The WiW's are one of my favorite parts of the forum. If I don't comment, I either didn't see your post or I'd just be repeating what everyone else said or I'm too tired to come up with an original comment or I am multitasking. By that I mean, I am on a conference call and surfing the WiW's and just looking at the pics. Which means I can't read or type!
Plus, it takes a lot of effort to carefully, tactfully word a response if you *don't* like an outfit, and sometimes I'm just not up to the effort. And then yes I just keep my mouth shut. And I may debate about coming back the next day when I'm fresher, but by then I realize I can't articulate to my own self why "I just don't like that shirt" or whatever. We don't all have to like the same things. We don't all have to have the same taste. That would be a boring world, wouldn't it?
Otherwise, I aim to treat everyone here like I would my own mom, daughter, girlfriend, coworker, etc. Sometimes my daughters, for example, will wear items that make me cringe. But I don't tell them that unless they ask my opinion, then I'll say something like "no, I'm not crazy about it" and "why don't you try this instead?" and "this would be more flattering." The only times I might be more direct and speak up without being asked my opinion are those times when it would be like allowing someone to walk around all day with spinach in their teeth! I would want to *know* I have spinach in my teeth, wouldn't you? Fashion equivalent: butt crack or thong showing or underwear lines. Also I think I once pointed out to someone here that the pattern on her jeans looked like she had wet her pants. Maybe I could have been more tactful in my wording. (Okay I think that was a K/R not a WiW).
Why I love the WiW's:
1) Inspiration. I get so many outfit ideas.
2) I love seeing real-life women wearing fashion! It makes it all so much more accessible. So yes, this does mean I may spend more time clicking through those who have similar body types as mine, are around same age, wear same color family, and have similar aesthetics. I think that's only natural.
3) The challenge of brainstorming how to tweak an outfit to make it better. The whole what works/doesn't work. Suggestions on what other outfits might be made out of the individual pieces. Doing this for multiple outfits each day, rather than just my own, helps fine-tune my own fashion sense. And yes, sometimes I'll offer such advice on a WiW even if it wasn't requested; I hope that is okay? I love it when I get that same sort of advice from others -- really helps me get out of fashion ruts.
4) I've said it before: the whole exercise of taking photos and being brave enough to post them (shudder) is like self-esteem therapy for me. Yes, it's great to get all the lovely validation and compliments, of course it is! But I already got my dose of therapy just by taking the photo and then posting it. The rest is icing on the cake. So nobody has to feel like they are obligated to give compliments, and nobody, please, needs to fear giving me constructive feedback.
It wouldn't bother me if someone said "I don't like your shirt." I would probably ask, "Why?" and whether I got a response or not, I would probably spend time not with hurt feelings, but articulating for my own self what *I* like about it. And that's a very valuable exercise.
