Sabrina Carpenter Is About to Become Your New Favorite Fashion Person

You probably know her from Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World—though you might also recognize her from the red carpet or from the front row at Fashion Week: Actress and singer Sabrina Carpenter has been carving a space for herself in the industry and using fashion to make her presence known.

For Carpenter, establishing a strong point of view in fashion at this point of her life is essential to the legacy she wants to look back on later. “You really remember where [someone was] in their career based on their look and the trends that they started. That’s so powerful,” the 18-year-old tells Glamour.

She’s still working out exactly what she’d like her style to be defined as, she says, but taking ownership of her look is a consistent part of the equation. That translates into her taking on her very first fashion collaboration—with Aéropostale, which launches on April 8.

Loading

View on Instagram

She’s been an ambassador for A´éropostale since the holiday season. With this design partnership, she wanted to focus on accessibility, her 20 million followers across platforms always top of mind: Everything in the festival-ready collection will retail for under $50 and draws inspiration from her tour merchandise, which she says she also designs. Quadruple threat, much?

Then there’s how Carpenter presents herself, onstage and off.

She’s been working with stylist Jason Bolden since last fall, a partnership she says has helped explore different types of styles she might not naturally gravitate toward. “It’s always so, so hard to find people that you trust enough to allow them to pick out things for you that you would never pick out yourself,” she tells us.

Loading

View on Instagram

“I [take risks] in a lot of other areas, but fashion was always something that was harder for me because I am very petite,” Carpenter adds. “Things fit differently on me than they do on supermodels. [Jason’s] so good at not only giving me choices, but helping me step outside of my comfort zone.”

In the past year alone, we’ve seen Carpenter test out looks by Opening Ceremony, Missoni, Loewe, Nina Ricci, Off-White, Emilio Pucci, Balmain…the list goes on. (Again: She’s still in her teens.)

“Luckily in the lane of what I do, I’m able to take risks a lot,” she tells us. “Because I’m 18, I get to have a lot of fun and [face] a little less judgment than I would if I was older.”

Loading

View on Instagram

Carpenter’s quick to remember an instance where Bolden really turned her around to a particular look: the pink Céline dress from the Billboard Women in Music event back in November.

“When I saw it, I thought, That will literally look like a rag on me,” she remembers. “When we put it on, I was like, ‘OK. I’m getting more into this. I’m feeling a little like Princess Aurora.’ We got to the event and the red carpet was actually a pink carpet, and the whole event was surrounded by the color pink, and it worked so perfectly.”

Bolden and Carpenter have also worked together on the looks she wears while on tour—though those are more about striking that balance between visually representing her music and being realistic about what she can perform in. “When I’m onstage, I can’t wear stilettos, but I still want to exude that confidence that I sing about in my songs,” Carpenter explains.

Loading

View on Instagram

A prime example: Bolden dressed her in a black catsuit with a matching blazer and over-the-knee boots by Saint Laurent. “I can’t wear that to Whole Foods, but I can wear it onstage and it feels so good,” Carpenter says with a laugh. “It [says] that I can power walk and I can move, and it gets the message of the music across.”

Offstage and off the step-and-repeat, you’re more likely to see her dressed in head-to-toe black, or pieces that are a bit oversize. “For the past six months, no matter what store I go into, I shop in the men’s section first,” she shares. “I need to branch out with colors more because”—she pauses to gesture at her outfit: black T-shirt, black distressed denim, and black high-heeled boots—”I sometimes stick to what I know best.”

Loading

View on Instagram

Carpenter looks to her peers—other pop singers, with Rihanna topping the list—for fashion and attitude inspiration. “There’s this really funny meme that says, ‘It was ugly until Rihanna decided that it wasn’t,'” she says. “I never leave my house [dressed like] Rihanna, but I strive to be that kind of bold.”

While Carpenter’s keeping a close eye on her industry’s style leaders, she’s acutely aware of the influence her style choices has on her fans. “Obviously, young girls are so impressionable—I know that because I am one,” she says. Put all of her looks together, and you’ll notice that Carpenter follows a single fashion rule her eager fans can learn from: When it comes to her image, she’s in charge.

“I’m trying to create different things on my own without approval from other people,” she emphasizes, “or approval from people that think that they know better or are higher up in power.” Spoken like a woman who knows—and wears—what she wants.

Natalia Dyer of ‘Stranger Things’ Has a Few Things She’d Steal From Nancy Wheeler’s Closet

Blake Lively Just Explained Why She’s Her Own Stylist