, called My Style Unwrapped, has been providing affordable and up-to-date fashions for young women, teens and even their mothers. Prices are kept deliberately low so those on a students’ or young business person’s budget can afford a splurge from time to time.

 There are party dresses, blouses, tunics, scarves, sweaters, pants, leggings; accessories include scarves, hand bags, wallets, clutches. Styles are on the contemporary side, but even if you’re north of age 40 or 50, you may find what you need here.

 “My mom is one of my biggest customers and she put together a look that I wouldn’t have thought of,” said Jessica, pointing to a cropped fake-fur vest that had hints of Sonny and Cher all over it. Her mother chose to wear the silver-flecked black vest with a black and gold shirt, skinny gray pants and boots “and it worked.”

 Among the lines she carries are Ya of Los Angeles, Freeway Apparel, Tough Love and For Nine handbags. She is careful to keep her prices well under $100 but says she doesn’t want to sacrifice quality for price.

 She grew up down the road in nearby Denville but by high school had moved with her family to Parsippany. During those years she remembers hanging out at the pizzeria and 7-Eleven after school so she wasn’t surprised when students from nearby Parsippany Hills High School started showing up in her store.

It’s not an easy to place to find so if you want to shop there you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for Swan Nails, with which she shares space.

Her store has the feeling of a young woman’s stuffed-to-the-gills closet but upon careful inspection there’s plenty of interesting clothing and accessories to ponder. Shoji screens in the corner of the shop provide a tidy space for trying on clothes. Sizes are basically XS, S,M,L.

 She doesn’t just offer things for clothing shoppers however. There are gift possibilities here as well. “Parsippany doesn’t have a good store where you can run in and buy a gift so that’s what some people come here for,” she explains

“This has been a passion of mine and I needed to get it out of my system,” she says, explaining how she came to open the store in late September.

 Winter hours are Wednesday 12 to 6 p.m.; Thursday 12 to 7 p.m.; Friday 12 to 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.