Here’s a brief wrap up of fashion, style, and retail for 2013. These are merely my own subjective musings, so feel free to agree, disagree and add to the list. It’s all in good fun and there are no right or wrong answers. 

Best Trends: Fluid and oversized fits, pointy-toe footwear, ankle straps, dressy knitwear, trousers, white-out, boyfriend jeans, gold, high necklines, man coats and daytime sparkle. I loved most of the trends in 2013. 

Worst Trends: Cropped pants and cropped jeans in Winter. 

Most Saturated Items at Retail: Torn and distressed denim, rugged boots, and cropped pants. 

Most Undersupplied Items at Retail: Low heeled dressy knee-high boots, and longer skirt and dress hemlines. 

Favourite New Outfit Blogger: Veronica from Bittersweet Colours who we featured on youlookfab. I love the way she mixes irregular pieces and colours, leaves off jewellery, and looks elegant and graceful no matter how sporty the outfit. She skillfully achieves a minimalist look with bold pieces, which tickles my toes. Furthermore, Veronica was awfully modest and polite when we worked with her, which makes her extra stylish. 

Blogger’s Outfit of the Year: It’s Veronica in a pair of emerald green Adidas track pants that she matches with girly heels, an oversized pullover, military coat and graphic crossbody bag. Fashion forward flair at its best. Genius outfit. 

My Style Discovery of the Year: I can comfortably wear heeled ankle strap pumps if I choose the style with great care. I love, love, love dainty ankle strap footwear and am thrilled that hope is not lost for my fussy feet. 

Best Aspect of Today’s Fashion: There is no one way to be stylish. 

Worst Aspect of Today’s Fashion: Casualization. 

Favourite Photographer: Greg, my sweetie, because he creates stunningly beautiful images, and takes immense care when he photographs me for YLF. It’s a lot of extra work when you photograph a person who is not a professional model, and I applaud Greg’s infinite patience, tenacity, sensitivity and endless creativity. My outfit posts are truly a labour of love.

Favourite YLF Moments: Working with my soulmate Greg and close friend Inge daily is a gift and true pleasure. They say you should never work with family and friends, but in our case, it has worked out well. The YLF gathering in Santa Monica in late September was another vibrant highlight. Fabulous weather, fun friends, glorious food, great fashion, and all right by the sea. And shooting the videos for LG with Meredith was extremely fun. We talked ‘80s fashion and sang ‘80s music at 7am while having our hair and make-up done. Priceless. 

Worst YLF Moment: It was the end of a YLF era when we lost Rosie.  

Item of the Year: Knitwear. The bumper knitwear trend is sublime. Long may it continue. 

Favourite Photos of Audrey Hepburn: I like to pin old photos of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly in action with their pets and children, or spontaneously on the run off set. Here are my favourite photos of Audrey: 

Favourite Street Style Photo: This is how to hang out at a Brasserie. 

Worst Colour of the Year: I’m going to have to go with grey although I do wear it, love it on others, and dress many clients in shades of grey. But it’s a drab colour against my complexion and doesn’t make me happy unless I pair it with an acidic bright and/or lots of white. 

Favourite New Neutral: Ink Blue. 

Best Pastels: Light Blue and Blush

Retailers with the Best Customer Service: Zappos, Nordstrom and Amazon Prime still rate top in my book. But special shout-outs to Zara and Shopbop’s excellent online service. Ordering online from these retailers is fast and hassle-free.

Best Skincare Tip for Dry Facial Skin: Cleanse your face once a day, in the evening. 

Favourite Ad: Hamsters have never looked more cool than they do in this Kia commercial. The red carpet strut at the end launches me into orbit every time. Absolutely brilliant. 

Best Style Rule: Have fun with fashion at any age. 

I’m ending off the year with a photo that Greg’s Mum, Tuppy, took of us when she was visiting earlier this year. It’s special because it’s extremely rare to see photos of Greg, who much prefers to be on the other side of the camera. And even more rare that there is a photo of the both of us. Great job, Tuppy.

Angie & Greg