About 3000 members, 794 blog posts, 6 gatherings and one television appearance. Wow. I can scarcely believe it’s been three years since Greg and I launched YLF. And we still haven’t missed a weekday post. That gets tricky, especially when you’re at the airport in a different time zone, desperately trying to get a wireless connection and they’re calling you to board.

Greg and I thoroughly enjoy YLF. I love writing my daily posts and helping out on the forum, while Greg gets a kick out of designing, marketing and maintaining the site. It’s a pursuit that’s close to our hearts and we love working on it together.

If you’re a long time YLF supporter, you know the drill. We like to celebrate the anniversary by reflecting on the activity of our readers and the things we enjoyed the most. Here are the 10 posts that received the most comments over the last year:

• Interviewing with NBC’s Today Show (87 comments)
• Olive oil: a safe solution for dry skin? (83)
• Bottom cleavage makes a comeback (83)
• The corduroy debate (69)
• Sex sells with American Apparel (68)
• Brainstorm: improving the world of retail fashion (67)
• Flip flops: yea or nay for everyday (64)
• Your pants to skirt & dress ratio (58)
• How many pairs of jeans do you own? (57)

I enjoy writing all of my posts, but over the last year I’ve particularly enjoyed writing about the following topics:

• Global style and fashion: We love to travel and share our style experiences with you.
• The psychological aspects of individual style: Looking good has an impact on how we feel and vice versa. In the name of fashion therapy I like to explore those feelings.
• A tried and tested item: I enjoy passing on information on a specific item that’s a winner for us all.
• Upcoming trends: Reporting in this way reminds me of my fashion buying and trend consulting days (I sometimes miss those).
• The best and worst of a season: Again, this reminds me of my buying days. It’s nice to add a retail perspective to the style equation.
• Accessories: This is the first year that we’ve added pictures of my outfits to the site in an effort to demonstrate the power of accessories. It’s such fun to work with my in-house photographer and see Rosie and Jasmine get in on the action.

Visually, we enjoyed the entries with beautiful photographs the most, such as the posts on YLF gatherings, clothing swaps and international experiences like Anne Fontaine, Shell pearls from Hong Kong and the Dr. Martens Revival. But my absolute favourite blog post of all time is this one. The furry little blog star decided all on her own to join the photo shoot. The picture makes my heart melt. I can barely stand it.

A big thank you to all our subscribers, forum members, daily readers and occasional visitors for making the YLF community what it is today. A special thank you to our guest bloggers for adding a classy and entertaining dimension to our site. Your valuable contribution is much appreciated and it would not be the same without you. Keep rocking your style and cheers to another fabulous year!

Shopping is overwhelming at the best of times, but these five strategies can help you to make excellent wardrobe choices:

• Make the final decision at home: If you don’t like something in your own mirror, you probably won’t wear it. Be disciplined about returning items that don’t make the grade.
• Focus on fit, not size: Style is beyond size. Achieve perfect fit instead of fixating on the size tag. Don’t be afraid to have clothing altered if the fit off the rack isn’t perfect.
• Don’t be swayed by low prices: If you compromise your fit and style standards just because something is inexpensive, you’ll end up with a closet orphan – a waste of money at any price.
• Spend money on bras, shoes, handbags, watches and spectacles: These are the items that increase your style quotient no matter what. Purchase the best that you can afford and watch their cost-per-wear whittle down to nothing.
• Find better bargains online where sales are more frequent: Stalk the items that you love, wait for them to go on random one-day sales, punch in a discount coupon code and enjoy your new purchase for much, much less.

On the topic of online bargains, one thing to check out is Boden’s clearance sale. They are marking down last season’s merchandise by up to 70% and this includes some good options for Spring.

Today’s post is written by Patience, a trendy forum member and long time YLF supporter who lives in Austin, Texas. She hit it off with two fellow forum members from Austin and they’ve been friends ever since. The super-stylish trio recently went on a shopping excursion to Dallas and this is what went down (I wish I had been there!).

It is 11:30 at night and I am sitting in the back seat of Ana’s bright yellow car listening to Ana and Sarah talk about everything from movies, body types, and what it means to have a fulfilling career to sour cream desserts, family relationships, and the YLF forum that made our friendship possible. Tonight, I am exhausted but content because we are returning from a marathon day of shopping at the Dallas Galleria, a three hour road trip from Austin.

I first met Ana in person last summer after arranging a lunch date through Angie and the forum. Sarah joined our new YLF shopping group as soon as we realized she was a fellow Austinite. We’ve been getting together at least monthly since then. Mostly for fashion related excursions like shopping at the Domain in Austin, closet clean outs and a clothing swap, but also to celebrate birthdays, see movies and have dinner. I feel so fortunate that we have become such good friends, and our interests go beyond shopping and fashion. I know that an afternoon, an evening or a day spent with Ana and Sarah will be uninterrupted fun.

On one of these outings we planned the trip to Dallas.

The highlight of the trip was visiting stores that we had heard about on the forum. For the first time ever, we shopped at Club Monaco, Zara, and Kate Spade. All three of us found several fashion treats to bring home, but the score of the day was Ana’s red Stuart Weitzman pumps. Sarah found a killer chestnut waist belt at Nordstrom, and Ana forced me to try on a Zara snake print pencil skirt because they didn’t have her size. Surprisingly, the skirt turned out to be my favorite purchase!

Driving home, we talk about how well our styles and personalities compliment each other. Often, we are successfully able to choose things for each other that we would never have dreamed of trying. It’s almost as if our group is able to conjure the spirit of Angie’s fashion stylist expertise.

Thank you, Angie and Greg, for creating YLF and being the catalyst to our great friendship!

The extended revival of ’80’s fashion over the past few years makes me think that a return of the ’90’s is not far behind. One early indicator: the bottom cleavage that was pioneered in the ’90’s and so popular with celebrities last year is coming back to the mainstream. So it looks like the comfort and girdling-effect of the higher rise may be short lived, soon to be replaced with low rises that are taken to a new extreme.

Personally, I like the look of super low rise pants because bottom cleavage is cute and alluring. It seems more subtle than bosom cleavage and when worn with attitude, it’s totally stylish. If you’re reticent about exposing the cleavage, wear a sweet pair of knickers along with the low rise. They’ll stick out above the waistband, covering the cleavage, and adding an interesting textural dimension to your ensemble.

I’m afraid it’s time to adapt your eyes to the look of bottom cleavage. That’s okay. We’ll be all over the trend before you know it, sporting it with sass and loads of confidence. I’m up for a change and I can’t wait to get a new pair of low rise jeans to start experimenting. Stay tuned on how to put the statement together with class when I model my outfits and post them next week.