It’s All About the Hunt… in Fashion

It’s All About the Hunt… in Fashion

My mom taught me something when I was young that has stuck with me my entire life. She told me there will always be someone in the room prettier than you, smarter than you, funnier than you—you name it. But there will never be another person with your exact combination of all those things. That’s what makes you special.

Apparently, I took that pretty seriously, because I’ve spent most of my life not wanting to look like everybody else either. I’ve loved clothes since I was a kid. I started working when I was 11 so I could buy my own things. After years of wearing my brother’s hand-me-downs, having clothes that felt like me became pretty damn important. And that’s when my fashion hunt started.

I’M ALWAYS LOOKING…

If I’m at dinner and a woman walks by in something fabulous, I will absolutely stop her and ask where she got it. Restaurants, airports, hotels, other countries—I have no shame.

And living in Atlanta gives me plenty of opportunity. Put me at Chops, Umi, Clark’s or Delbar—or one of the newest places everyone suddenly has to get into—and yes, I’m looking at the food. But I’m probably looking at what the woman two tables over is wearing too.

If I haven’t seen it before, I want to know who made it, where she found it and what else that designer does. Some people might call that nosy. I call it being a tastemaker.

When I travel, the hunt gets even better. I’ve brought things back from Morocco, Cambodia and other places around the world simply because I found something fabulous and knew I wouldn’t see it everywhere else. Sometimes I find something for myself, sometimes it ends up at Range and sometimes it introduces me to a designer I never knew existed. For me, the fun has always been in the find.

I DON’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE

There are women who love having the bag everyone has, the shoe all their friends are wearing and knowing they’re perfectly on trend. Nothing wrong with that—it’s just not me.

I absolutely want to know what’s happening in fashion. We carry designers like L’AGENCE, PAIGE, SUNDAYS and Karina Grimaldi for a reason. But knowing what’s fashionable and looking like everybody else are two completely different things.

I want to take what’s current and make it personal. Maybe it’s a great designer piece mixed with something handmade, an unusual belt or bag, or something you bought ten years ago that suddenly looks fabulous again. Being fashionable is knowing what’s happening. Having style is knowing what the hell to do with it.

AND YES, I WEAR A LOT OF SWEATPANTS

Anyone who knows me personally is probably thinking, Isn’t this the woman I saw in sweatpants yesterday? Yes, yes it is. Everyday Sabrina is lazy. I love comfort, and I’m very comfortable in my own skin. Granted, they’re probably designer sweatpants. I said comfortable. I didn’t say I gave up.

But if I decide I’m going out, that’s Totally Different Sabrina. Dinner, party, event, trip—I want to nail it.

And I think a lot of women are exactly the same. We don’t need to look like we’re headed to Umi every time we run into Publix. You can love fabulous clothes and elastic waistbands. I certainly do.

THE HUNT EVENTUALLY BECAME RANGE

One of my favorite Range stories actually started with one of my customers. She told me she had a clothing line called Pieces Etc. and wanted to show it to me. I thought it was really cool, but I honestly wasn’t sure our customers would get it.

Well, I was wrong. We brought it in, and it became an instant hit and one of our biggest sellers. Every piece is handmade and one of a kind, and now people from all over the world buy it. That’s the kind of find I love—the thing you didn’t necessarily go looking for that ends up being exactly right.

Then there’s Cali Cuerpo, which pretty much sums up everything I love about getting dressed: effortless, feminine, sexy and EASY. Throw on a dress or set, add great shoes and a bag, and you’re done.

We’ve also created California Southern Style, our private label that combines the relaxed, cool chic of California with the feminine, brighter side of Southern style. It’s really the combination I’ve always loved—comfortable and effortless, but still interesting enough to make someone look twice.

And sometimes I can’t find exactly what I want, so I make it. That’s how the XOXO Sabrina dress with built-in shorts happened, and I currently have three more designs in the works. Apparently, the hunt has gotten slightly out of control.

I even let customers raid my own closet twice a year during Shop Sabrina’s Closet. I’ve spent my whole life finding great things, and some of them are just too good to sit in my closet when somebody else could be having fun with them.

BUT THIS ISN’T REALLY ABOUT CLOTHES

After more than two decades of styling women in Atlanta, I’ve realized the clothes are really just the tool. The goal is helping a woman look and feel special.

Maybe you already know exactly what your personal style is. Maybe somewhere between kids, work, menopause, marriage, divorce, changing bodies and approximately 4,000 pairs of black pants, you lost it. That’s okay. Style is allowed to change because we change.

One woman wants her arms covered. Another has been working on those arms for six months and those babies are coming OUT. Neither woman is right or wrong—they’re just different. And that’s the whole point.

It brings me right back to what my mom taught me. There will always be somebody prettier, smarter, funnier, younger, thinner—or whatever else we’ve decided to compare ourselves to that day. But there will never be another you. So why the hell would you want to dress like everybody else?

I’ve been hunting for the good stuff since I was 11, and now I get to hunt for other women too. Whether we find it at Range, halfway around the world, buried in the back of your closet or sitting right in front of us and we just need to style it differently, the best thing you can put on is something that makes you look in the mirror and think, “Yep. That’s me.”

XOXO,
Sabrina