The Adventures of Elyse Bova
By Elizabeth DuMont-McCaffrey
Elyse Bova has “1837” tattooed on her ass. There are many ways for people to show their love for Mount Holyoke, but not everyone can be as awesome as Elyse Bova.
Elyse lives in San Francisco with Cam McCaugherty and Jackie Kajos, fellow Mohos. There, Elyse manages a fashion boutique in Haight Ashbury founded by a recent immigrant who supported three daughters on her own. The boutique started out as a fashionable yet affordable clothing shop, however, over the years, the owner was able to save enough money to establish her own clothing line, Audrey 3+1, that is now sold in stores nationally.
Before working at the boutique, Elyse didn’t realize that fashion was her passion, but now her career goal is to be a part of the fashion industry. Elyse’s next step is to move to NYC. She plans to attend SUNY FIT and hopes to become an assistant to an international buyer.
Elyse also met her girlfriend, Mahsa Matin, in San Francisco and it is a creepy/adorable story. On a crowded bus one afternoon, Elyse spotted Mahsa and recognized her from a newspaper article she read about Mahsa’s one woman show. She stared like a creeper. Mahsa noticed. Because Elyse was so distracted by Mahsa’s beauty, she forgot her wallet on the bus. Mahsa found the wallet and sent Elyse a Facebook message to tell Elyse she had it. She then went over to Elyse’s to return her wallet and they have been in love ever since.
In her spare time, Elyse takes fashion classes at a local community college, does yoga with her girlfriend and models for photographers and artists. She is also obsessed with Sabrina the Teenage Witch and is currently rewatching all the seasons and can’t get enough of all of the ‘90s references. Although she knew her roommates would be embarrassed for her, she also admitted that her guilty pleasure is Pretty Little Liars.
She also hangs out with a slew of Mount Holyoke women including Chloe Kramer Baldwin, Stephanie Halstead, Ginnie Venuto, Carlo Butler and Natalie Chang. She even hired Emily Juarez ‘10 to work at one of her Audrey 3+1 stores for the summer before she heads off to Stanford this fall! The last thing they all did together was SF Pride which she described as a “weekend of debauchery.” However, usually, when they get together they are pretty low key. They like to make food, drink wine, and talk about world issues that are upsetting them.
Like all Mount Holyoke alumnae, Elyse misses her time in college. She mentioned that she loved the safety and security she felt on campus compared to her life in the city these days. She also misses some of her professors and noted, “Paul Staiti was pretty bomb.”
If you are a 2010er in NYC, look out! Elyse will be there soon enough as fashionista extraordinaire. We can only hope that one of the first trends she sets is 1837 butt tattoos.
