In her charming Italian accent, Saula Valente explained that she loves the color blue and simply wanted to wear blue for the Houston Community College "Passion for Fashion" kick-off at a swank mansion in Southampton. Thus, she pulled the sparkly Alice + Olivia cocktail dress, a find at Neiman Marcus, from her closet and dressed it up with a black silk scarf from Italy and tied it in an over-sized bow at the neck.

As is the au courant look, Valente wore opague black tights with the beaded dress and topped them with sexy Valentino boots from Saks Fifth Avenue. Her Dior handbag came from the Dior boutique in the Galleria.

Valente moved to Houston from her home in Venice, Italy, 15 years ago but clearly hasn't lost the innate Italian talent for smart dressing.