Stephanie (Madoff) Mack: The Best Friend You Didn't Know You Needed

In a recent NY Times profile, a newspaper-selling name of days past returned to the very pages that, not too long ago, seemed to specialize in scorning her and her brood. Back and better than ever though appears the widowed daughter-in-law of famed Ponzi scheme artist Bernie Madoff, Stephanie Madoff. 

Answering these days to Stephanie Mack, while the petite pretty blonde may have dropped her controversial last name - creating her own based off of the airport code for her former summer spot, Nantucket - none can accuse her of hiding her former life.

Following the headlines, the lawsuits, the FBI visits, tragic suicide of her husband Mark, and downsizing after downsizing, the mother of two is head above water, happy in life, and business. At $200 an hour, with a three-hour minimum, Miss Mack will guide you through shop racks and boutique floors, finding the pieces that speak most not only to your personal style, but your personal happiness.

“Do you feel comfortable in it? Does it feel special enough? Do you feel amazing?,” she'll poke. All the questions a best friend would pose as you enter out into that all too vulnerable territory that is the two steps just outside a dressing room. 

A former assistant to Narciso Rodriguez, Stephanie's past fashion experience and intuitive knack for dressing women have served her well in this latest business venture. But in a city where for every woman searching for help in stocking her closet, there is an eager stylist ready to wiggle her way into their checkbook, what's set Stephanie apart?

Well, to her clients, her services extend meaningfully beyond answering the eternal question of which shoes go with that top.

Spend enough time with anyone in front of a mirror, and you'll learn not only about how much they hate their ass in every pair of jeans ever, but about all of the crazy details and dynamics of their lives.

Going through a divorce? Just experience a loss? Family skeletons falling out of the closet left and right? “I learned very quickly that everyone has a story, and a bad story,” Stephanie recounted to the Times.

And really, who better to sit and listen to your silly or not so silly struggle of the day than a woman who has quite publicly been through it all, and has somehow, miraculously, found her way to fine, all the while staying styled to a T? 

[Photo via @steph_mack]