Exclusive | Inside the word-of-mouth wellness club Manhattan moms are flocking to with their daughters
It’s the pink mommy club of the Upper East Side.But only the well-connected seem to know it’s there. The Pearl — part fitness studio, part social club, part multigenerational event space for personal development programming and bachelorette parties alike — sits in a building like any other on a street like any other on the Upper East Side. There’s no signage or reason to believe taking the elevator to the fifth floor will bring you anywhere other than a dentist’s office or a tax consultant’s cubicle. Inside the 5,500-square-foot space, however, the ceilings are high and the feminine energy higher.
Clusters of ponytailed women in neutral Alo sets chat about this weekend’s wedding and last night’s fund-raiser.“Rachel, where did you get that tan?” one calls.
“Spray tan!” she replies.Down the hall, more break it down to Lil Jon’s “Get Low” during a popular hip-hop class led by professional dancer-turned-Pearl founder Marcella Guarino Hymowitz, who’d just chaired a youth ballet gala the night before. In the expansive studio next door, others stretch and sculpt with Kara Liotta, founder of the Hamptons-favorite fitness company KKSweat.“There are a lot of crossover clients who live in this area,” Liotta told The Post. It’s all drenched in pink: pink walls, pink tabletops, pink upholstery.
There are pink-tinted glass tiles, pink exercise balls and a pink MacBook behind the front desk.There’s even a pink mahjong set in the room where the ladies lounge and the tweens pose for TikTok. “I love pink — I wore pink to my proms,” Guarino Hymowitz said.
The pastel palette is also a not-so-subtle nod to her background in ballet. Guarino Hymowitz, a philanthropist who’s married to billionaire Gregg S.Hymowitz, opened The Pearl last summer after leading fitness classes for Upper East Siders in her home studio and in Central Park during the pandemic and beyond. The former Knicks City Dancer wanted somewhere to continue teach...