Welcome to the third stage in the life of youlookfab.com!

First, YLF was a Blog

In 2006 Greg introduced me to this blogging thing and showed me how I could use it to take my knowledge about fashion and style to a much wider audience than I could reach through one-on-one wardrobe and style consulting. Before long we had lots of readers and many of you were asking for advice on topics relating to YLF.

Then there was a Forum

The second stage began in January last year. We decided to introduce a forum that would make it much easier for people to communicate with each other. This took off faster than we expected and we watched in amazement as an intelligent, compassionate and supportive community emerged. The strength and power of the YLF forum continues to blow my mind.

Now, the beginnings of a Social Network

Now that we’ve seen the potential of this community, we’d like to take it further. Closer to a full social network where you can express your style and share it with others. So over the past few months we have been working on some big changes under the covers to make this possible.

Today we are super excited about enabling the first three new features:

• One YLF Identity: Previously you only logged into the forum. Today when you log into YLF, you are logging into the whole site. This means that when you comment on the blog, the site will recognize you and automatically add your name and details.
• Your Style Profile: You can now create a rich profile that describes you and your preferences in a lot of detail (or a little, if that’s what you would prefer). You can also add a profile picture that will be displayed alongside your forum posts AND blog comments. This could be a picture of you, your beloved pet, or something completely different.
• Private Messaging: You can send private messages to other members. This lets you chat privately with other members, without needing to divulge your email address. Of course, you can also use private messaging to exchange email addresses with other members that you trust.

Over the next few days we will post more details about using these features. The more adventurous can jump right in. The new tab at the top of the page will take you to the Profile.

How to get started

If you are a forum member today, then you’re already a full YLF member with a profile page and the ability to send private messages. The information you previously specified in your forum profile is already in place, but now you can add a profile picture and provide additional information about yourself and your style preferences.

If you are a regular reader on the YLF blog, but haven’t yet dipped your toes into the forum, consider signing up. Even if you don’t use the forum, posting your comments on the blog will be more convenient, and you will be able to get to know other YLF readers a little better through their profile pages.

We’d love your feedback

These are our first small steps, but we will be adding more features over time. Please let us know what you think of the new features and if you experience anything strange (there are bound to be a few teething problems), you can comment on this blog entry, or go to the forum and leave your feedback there.

We hope you enjoy the new features as much as we do!

For the most part, my significant other Greg likes what I wear. I attribute this to the fact that we have very similar aesthetic preferences. We both like strong, sleek, simple, modern, edgy and retro silhouettes. Nothing too bohemian, earthy, whimsical or ornate. We adore geometric patterns, bold contrasts, saturated colours, black & white, military styling, turtle necks, textured surfaces, zipper trims, superb quality and clever design detailing. We’re two peas in a pod.

But there are things I love to wear that don’t go down particularly well. For example: ruffles and frills, shiny fabric, poufy sleeves and lace. I’m happy for Greg to say those types of silhouettes are not his cup of tea. I appreciate his opinion. At least he has one! But that doesn’t stop me from wearing these items. I just know that on the days I wear ruffles, shiny things and poufy sleeves, Greg is not going to love my outfit. And that’s okay. We can’t both love everything all the time.

Does your significant other like your style? Is it important that they like what you wear? Do you ever wear items that they don’t like? I’m really interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

Update: It turns out that Hanna from the forum wrote an interesting personal perspective on this topic just yesterday. Her experiment, asking her significant other to describe her style in 5 words, is a great idea.

Note: When I wrote this post I had quite a broad definition of “significant other” in mind. The The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy captures it well. “A person whose close relationship with an individual affects that individual’s behavior and attitudes. A significant other is usually a family member, spouse, child, employer, coworker, friend, or lover, who serves as a role model or whose acceptance and approval is sought.”

There is going to be a lot of black in the Autumn and Winter collections this year. More than normal. I adore the right black wardrobe items and my personal style wouldn’t function without them. Black is a good basic and certain items just look best in this colour. But I’m a little worried about the sea of black that’s forecast for stores this season.

Black is not flop proof. It can look dull, severe and lifeless against the skin, especially as you get older. Yet for many women it’s become an easy fallback option because of the perception that black is versatile, chic and slimming. Black is all of those things, but it has to be worn in the right way. It can look great when worn head to toe, if there is ample textural interest. Texture adds movement and depth to the hue, bringing it back to life. Black is also beautiful paired with white, cream, grey or rich reds, blues and browns. As for the rest, it’s a little trickier to get right.

I hope there’s enough colour variety this season. Although it’s stylish to wear black in the right doses, it’s refreshing and uplifting to wear a colour other than black, especially on a chilly day. Do you wear too much black?

Some typical pairings of black items this season. Wearing black with black is often encouraged, once again confirming my earlier suspicions about a 90’s revival in fashion.

The 80’s revival of fashion has brought back skinny zippered  jeans, but the modern incarnation is longer, sleeker and full of stretch. What would we do without stretch! I shudder to think. It’s the only way to wear tight clothing.

I was enamored with the idea of sporting zippered skinnies again because of my weakness for zipper detailing. I also fell in love with how the hems cascade over the foot and expose the ankle bone when unzipped, adding an unexpected and interesting detail to the outfit. So I recently added a premium pair to my denim collection and they’ve become a fast favourite. I’ve worn them three times in the last week.

These particular skinnies are tighter than my other pairs, but surprisingly more comfortable because they’re softer with more stretch. And you can’t even feel the zippers. Because they’re tighter, they’ve added a bit of curve to my legs which is a welcome change. It’s nice to have a variety of skinny jeans, each with a slightly different look and fit.

Zipper detailing is quite masculine and severe, so I like these jeans best when contrasted with feminine touches. Above on the left I’ve matched them with girly items: a ruffle blouse, oversized pearl beads and low yellow pumps. But I couldn’t resist throwing in the androgynous boyfriend blazer for some 80’s fun. A huge blast from the past, but much improved and I’m enjoying every second of it.

I’ve added similar feminine accents in the outfit on the right: a waterfall draped top, Chanel-esque jacket and chunky pearls. The buckled black booties are edgier, but I like how they contrast with the prim and proper top half of the ensemble.

The zippered skinny is also great zipped-up, where it essentially becomes a normal pair of skinnies. Above you can see a close-up of my new pair zipped and scrunched with flats. I wasn’t sure about unzipped with flats because of the length, but I wore this look yesterday and it worked fine. Lots of possibilities.

If you don’t like skinny jeans, this item is not for you. But if you’re all over the silhouette like I am, give the zippered version a try. They are available at Banana Republic, Martin & Osa, Nordstrom, Guess, Armani Exchange, Bebe and Shopbop at the moment and they’ll turn up in more stores as the season progresses.