I call them “Comfort Clothes” – the baggy pegged jeans, the swing-shaped tees, the oversized cardigans, and the high top sneakers that have taken over women’s magazine pages this season. With These Economic Times calling for practicality, fashion has responded not with minimalism as it did in the early ‘90s, but cozy clothes that women can swaddle themselves in. Even First Lady Michelle Obama, The Queen of Practical Chic herself, has been known to rock a boyfriend cardigan or two – though she has yet to don a whiskered pair of roomy, rolled-up jeans.

But my question is, are you adopting this new trend? Are you trading in your fitted and embellished tops, curve-announcing dresses and sky-scraping stilettos for more comfy styles – or incorporating BOTH ideas into your closet? Do tell!

It’s time for another of my “celebrity” style posts, where we break down the looks sported by favorite stars and recreate the look for less than the cost of one Jimmy Choo.

• This mock-croc purse from F21 echoes the feel of Mrs. Longoria-Parker’s, but at a drastically cheaper price point.
• For petite women, it’s heels, heels, heels, all the time. Try some sky high platforms like these.
• Watch out for over-enthusiastic air conditioning in the summer and keep some of your body heat with a cashmere scarf.
• This melon-colored dress is light, airy and good to wear on this long, humid summer days.

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Rachel Bilson has an enviable sense of style. Despite her diminutive height, she managed to outshine the taller and more well-known Mischa Barton at every turn during The OC days. Rachel’s made dressing for her body into a work of art–nearly every photo of her belies the fact that she barely caps 5′1”-and-a-half. Proportion, style and a bit of quirkiness thrown in for good measure seem to be her trademarks, and those are definitely admirable trademarks for any amateur fashionista to follow.

I’ve taken three of Rachel’s distinctive looks and come up with affordable, look-a-like pieces you can buy and wear without maxing out multiple credit cards.

The LBD (”little black dress”) is something that every woman—no matter what she tells you—has at her disposal, awaiting a chubby day, a bad day, a rainy day or the ever-popular, “I’ve got nothing to wear day,” which is exceedingly common in my own home.

A LBD can be elegant, but can also translate just as fast to plain-old boring. How many times have you put on a black dress and added accessories or sweaters or switched up your handbag to try (try so hard!) to look different?

The best mode of action, as Rachel displays effortlessly here, is to pair your LBD with flowing hair, minimal jewelry and standout shoes. Yellow, red, purple or perhaps a color-blocked pair of pumps, but whatever you do, don’t wear black shoes with a black dress to any sort of fun party, because really, it’s not a funeral. It’s not.

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