A fashion blog started ten years ago eventually led Christel, better known as Chris, from styling jobs and social media to opening Styled by Chris STUDIO in Rotterdam. What had long remained a dream suddenly became very real when a vacant shop on the Pannekoekstraat caught her attention.
For years, opening her own fashion store was something Chris imagined rather than something she expected to do anytime soon. Then a retail space became available in Rotterdam and things moved remarkably quickly.
“I had always dreamed about having my own shop, but I never really dared to take the step,” she says. After contacting the estate agent and arranging a viewing, the deal was completed within just a week and a half.
It sounds almost impulsive, but the journey that brought her there had actually been roughly a decade in the making.
From fashion blog to styling career
Chris started a fashion blog around ten years ago, sharing outfits and fashion inspiration online. That gradually opened the door to professional styling.
She went on to work on assignments for companies and brands, personal styling projects and fashion shoots. Alongside her freelance work, she spent the past two years working in a well-known fashion store in Delft.
That retail experience made an old ambition increasingly difficult to ignore.
The idea of owning a shop had always been there, but working inside one gave Chris a much clearer sense of what running her own space could actually look like. By the time the opportunity on the Pannekoekstraat appeared, years of styling, fashion work and building an audience online had already laid much of the groundwork.
Still, signing for a shop and actually creating one are two very different things.
For Chris, one of the biggest challenges was turning a 40-square-metre space into the store she had pictured. The other was buying from fashion brands without an existing network of contacts in that side of the industry.
Getting brands on board could simply come down to a yes or no.
“Luckily, the coin landed on the right side,” she says.
Creating a shop that feels like her own wardrobe
Styled by Chris STUDIO is closely tied to Chris's personal style. She describes it as a combination of streetwear and more feminine fashion, influenced by a love of streetwear that goes back to her younger years.
Rather than trying to reproduce the format of an established fashion retailer, she approached the shop almost as an extension of her own wardrobe.
“You could say Styled by Chris STUDIO is one big wardrobe,” she explains.
Her background in styling plays an important role too. Chris sees her knowledge of styling and fashion trends as one of the things that differentiates the store, alongside a selection of brands that shoppers may be less likely to encounter elsewhere.
The shop's location, however, was not part of a carefully mapped-out master plan.
Chris admits she initially had doubts about the Pannekoekstraat. She knew it was the kind of location where people might have to specifically know where to find her rather than simply walking past by chance.
That is where the online community she had spent years building became important.
Her existing visibility through social media helped give the physical shop what she describes as a very strong start. In a way, the move from online fashion creator to physical retailer did not mean starting again from zero. The audience came with her.
Taking the leap
Three months after opening, Chris says the biggest surprise is how natural running the shop already feels.
She has begun building a regular customer base, with shoppers returning both for new pieces and for the styling approach behind them.
Looking back, she does not regret waiting as long as she did before opening her own store. The jobs, freelance assignments, styling work, social media and retail experience that came first now feel like part of the route towards it.
“I believe I needed to follow this path to get where I am today,” she says.
And while opening a second location is already somewhere in the back of her mind, possibly even abroad, Chris has a more immediate ambition closer to home.
Her goal now is simple: to make Styled by Chris STUDIO “the coolest store in Rotterdam”.
How to get there
Styled by Chris STUDIO is located at Pannekoekstraat 91A, 3011 LD Rotterdam. The store is currently open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 to 17:30 and Sunday from 12:00 to 17:00, according to the official Styled by Chris STUDIO website.
