Sonoma County style

Kate Morison, left, and Andrea Barrett, owners of Looking Glass boutique, Healdsburg. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)

You don’t have to be a fashionista to make a fashion statement in Sonoma County.

Those country duds with a lot of bling? They don’t cut it anymore. Around these parts, we’re into non-fussy style. And that’s the joy of living here. You can throw on a pair of jeans and a tailored blazer, some high-tech Nike running shoes or a pair of vintage cowboy boots and still feel like a million bucks.

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Even if you’re just going to the post office.

“I have a lot of dressy apparel, but here, I don’t have a lot of reason to wear it,” said Kate Morison, owner of the Looking Glass boutique in Healdsburg. “I like to take dressier items and dress them down.”

Not that there aren’t occasions to bring out the 1940s cashmere cardigan and feathered mini-skirt. Locals often favor vintage dresses and shoes, local designer duds and “festival wear,” a la Burning Man, when they go out to a club to dance and party wtih friends.

Here is a look at some of the styling young trend-setters we spotted, from Petaluma to Healdsburg.

Healdsburg (by Diane Peterson)

The Looking Glass in Healdsburg may be the only boutique with a champagne bar in the back. But that’s not the only classy touch.

Andrea Barrett, left, and Kate Morison (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)

Co-owners Andrea “Andy” Barrett, 36, and Kate Morison, 39, stock the store like they fill their own closets, with timeless pieces you can return to, season after season.

“I love modern classics,” said Barrett, who is married to Tod Brilliant, communications director of the Post Carbon Institute in Santa Rosa. “It’s a piece that you can pull blindly from your closet, and it will look good with whatever you’re wearing.”

Barrett can’t live without her navy, cotton-wool knit jacket from Rag & Bone, a New York line inspired by classic British tailoring.

“I can wear that every season, and dress it up and down,” she said. “I call it investment dressing.”

The Mill Valley native, who has been thrifting since high school, likes to pair modern pieces with one or two vintage items.

“One of the key things is being able to mix the finer clothing with everyday reality,” she said. “I love my vintage cowboy boots.”

Morison, a native of Ohio, was drawn to fashion through her entrepreneurial spirit. The petite blond started out sewing and making quilts. She opened her first boutique in Boston in 1999.

Her own wardrobe is a crazy-quilt mixture of prints. On a wintry afternoon, she topped a pair of jeans with a crisp, Liberty Cotton print shirt and beige scarf.

“I’m wild about prints, and I always wear dresses,” she said. “I like to take dressier items and dress them down.”

The business partners first met in in 2003, after Morison had married winemaker Ames Morison of Medlock-Ames and moved to Healdsburg. Barrett, who was managing a boutique, helped Morison pick out a top.

“Andrea was the first person I actually listened to,” Morison said. “I tried it on, and I was totally happy with it. I’ve worn it hundreds of times.”

Shopping parties, such as the first annual Absolutely Fabulous, Hung-Over New Year’s Day Sale and Party, have put the boutique on the map. San Francisco Racked recently gave it a nod as one of the Top 38 Essential Bay Area Shopping Experiences. (sf.racked.com)

“People come in and say, ‘Champagne and shopping?!’”