Nicole Richie: Style Guru

Last week was Nicole Richie's birthday (would have been cool if I had gotten this up then, but alas, life) and it reminded me how much I used to be obsessed with Nicole's style. Not that I don't love it now, but her looks that year were awesome. She set off so many trends.

It was around 2006 that Nicole went from Paris Hilton's trashy sidekick on The Simple Life to paparazzi star and fashion genius. I mean Nicole was truly at the forefront of the skinny jeans/ballet flats/giant bag combo (however she was also at the forefront of the disgustingly skinny fad but we'll overlook that for now.)

I mean technically I suppose we should give Rachel Zoe the credit as she gave Nicole the magical movie makeover we all dream of having (plus Nicole lost about a gazillion pounds which didn't hurt.) But it was Nicole that rocked it and I believe made everyone buy skinny jeans. I may even give credit to Nicole for sunglasses (ugh but Paris was actually a big part of that.)

Plus she is the only person who doesn't look ridiculous while wearing this:

Here are some of my favorite Nicole looks:

Love this dress!

She has a real rocker chic look going on and I love it. 

So we got skinny jeans, ballet flats, giant sunglasses and then of course the head scarf and skull scarf. I mean, hey, if you want to dress like Captain Hook, then you dress like Captain Hook.

And then there were those Balenciaga bags.

Because sometimes you just need two

That one is bigger than her!

I definitely tried to impersonate these looks (on the way cheaper cheaper side.) I think I did so somewhat successfully but no one looked as good as Nicole.

 Also, I love that this is what she wears to the gym.