Sabrina Allard has been inspiring me from afar for a while now. I briefly mentioned my collaboration with her in my previous post, but I also took part in her ReStyle Challenge last month.

I don’t consider myself to have a mainstream fashion sense — I’m not particularly interested in brand-names and I can’t afford high-end fashion like Gucci and Prada {though I would love to fill my closet with clothing from Betsey Johnson and kate spade}. I keep up with some current trends like skinny jeans and cute flats, but mostly because they are comfortable and make me feel me. But, what really makes my style is color, and lots of it.

I reached out to Sabrina because I was having trouble reconciling my fun and cutesy clothing that I like to wear to school and on the weekends with my “professional” work-appropriate attire. We don’t have a strict dress code  at work — we often wear nice jeans and nice t-shirts — but I felt like my “big girl work outfits” are boring and monochromatic. Being on a tight budget, I also wanted to know how to make more out of what I already own. So, I called in the expert.

Okay, I admit it, I mostly just wanted to hang out with Sabrina. She has this inspiring, non-stop, up-beat attitude towards life that I really admire. She came over my house on a Saturday morning and I treated her to chocolate-chocolate pancakes {recipe coming soon} before we hit my closet. Just having Sabrina peruse my closet was beneficial. She threw pieces together that I would have never thought of pairing, assuring me that I already have “a closet full of great clothes.”

After rifling through my closet, we took a trip to the mall, where I tried on lots of clothes, but only came back with a skirt, a casual dress, and a few accessories because Sabrina taught me to be really critical of what I buy. Here are a few of her tips:

• Never buy anything unless you 100% love it. I found a few skirts and shirts that I liked, except I wasn’t a huge fan of the length of the skirt or the embellishments on the shirt, etc. Even so, I probably would have bought them and “dealt with” the little things I didn’t like. Sabrina didn’t let me make that mistake. “You’ll buy it, then you’ll obsess about what you don’t like about it, and it will sit in your closet collecting dust.”
• Never buy anything unless it’s a perfect fit {unless you can tailor it}. I’m a big fan of flirty, flowy short skirts. Unfortunately {well, I consider it fortunate}, I have a nice little booty. So, because I have a tiny figure, when I put on a flowy skirt, my butt sort of pops out and it ends up looking a little funny rather than cute. Still, I love having cute skirts in my wardrobe and I would have bought more, but Sabrina reminded me that I would obsess over the way my butt pops and never wear the skirts. I also found this gorgeous 60s-style polka dot dress at Delia’s and it fit perfectly except the torso was a little long. If Sabrina hadn’t been there, I would have spent $40 on the dress and probably never worn it because it would always look a little strange in the torso-region.
• Never Sacrifice Your Personal Style. Yes, pinstripe pants and pencil skirts are great for the office, but are they you? How can you make them look you? {See next tip!} Find basics that you’ll wear without giving up your identity.
• Accessorize! In my ReStyle Challenge post, I tried to add colorful shoes, scarves, and necklaces to my boring, monochrome clothing in order to make my outfits more interesting. Sabrina stressed the importance of accessorizing, especially for me. “We need color in our outfits to feel right,” she told me. “Especially you. Bright colors are signature Sami, and you need to stick with that even when you’re wearing all black.” Sometimes, cute pink shoes are all you need to brighten your day.

Possibly my favorite part of our whole collaboration was the photoshoot we did with my friend Mayya Medved. We had so much fun! I can’t wait to work with them more! Check out more of the pics after the jump!

Continue reading ReStyle ReVisited: My Styling Session with Sabrina Allard »