Helene, a Style Dream

When Seth Pearl was a young boy, he dreaded the days his mom had to pick him up from school. The context of the visit didn't matter, either. He could've been sitting in the principal's office or simply waiting for a ride home. All he could think was, "Please let her look normal."

Having just graduated last week from Coronado High School, he never got his wish. And his mother, Helene Pearl-Zurlo, never apologized for it.

Pearl-Zurlo, 55, is a fashion taste maker in Las Vegas. Through retail jobs that include 13 years in Neiman Marcus' couture department and now as general manager of Beckley at The Cosmpolitan of Las Vegas, she's dressed local celebrities, legitimate celebrities, socialites and everything in between. And she's done so while maintaining a look that takes unmistakable style and unshakable courage to pull off.

The clothes horse can furrow brows, stretch smiles and whip heads into double takes. All with her attire.

It isn't unusual for Pearl-Zurlo to don a Mr. T abundance of necklaces. She has more leather gloves than a hog-riding biker and enough crazy hats to fit in just fine at a British wedding. One of her favorite fashion purchases, a pair of faux fur Chanel boots that look like Chewbacca's lower legs, came with a "do not wear while riding an escalator" warning. It doesn't take a whiz to conclude that Pearl-Zurlo's worst fashion nightmare consists of the very thing her son Seth hoped for as a kid: blending in.

The New York native didn't always ignite a flurry of whispers everywhere she went. It wasn't until she started working in a bank on Beverly Hills' famed Rodeo Drive in her mid-20s that the fashion bug bit her. Before that -- all through high school and college -- raw potatoes had more flavor than her wardrobe. As a notary in a bank that eventually turned into a Chanel boutique, Pearl-Zurlo made regular visits to her high-profile clients' homes. She found the actors' and stylists' clothes "intriguing." For the first time in her life, she craved a look beyond bland.

It took a visit to the Vidal Sassoon salon across the street from her bank and several shopping trips, but soon enough she had transformed herself. The hair was great, but creating outfits that inspired strangers to interrupt her lunches or flag her down on the street just to compliment her style made her feel she'd tapped into a real talent.

"I'm not artistic in any other way. I can hardly draw a straight line," she says. "But this is my artistic expression."

While shopping one day at a favorite boutique of hers, 818 Freight in Studio City, Calif., she got mistaken for a sales representative and went with it. The staff was shorthanded and Pearl-Zurlo kept pulling hits off the racks. She outsold every staff member in a matter of hours. The only time she entered a bank from that day forward was for personal business.

With a young daughter, Rachael, and her toddler, Seth, in tow, Pearl-Zurlo moved to Vegas in '97 and divorced their father shortly after. She worked at the Shauna Stein boutique near The Cheesecake Factory in the Forum Shops for 2½ years until it closed. The boutique's namesake served as a mentor for Pearl-Zurlo, who says Stein taught her much of what she knows today about styling.

That's exactly what distinguishes the fashion maven as a superior retail saleswoman today. Pearl-Zurlo has that rare ability to take an article of clothing and immediately know the perfect arrangement for it. For customers, she pulls back the reins. For herself, she lets the creativity run wild.

Melissa Richardson Akkaway, owner of Beckley, took note of Pearl-Zurlo's exceptional work while she was still at Neimans and recruited her when she brought her L.A.-based boutique to Vegas. When she was still a customer of Pearl-Zurlo's, she looked forward to seeing the clothes she'd pulled for her, but she looked forward to something else, too.

"Me and my husband used to go up the escalator and say, 'What do you think she'll be wearing this time?' '' she recalls. "Sometimes she'd have a bunch of necklaces or a cape. She'd be fully decked out and it would be 100 degrees outside."

It's more common to see a rebellious teenager dress with such abandon than to see a woman in her mid-50s do it. According to most women's magazines, the older you get, the more stringent the fashion rules get. Pearl-Zurlo refuses to observe such nonsense. She might show less skin than she did in her 30s, but thigh-high boots, miniskirts, stilettos and leather will always have a place in her heart and her closet.

"I don't get stuck in the rut that you can't wear this if you're this age," she says. "I find creative ways to interpret the trends and I never wear something the same way twice."

She refuses to say how much she spends on clothing each month, but does confess she's been known to carry new clothes into her home in clear bags so it looks like dry cleaning. If her husband of 11 years, Donato Zurlo, wasn't on to her already, the couture is now out of the bag.

Pearl-Zurlo's museum-worthy collection of Prada, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Chloe, Louis Vuitton and other esteemed designers takes up two walk-in closets that are 14 steps apart.

Her family and friends either admire her brave sense of style or have grown used to it. Even her son Seth.

"I mean, as a kid I used to be like, 'I'm not with this lady,' '' he says. "But, it doesn't bother me as much now. I'm like, OK, that's just her thing."