This post is sponsored by Nordstrom. Shop the Anniversary Sale: Next Season on Sale Now. Prices go up August 1.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce my incredibly fabulous 33 year old client and dear friend, Phoebe. As a Test Lead at Microsoft and an engineer by profession, she works full time in a male dominated technical environment and absolutely holds her own. 15 months ago Phoebe gave birth to adorable little Kai and let me tell you honestly, Phoebe has never looked better. She juggles a HECTIC work schedule with Kai and hubby Marcus (also a ‘Softie). Phoebe’s life also includes lots of travel, community work, and socializing with friends. I don’t how she does it but she always looks perfectly stylish no matter what.

Phoebe missed the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale preselections this year, but we made time to shop together on the second day of the official sale. Phoebe worked from my top picks list and also showed me her own selections. Of course, as Seattleites, boots, knitwear and cover-ups are always on the shopping list. 

Phoebe is 5′ 2″, but we never shop in the petites section because the proportions are off. Her long limbs and strong shoulder line mean that regular clothing normally fits perfectly with the occasional length alteration on jeans, dresses and skirts. With a flexible shopping list we set out to refresh her Autumn wardrobe, making sure that we covered all three areas of her lifestyle, namely casual careerwear, busy Mum on the go, and glam nights out. The outfits below showcase some of the items that followed us home.

I love Phoebe’s passion for style and daring wardrobe choices. She adores both earth tones and brights, and enjoys looking spunky and dramatic. Working in a highly technical environment and dealing with toddler mess does NOT stop her from having fun with fashion or wearing nice things. Phoebe especially likes to sport new trends, which was evidenced by the cape at the top of her shopping list. 

Since Phoebe started walking to the bus stop each morning she has joined me on Team Flats and Team Fussy Feet. Phoebe is also on Team Blouse, so when it comes to Mum on the go weekends, she loves to wear comfy boots with jeans, a woven boxy blouse and cross body bag. This made the REPORT ‘Bernsen’ Ankle Boot and the Halogen ‘Half Moon’ Tasseled Crossbody Bag no brainers. Both items allow her to run after darling Kai hands-free. Phoebe also likes the forgiving aspect of a blouse because it keeps her covered while she bends over. And it looks dressier than a tee, which appeals to Phoebe’s chic sensibilities.

We tried on a few capes and agreed that camel or tweed was the way to go. No batman-esque black! Phoebe and the Trouvé Twill Cape were an instant match made in heaven. It was the perfect style and length for her height, not overwhelming her petite frame at all. The colour was great while the tortoise shell buttons picked up her eyes and hair. We chose biker boots for this outfit because it contrasted so well with the soft elegance of the cape. Phoebe likes how she can throw on the cape without fussing with a belt. And Kai was quite taken with Mum’s voluminous sleeves. 

Phoebe does not miss an opportunity to dress up and go out. She has enjoyed adding a ’70s touch to her style which meant hello Hinge Smocked Front Silk Blouse, complete with pussy bow and smocking on the yoke and sleeves. When I saw Steve Madden’s cropped faux fur vest, I knew Phoebe would fall for it. I suggested pairing it with the blouse, wide leg jeans and heeled chestnut boots. So fun for a night out with friends! Phoebe’s oversized hoop earrings and sunnies are the ’70s cherry on top. Unfortunately the fur vest is not available online, but it’s an Anniversary Sale offering at the flagship in downtown Seattle.

Phoebe loves chunky knitwear, so my eyes went straight to Classiques Entier’s ‘Spesso’ Cardigan. Its swingy silhouette and textured mocha tone made her heart sing straight away. It’s the perfect casual outfit combination for a day at Microsoft over a Caslon Shirred V-Neck Tee and Vince Camuto’s Riding Leggings. These three pieces will also double duty as practical weekend Mum on the go items. 

My over the knee Stuart Weitzman flat riding boots that I purchased at last year’s Anniversary sale tickle Phoebe’s toes. So when the opportunity arose to purchase the very similar Stuart Weitzman ‘Cadet’ Boot, she was in. Weatherproofed with spray and comfortable as slippers, these boots will take Phoebe just about anywhere in Seattle. They will be wardrobe workhorses and Phoebe was not leaving Nordies without them. 

The Steve Madden fur vest was one of Phoebe’s favourite purchases at this years Anniversary Sale, so much so that she will wear the dramatic piece both to work and when she’s with Kai. I suggested that she dress it down with a tee, faded jeans and flat boots. We thought that worked really well, and so did Kai, who couldn’t stop stroking Mummy’s new faux fur toy. 

Greg and Marcus are also close friends, so I see Phoebe all the time. Despite her very busy lifestyle, she never fails to look chic, hip and pulled together. I love that Phoebe challenges her environmental work norm by looking fashionable and stylish amongst a crowd who prefer to wear shorts, sneakers and polar fleece. Phoebe is the gal who happily wears silk when playing with her toddler and doesn’t care if her light coloured tops and bottoms get grubby during the day. That’s why the laundry process was invented!

There is so much to respect and admire about Phoebe that goes deeper than fashion and style. Her style on the outside is killer, but the beauty of her heart and soul is hard to match. She is an intelligent, kind, thoughtful and extremely sweet natured lass who enjoys expressing her confident and fun style each day. Thank you Phoebe, for being the extraordinary, inspirational person that you are. 

We often talk about the shape and height of a heel, but the shape of the toe box is just as important. We’ve reached the stage in fashion where just about all toe box shapes are in style: blunt, pointy, angular, and everything in-between.

For several years round toes and almond toes have been popular, probably because they are flattering on most feet and body types. But I have a hunch that things are about to change. High end designers are showing lots of square toes, which means that it won’t be long before we’ll see them filter back down into mainstream fashion. Maybe in a big way.

The ’90s were all about extra chunky square toed black footwear. Although I wore footwear like that back then, square toes are much more refined right now, and hopefully it will stay this way. There’s also the snip toe, which is like a pointy toe with a snipped off nose. It’s less angular than a real square toe but square all the same.

I have all toe box shapes represented in my wardrobe because I like the variety and all the shapes. As long as the square toe and snip toe is refined and not chunky, I enjoy it just as much as a round toe or almond toe. But I have clients and friends who do not like square toed footwear at all. They find it overly masculine and unattractive. Some also find it stumpy, dumpy and leg shortening. How do you feel about square toed footwear?

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Welcome to an updated YLF!

The biggest change you will see today is a completely overhauled front page. We wanted to highlight visual content, like Angie’s outfits, and also surface some of the most popular posts from the deep archives. We wanted to do a better job of featuring forum activity on the front page, so instead of separate recent posts and recent photos on the left, the area now shows the two combined as they should be.

We’re very excited about the new front page. It was almost a year ago that we created a front page for YLF that was separate from the blog front page, and although we refreshed that layout a few weeks after launching it, we were never completely happy with the design.

New design elements on the front page had a ripple effect throughout the site. Most of these updates are purely visual and probably won’t change the way that you use YLF.

We got around to a few items on the honey-do list. Some forum members will be happy to see a little button near the bottom of most pages that takes you back to the top. Others will be happy that both recent and permanent role badges are visible beneath your profile picture. Previously this area only showed the role badges you had accumulated over the last 30 days and you had to go to your profile page to see your permanent roles. Now if you have a permanent role that you haven’t earned recently, it appears as a faded badge in the list. In the example below you can see that in Inge’s case this is true for the “helper” role.

For the last year or so veteran members have had the additional ability to flag forum posts as spam. This has been an enormous help to us. Today all members get the ability to help us moderate the forum using a “Report Post” option that appears underneath every post. After pressing this you can type in some more details about why you’d like to bring this post to our attention before sending the report to the team. Feel free to report anything you think we need to know about, whether it is suspected spam, something you find offensive, a copyright violation, or even if it is just to tell us that your spidey sense is tingling.

Last, but not least, there is a new forum category: Inspiration. This is a place to post anything that inspires your personal style, or that you think might be inspirational to others. It could be an outfit you saw on someone else, a new item in the store, an interior design theme, or a flower you photographed over the weekend.

That’s it. Be sure to let us know if you experience any problems. We will definitely be fixing little issues and tweaking the design as it settles in over the next few days.

We’ve talked about the power of heels, and how they take an outfit from fab to drab. I’ve also suggested adding heels to an outfit if it doesn’t feel right with flats. And Team Heels reigns supreme as our poll clearly demonstrated.

Heels create a longer leg line, accentuate calf muscles, add a dressy aspect to your ensemble, and amplify your femininity. So ladies, do outfits always look better with heels?

I’m going with a no. I absolutely believe in the power of heels, but also think that some outfit combinations look just as good or even better with flats (in the category of flats I am including a chunky one inch heel on a sleek riding boot.) For example, leggings were made for ballet flats. Such a natural and pretty pairing! I also love the look of skinny cargos and skinny jeans paired with flat gladiator sandals and ballet flats as much as when they are paired with heels. And when it comes to the Equestrian look, one close to my heart, it looks best with a tall flat riding boot.

Remember that heels needn’t be dressy. Cork, wicker and wooden heels with distressed leather uppers are casual shoes. Slouchy suede boots with chunky heels and heeled Dr. Martens are casual boots.

Over to you? Can flats look just as killer as heels, or do heels always elevate an outfit?