Nordstrom’s new shop by text programme, Lucky Magazine to become a quarterly, two new designer collaborations, and more style news from around the globe this week.

• H&M has announced that they are joining forces with Balmain for their next limited-edition capsule collection.
• Peter Pilotto has won the very first Swarovski Collective award for his Spring and Fall 2015 collections.
• “Riviera Style“, an exhibition celebrating swimwear from the past 100 years opens today in London’s Fashion and Textile Museum.
• Nordstrom customers can now use the new shop by text programme to purchase items on their phone.
• After this year’s May issue, Lucky Magazine will become a quarterly publication, which is being described as “a cross between the current Lucky and the brand’s annual Special Interest Publication.”
• Target’s next designer collaboration is a line of customizable jewellery, accessories and wall art by Eddie Borgo.
• Gap partners with Zalando to bring part of their collections for women, men, kids and babies to 14 European countries.

Fun Fashion Fact

Cosmetics brand Maybelline celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Did you know that the company was founded by then 19-year-old Tom Lyle Williams who named the company’s very first product, a mascara, after his sister Mabel. It was inspired by how she used to apply a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to her eyelashes to give them a darker, fuller look.

This ensemble was inspired by forum member Debbie who combined an old pair of black ankle pants with Karen Kane’s Asymmetrical Wrap Hem Top and Franco Sarto’s Holt Flats. She finished off the outfit with a statement necklace and looked absolutely smashing. The combination is a variation on the fashionable business casual ensemble I posted a few weeks ago. 

Choose any colour palette. Here are the components of the ensemble:  

Ankle Pants: You’re after slim-fit ankle pants in a solid or pattern. The ankle pants should finish a few inches above the ankle to showcase the ankle strap of the footwear. Debbie created a high-contrast look between the top, pants and shoes – which is the outfit on the left – but feel free to create a lower contrast between the items like the centre outfits that combine a black top with cobalt or black ankle pants. Or choose patterned ankle pants and combine with a solid top. 

Drapey Top: Choose a knit or woven top with an asymmetrical hemline and lots of drape to wear over the pants. I chose a white ruched drape front top, a black shark bite top, and a drapey blush tank with a side point hem. It’s important that the fronts, or part of the fronts of the tops are fairly short to maintain long proportions on the leg line.

Ankle Strap Footwear: Ankle strap footwear is a match made in heaven with ankle strap pants. Choose flats or heels with ankle straps that are positioned on or above the ankle bone. Ankle straps that are positioned below the ankle bone do not have the same visual effect. High-vamped sandal booties with ankle straps are another way to go. 

Accessories: Finish off the look with a handbag that works with the outfit. Add jewellery, headgear, eyewear and watch as desired. 

As an optional extra, top off the outfit with a vest, denim jacket, lightweight moto, or boxy trapeze silhouette jacket.

During an CFDA panel earlier this month, a group of fashion insiders discussed their experiences with diversity in the fashion industry. Afterwards, I went looking for more articles that shed light on this very important topic:

• The Fashion Spot examined women’s fashion print ads for Spring 2015, and found an alarming lack of diversity.
• BoF reports that one of the most promising growth areas for beauty brands “is the expanding market for so-called ‘ethnic’ or ‘multicultural’ beauty products, meaning products targeted at multi-ethnic consumers in both the West and in emerging economies.”
• Nudevotion is an online store that offers customers nude apparel — clothing, bags, accessoris, make-up and shoes — according to their own skin tone.
• A shoot for Icelandic Glamour featuring five models who set up ALDA, “an organization that aims to widen the definition of beauty and works to expand the size representation of modeling agencies in New York”, is getting very positive reactions.
• Marquita Pring, one of the co-founders of ALDA, is also part of lingerie brand Panache’s Modelled by Role Models campaign that “aims to shift the perception of what being a model really is — being celebrated for contributions to society and personal achievements rather than physical attributes.”
• The public support for 18-year-old Madeline Stuart, an aspiring model who has Down syndrome and wants to change the way people discriminate against disability, has been overwhelming.
• In this video, Nicolette Mason discusses why queer voices matter in fashion.
• Jessica Kane, creative director of online store Cool Gal Blue, explains why they only work with non-professional models.

Fab Links from Our Members

Dee had fun watching the new Iris Apfel documentary, and wanted to share this interview with the eclectic style icon.

E enjoyed this comprehensive guide on how to go on a meaningful “shopping fast” that lets you evaluate your habits and decide what you want your future consumption to look like.

Angie liked Sally’s thoughtful piece on body image and paradigm traps (she does like liquorice though!).

In honour of the Mad Men finale, Kari points us to this article and slideshow on the style evolution of certain characters.

Joy was caught up in Bill Cunningham experiencing the Greenmarket in Union Square, the dogs, wisteria and, of course, fashion. “Do people have a Farmers’ Market style?”, she wonders.

Marlene enjoyed reading Sally’s thoughts on the difference between normcore and classic style.

Vildy liked this article about five Japanese brands who are “reinventing multiple menswear archetypes (the outdoorsmen, the Ivy Leaguer, the surfer dude)”.

Runcarla and her son enjoy analyzing and learning from the outfit posts and the style articles over at Primer.

Vicki’s womanly feminist alarm went off when she read that women sporting flats were being banned at the Cannes Film Festival, even though she finds the story intriguing from a cultural perspective.

Laurinda adds: “Kudos to Inès de la Fressange and Isabella Rossellini for rebelling in flats.”

Deborah loves reading and seeing how minimal wardrobe capsules work for some women. 

It never occurred to Karymk that newly purchased clothing might need to be washed before the first wear. But that is exactly what Donald Belsito, a professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center, recommends.

Daria directs us to a New York Times article about the rebirth of Old Navy.

After reading about the art director who wears the same outfit to work every day, writer Alicia Cohn tried the same thing for a week. Beth Ann found the questions she poses, e.g. “Simplicity has become trendy. But what are we simplifying for?“, very interesting.

The surveys we ran in the past gave us extremely useful information and informed some important decisions. With today’s survey both members and non-members can give us input on some changes we’re considering, help us to set priorities, and influence the direction of YLF.

Input from our readers and members is particularly important right now because we are approaching some important decision points. For one thing, I want to re-examine the topics we write about and make sure that we are covering the things that are most important to you. So one of the questions in the survey asks you about your favourite posts.

Another thing we’re grappling with is the role of advertising on YLF. Nothing has generated more negative feedback than the ads on the site. Sometimes because the content is offensive or distracting, and sometimes because the ads have technical issues that slow the site down. The ad networks we work with provide tools to manage this sort of thing, but they aren’t perfect. We launched the latest design of YLF with fewer ad networks and fewer ads on the site and we are thinking about ways we can reduce our dependence on ads even further.

Of course, the revenue we receive from ads helps us to keep the lights on, so we need to think about alternatives. A few questions in the survey are about gauging your interest in some of our initial ideas.

The survey is short and shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to fill out. Responses are completely anonymous. If you aren’t a member then it is especially important that we hear from you. Please use the survey to let us know what you think.

Once again, here is the link to the survey. Thank you.