I enjoyed Alyson Walsh’s article on how to keep your feet looking great when you’re older because it not only gives tips on footcare but also has some nice suggestions for comfortable footwear brands.

Commenters on Alyson’s own website, That’s Not My Age, are chiming in with more suggestions for comfy shoes. A few brands mentioned are: Birkenstock, Mephisto, Stubbs & Wootton, and Varca. I’m liking the look of some of the leather and suede Varcas, and would love to hear if you have ever tried the brand.

Lisa from Amid Privilege is considering a pair of slides to amp up her footwear style. Her readers are also recommending shoes by Arche, Naot, Jack Rogers and Bernardo.

Alyson’s post also reminded me to take another look at Camper. My now retired black knee-high Camper boots are still the most comfortable shoes I have ever sported. The last few years, their styles were a bit too sporty and rugged for my own style preferences, but several of their current styles look very promising (all available in different colours): Beth, Beth II, Maude, Isadora, Twins.

I’m curious, have you recently come across new-to-you or tried-and-tested footwear brands that make a stylish and comfortable shoe? 

Fab Links from Our Members

“Is It OK To Wear Nude Hose Again?” Joy found this article interesting because it declares that the return of nude hose was demanded by women who want a more finished look.

Suz thinks The Refinery’s head-to-toe wardrobe capsule approach might be a litte more realistic for those of us who live in a four season climate.

This Wardrobe Oxygen blog post explains a lot of Vildy’s frustration with retail: stores keep changing their focus and customer profile.

Kirstjen and Vildy both wanted to share “Fashion’s Secret Blockbusters” — an article about popular items that reliably sell out and return season after season. It made Vildy wish she was a lot richer: “I would be happy buying just one style of pants, one jacket, one dress. And be able to shop the way traditional men used to shop: just replace what works since it’s always in stock.”

Olivegreen directs us to this article about “The Gamine in Many Guises“.

One simple way to create outfit cohesion is to bookend the outfit by matching your footwear to the colour of your hair. The colour repetition frames the outfit and pulls it together. 

The colour match needn’t be exact. Subtle matches can also be striking. Here are some examples for a variety of hair colours.

• Platinum Blonde: White, cream, bone, stone, cool blush, light grey and gold footwear. Patterned footwear that incorporates shades of white, stone and gold are a more subtle way to bookend blonde hair. 

• Dark Blonde: Shades of tan, taupe, mushroom and pewter footwear. Patterned footwear that incorporates shades of light brown are the more subtle option. 

• Strawberry Blonde: Warm shades of beige, warm tans, blush, light cognac, rose gold, bronze, gold and cheetah footwear. 

• Medium Brown: Darker shades of taupe and mushroom, donkey, dark bronze and chocolate brown.

• Dark Brown: Black, ink, mushroom and dark grey footwear.

• Black: Black, ink, dark chocolate and dark grey footwear.

• Red and Auburn: All shades of cognac, mid tones of brown, burnt orange, deep shades of coral, bronze and cheetah footwear. 

• Grey: All shades of grey, pewter and silver. Salt ’n pepper hair looks great bookended with black, dark brown and grey footwear. Light grey hair is a match made in heaven with white, silver, light grey and off-white footwear.

• Burgundy Streaks: Burgundy footwear looks amazing with burgundy streaked hair. 

• Rainbow Hair: Hair that has been streaked or fully dyed an unnatural colour like pink, blue, green, purple, teal, turquoise and neon looks amazing with footwear in the same colour. 

Of course, bookending is by no means the only way to create a cohesive outfit. And it’s possible to achieve great outfit cohesion without it. Ladies with dark hair look great in light footwear, and vice versa. And you don’t need to have rainbow hair to wear non-neutral shoes. 

If you have blonde hair, you might like to wear dark footwear when you’re wearing a dark column of colour, or when you’re wearing dark bottoms and need to elongate the line of the leg. Ladies with dark hair might like to wear light footwear when they’re wearing white jeans, again, to elongate the leg line. 

Bookending is a highly effective styling tool that I frequently use in my own outfits and when dressing clients. For example, when a client with black hair wears white-out, finishing off the look with black footwear works because it matches her hair. However, adding black footwear to my own white-out looks tends to look off because of my platinum blonde hair. As soon as I add light footwear to the outfit, it’s visually balanced.  

Most of my footwear bookends the colour of my blonde hair to some extent because I like the effect of the visual balance. But perhaps just as importantly is the fact that I wear a lot of white, light, and bright colours, which tends to work better with light-coloured footwear thereby creating the soft vibe I’m after. If I wore dark colours almost exclusively from head to toe, I’d have a much larger collection of black, ink and grey footwear. 

Over to you. Do you like to bookend the colour of your hair and your footwear to create visual balance?

A big thank you to all of the 800+ people who took the YLF survey last week. It was a fantastic response, and over this last weekend we spent many hours poring over your answers and suggestions. 

Some of what we saw was not surprising to us. 

• Blog, Forum, then Finds: The Blog has the broadest appeal, the Forum has the most participation, but Finds is also gaining in popularity. We even have a few users who focus on Finds and seldom use the blog or forum.
• Style Advice: The most popular posts on YLF revolve around style advice and trends. “Detailed style advice posts” are tops by a long way, and “Wardrobe capsule posts”, “Ensemble posts” and “Posts about trends and seasonal trend reports” were in a following group that was quite a bit ahead of anything else. By the way, some people were worried that we’re looking to cut certain types of posts and that isn’t the case. We’re just trying to figure out what is most popular so we can better focus future efforts.
• Mobile in the Minority, but Gaining: Most people still visit YLF using a desktop or laptop computer, but phones and tablets are closer behind than ever.

There were also a few surprises. For instance:

• Ads Are OK: An overwhelming majority of people are happy to use YLF with ads. Only 3% said they would prefer to pay for an ad free option.
• Morning People: YLF visitors have an overwhelming preference for visiting in the morning. This is when 38% of people normally visit. “No particular time of day” was at 34% and evening followed at 15%. Midday, afternoon and late were single digit percentages.
• youlookfab.com: Relatively few people who responded follow YLF anywhere other than on the website. Pinterest was most popular, but less than 10% of people often follow YLF there.

We didn’t have many preconceived ideas regarding the question about products people would consider purchasing from us, but the answers were very interesting. The most popular option by far was the “DIY style refresh”, followed by eBooks and physical books, with style advice videos being least popular.

The answers to the open ended questions were very thought-provoking. More than 450 people took the time to write to us. We really appreciate the time and thought that went into this and the three of us read every single word that was written. We will be drawing from this input for some time to come, but I would like to highlight a few things that came up about the website itself, and what we plan to do about them.

A very common piece of input was that the front page design made it hard to follow recent posts. We agree. It is harder than it should be to make sense of the post order beyond the most recent 2 or 3 posts. We have a few immediate changes to address this.

1. There is now a “Most Recent” block near the top of the page that lists all of the posts over the last week or so.
2. The “browse all posts” link in this block will take you to a traditional blog view (i.e. posts in reverse chronological order).
3. There is a date on each post’s block in the grid layout.
4. I neatened the grid layout and lowered the word count to reduce the visual “busy-ness” of the page.

We will certainly continue to improve the front page design, but hopefully these initial changes solve some of the problems many people were having.

Another thing that came up often was the inadequacy of our current Google-based search function. We agree with this too, and while we don’t have a quick fix it is something we’re working on.

In several cases people mentioned specific technical issues they were having, like pages not loading on a particular phone, having to log in repeatedly, having trouble with uploading pictures to the forum, or not being able to use the Finds collector. In all of these situations we can almost certainly help, but we need to investigate your particular situation. Please get in touch using our contact form or, if you’re a member, by posting a question in the technical support area of the forum. We’d love to help. 

Finally, thank you for all the support and encouragement you wrote in your responses. It means the world to us.

Freelance writer Glenda Harrison (49) lives in Southern California, and shares her thoughts on fashion and life over at So What to Twenty. Our 5’1″ blogger loves peplum tops, strapless dresses and flowy frocks. Her style is relaxed and polished with arty and dramatic touches. Glenda also likes drape, bright colours, statement belts and footwear, and she uses interesting jewellery to add extra personality to her impactful outfits.

“I believe my fashion taste is an extension of my overall style. The fashion part of Glenda isn’t a separate part of me, but a part of the total package that makes up Glenda’s style. To answer the question of whether or not my style has evolved, I’ll have to answer the question by saying that I, as a complete person have evolved in the past 5 years. The 40s have been very transformative years for me. I have become more in tune with myself and have discovered my value as a woman. I hope that my spirit translates through my writings and images on my blog. I want my readers to feel as if they know who I am without having had met me personally. My overall fashion aesthetic pretty much stays in tune with who I am as a person. I describe my style and my fashion sense as classic with a touch of bohemian and a bit of quirky. Yes, I love quality classics that stand the test of time, but I like to then combine a classic look with elements of bohemian and quirky to make the look less restraining, more interesting and mine. Since I’m a product of the 60s, that era seems to percolate through my veins. The bohemian spirit lives in me. I tell everyone that I think being a native Californian makes bohemian a part of my DNA. I always look for individuality. It could be the smallest detail, but if it’s unique and interesting, I tend to be quite attracted to it… that’s the quirky element.”

I call this look Casablanca Tomboy PI. The high-waisted wide leg trousers paired with flats are delightfully Katharine Hepburn-esque, while the cream trench adds Humprey Bogart flair. Tucking a fitted tee and belting the trousers creates waist definition and adds structure to the voluminous bottoms. The striped T-shirt gives this all neutrals outfit its playful vibe. The black and white are subtly picked up again in Glenda’s silver studded colour blocked Weejuns loafers. Cheeky fun. The midi trench is a lightweight fabric that collapses back onto the body, which helps temper the volume on our 5’1″ blogger. Silver jewellery and classic Ray-Bans finish off the look.

Glenda rocks a peplum top and sports them often. Here she’s picked one in a scuba material with two beautiful floral prints that strike me as a mix of an impressionist painting with a modern photographic print. The peplum section flows seamlessly into the flare of the full midi skirt, emphasizing the waistline and creating and elegant ladylike look. The top’s high neckline works well with Glenda’s super short ‘do and is the perfect canvas to showcase her large hoop earrings. Dainty sandals with thin double ankle straps echo the shine of the patent vintage clutch. Opting for a black bag and footwear allows the top to be the star of the show. A yellow cocktail ring adds arty spunk.

A Sporty Luxe look with a unique twist. The peplum waist and cut-out detail on the back of this sassy sweatshirt make for a very original piece. Glenda streamlines the volume of the extra roomy top by pairing it with rolled-at-the-ankle slim-fit jeans. Showcasing skin with the rolled sweater sleeves, open neckline and strappy sandals creates further structure. Grey with white always feels fresh for Summer. The sunny orange shoes and Missoni-esque chevron print wristlet add colourful punch. Our blogger has a knack for finding interesting jewellery, like this gold weighted ball pendant as the creative finishing touch.

Our blogger loves to sport strapless dresses, and this dramatic, Grecian-inspired flowy frock is a good one. With its billowy silhouette, asymmetric hemline, smocked bust and flouncy ruffles, this crisp white statement piece doesn’t need extra bells and whistles. The delicate necklace and watch, and small white clutch let the dress do all the talking, while the silver metallic lace-up sandals complement the Greek Goddess vibe.

When asked which Spring/Summer 2015 trends she is looking forward to sporting, Glenda said:

“I’ll always love a good gladiator inspired or tie-up sandal regardless if they’re trendy or not. I also love the cute little bohemian white dresses, and free-flowing Grecian dresses. Since I live in a warm climate, white is a staple in my wardrobe, as well as easy dressing. I recently wore an absolutely stunning, shocking yellow dress. When I wore this Grecian inspired dress I was reminded of the Valentino Spring/Summer 2015 show. That dress will be worn often.”

A loose-fit, dropped-waist peplum top that surrenders the waistline is a comfortable and breezy option for hot weather when you can’t stand feeling constricted by your clothing. Just like its waist-defining counterpart, this style works well over structured slim-fit bottoms. Glenda has a playful nautical vibe going on with the bright red jeans and blue and white stripes. The ruffled peplum hemline is feminine fun, the pointy toe silver ankle strap pumps further amp up the ladylike integrity. Small earrings and a silver bird lariat necklace, another great jewellery find, are the accessories of choice.

This graphic black and white outfit is proof that a long, flowing tunic can work on a petite frame. Glenda’s voluminous blouse is fitted on the shoulders and slightly shaped at the waist, which creates structure, before flaring out dramatically over leggings that streamline the look. The high-low assymetric hemline creates diagonal lines and outfit movement which adds extra structure. Sporting a low or high heel, like Glenda’s black strappy sandals, lengthens the legline. A vegan black crossbody that converts into a nifty little backpack is the perfect accompaniment to this arty eclectic look.

Which of these six outfits is your favourite look? Let us know in the comments, and have fun checking out the rest of Glenda’s outfits on her blog.