Her Style is a bi-weekly article on Southern New Yorker, showcasing one fashionable woman styling a current trend of her choice, accompanied by an interview with her on fashion, beauty, career, and more!

Sophia Kountakis is a fellow Texan turned New Yorker, and is currently working on her Masters in Architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn after getting her Bachelors of Environmental Design from Texas A&M. She is interested in all types of design ranging from buildings to fashion. Sophia would eventually like to own her own store when she creates objects, fashion, and accessories to sell. She’s Greek, and her family is originally from Crete where she goes back to for a month every summer!

Sophia and I met because my older-sister’s childhood friend went to TAMU with Sophia and put us in touch when Sophia moved to Brooklyn! You may have seen her face often on my Instagram feed and Stories because she’s usually the person behind my camera! Sophia is one of the gals I’ve been so lucky to meet and become close with because of blogging, and I think you’ll love her unique style and personality!

How would you describe your style?

I would describe my style as classic. I wear common clothing shapes and silhouettes that either show the female figure or completely distort it. I love wearing neutrals and blues but recently, in past few years, I have leaned more towards color. A lot of color! I like patterns but I am typically drawn towards classic patterns like dots, stripes, or plaid/herringbone. If it’s a floral it has to have some nice coloring or be simple. I’ve always been this way but it has changed throughout time. I find myself leaning to more simple silhouettes as I get older.

Where do you find inspiration for your style?

My inspiration for my style nowadays comes from Instagram. I follow a mix of different influencers that I see have very different styles from my own and then I use that to either change or enhance my own style. Back in the day before the gram (lol) it was fashion magazines, as it is for most girls. 

What's your advice on how to style colorblocking?

My advice for color-blocking outfits is to find colors that have the same tone in them. So if you want to style an outfit around a bold orange color, find another color that has that same bold tone. You would block two/three pastels together. I only color block up to three colors at a time. It’s a standard design number and you want the colors to each have their moment, but I always find myself color blocking two colors for a bigger effect . There are standard ways of finding colors that go together like using the Color Wheel where you pick the color that’s opposite of the color you want on the wheel. If you want to create a look that is more of the same colors, you can try two warm tones or two cool ones. For example, a blue and a green or a red and an orange.

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What's one thing you're passionate about right now?

I am passionate about design. I feel like the answer to this question will be so vague because I’m an architecture student, but I believe design is integral to every day life, whether it be fashion or buildings and that’s why I am in this field.

You're such a unique and creative person, has that always come naturally to you or is it something you developed? 

My uniqueness and creativity has always been natural. I remember my parents always commenting on the way I put things together as a small child. I was also very artistic and loved to draw/paint/construct. I started putting outfits together (outside of school because we had uniforms) based on colors and patterns. My parents also made my sister and I dress the same but in different colors when we were young, so I also have a sense of styling myself against another person’s style. In middle school, I was changing it up and trying new silhouettes at the time that other kids weren’t wearing. I’ve always been commented on my style or makeup so I just take that with gratitude and a sign that I have an eye for style. 

What's one piece of style advice you wish you knew when you were younger?

I’m not sure if there was a piece of style advice I wish I knew when I was younger... The only thing I would say is that I wish someone told me before middle school that bronzer on your face only wasn’t going to deter the fact that my body was still pale! My dad eventually told me to not make my face darker than my arms! haha! I was in 7th grade, no one knew how to do makeup. Everyone just wanted to look tanner at my school so I fell into that trend. As for my style, even if I look back and cringe at some outfits, I can’t say that I hated what I was wearing because at the time I purposely chose what to wear and I loved it in the moment. Everything thing I wore, I chose on purpose and took the time to lay out that outfit. I still remember all the trends I used to follow or not follow and how I would wear them. I have definitely changed the way I think about style many times throughout my life, especially in the recent years where I am more comfortable with my body.

I hope you loved seeing how Sophia and I styled the Colorblocking trend, and learning more about her! If you want Her Style delivered to your inbox, you can get it here!

xoxo,

Audra