Style dresses pastor’s wife

Rima Shah

Gina Griem was known as a “bohemian” pastor’s wife with a fondness

for flowing Victorian dresses, throwing tea parties, waist-length

blond hair and rock ‘n’ roll boots.

Then she was picked to be on the Style Network makeover show, “How

Do I Look,” which airs at 9 p.m. every Monday.

The Tujunga resident and wife of Bryan Griem, pastor of Light on

the Corner Church in Montrose, is now a mini-celebrity among friends

and known for her snazzy new wardrobe, her short brown hair and her

rediscovered chutzpah.

“It’s motivated me to do other things in my life,” the waitress

and former theater and film major said.

Griem, 44, is considering getting back into acting and auditioning

for commercials.

Griem, a mother of two, hadn’t changed the way she looked in the

past 20 years before volunteering to audition for the show at the

request of a co-worker.

In the show, each candidate allows two close friends and a

professional stylist to raid his or her closet. Each of them creates

a distinct new look for the candidate. The package comes with a

wardrobe and a new hairstyle.

The candidate has to select between one of the three looks. The

suspense lies in the candidate guessing who created the new look.

In Griem’s case, her husband and best friend Michelle got to raid

the wardrobe and compete to create a new look.

Although Griem is happy with her new clothes and the experience of

being on the show, there were disappointments -- they threw away some

of her favorite outfits.

One of them was a black skirt, which “went with everything” and

had happy faces sewn down the side.

Her “rock ‘n’ roll” boots that showed her “Fleetwood Mac wannabe,

bohemian” personality, as her husband describes her, are also gone.

Her husband wanted his wife to get a professional, conservative

look fitting a pastor’s wife, Griem said.

“Gina’s kind of a free spirit, but her husband wants a more

conservative look,” the show’s trailers said.

Although he doesn’t put a lot of pressure on his wife to change,

Bryan Griem recalled past conventions for ministers where everybody

would be dressed more formally,.

“I had more of a rebellious penchant and dress the way I want to

be,” Griem said. “I like kind of vintage-y, eclectic kinds of

clothes, very rich material, velvet and satin -- the funky kind of

look.”

With her new wardrobe Griem will continue to be her old self in

spirit but with a new look.

The show, shot in November, will air at 9 p.m. tonight on Style

Network.

* RIMA SHAH covers business and politics. She may be reached at

(818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at rima.shah@latimes.com.