California Dreamin'

The best outfits are supremely comfy, yet let you instantly look put together. In other words, they’re the perfect balance of laid-back coastal Cali and Hollywood chic, just like lifestyle guru and designer Lauren Conrad.

- Stacia Affelt

IF IT SEEMS like anything you can do, Lauren Conrad can do better—well, we understand. Take her trick for improving the seemingly unimprovable charity giveaway: “When doing a closet clean-out, make separate piles of stuff and send to appropriate locations [instead of] putting everything into one trash bag. There’s Dress for Success for work pieces and places that give nicer dresses to girls going to prom.”

But the biggest misconception about Lauren, according to Lauren herself: “It’s really funny to me when people have this idea that I have things very put together. My life is a bit of a mess, and I don’t broadcast that, but I like it that way.” That revelation might come as a surprise given that she has built a whole empire around making life as pretty as possible—from a clothing line for Kohl’s to eight best-selling books, including style and entertaining manuals.