When people give us genuine compliments about our style, we can’t help but enjoy them. Who doesn’t enjoy an ego boost now and then. I certainly do.

But some compliments are not entirely positive. Although part of the comment was probably meant as praise, the rest leaves us with a slightly bad taste in the mouth. Here are some real life (first and second hand) examples of what I’m talking about:

• “You look great in that outfit! It’s because you’ve lost all that weight”.
• “You’re so dressed up, but you look really cute”.
• “You look fabulous. Must have taken you ages to get ready. I can’t neglect my children like that”.
• “People are going to start hating you if you always look so good”.
• “You have great style, and I know its not easy to look good at your size”.
• “Your beautiful bright outfit hurts my eyes”.
• “You look nice. What’s different?”
• “You always look so chic. Urrgh. Now I have to change my shirt and shoes when we go out tonight”.

I’m sure that many of these comments are an innocent oversight, but sometimes I think that they are intentionally snide. The question is, what’s the best way to respond to them? Should we take the high road and politely brush them off? Is confrontation in order? How about a witty and clever comeback?

As much as I like the idea of a clever comeback, I don’t often think of them on the spur of the moment. I’m also not a confrontational person, so rightly or wrongly, when I receive a somewhat cutting compliment, I end up politely biting my tongue, thanking them for their kind words and moving on.

Over to you. Have you ever received cutting compliments about your style? If so, how did you respond? Even if you haven’t been the recipient of a cutting style compliment, what do you think is the best way to deal with them?

You’re on Team One Piece Swimsuit (or bathing costume, as I like to call them) if you prefer to wear a one piece while you swim or lounge by the pool, beach and lake. You’re on Team Two Piece Swimsuit if you prefer to wear a bikini.

I don’t know how a tankini fits into this race. Technically it’s a two piece, but it often has the effect of a one piece. Also, some styles are cut to showcase a part of the tummy area whereas other styles completely cover that region. Because its subject to interpretation and styling, it’s your call on picking a Team if you prefer to wear tankinis.

I am on Team One Piece 100%. And I’ll narrow that down even further — I am on Team Gottex One Piece 100%. I look okay in a bikini, but I feel more elegant and streamlined in a one piece. And it’s all about how we feel in an item of clothing, right? Especially when exposing so much skin!

I’ve tried tankinis but for some reason they never fit as well as a one piece. Wearing a one piece makes going to the loo less convenient, but I can live with that. I’ve been wearing a one piece for 15 years and do not see that bathing costume strategy changing as I get older.

Over to you. Are you Team One Piece or Team Two Piece? Tell us why. You were allowed to bat for both Teams last week, so absolutely no batting for both Teams this week.

Today marks a new chapter for YLF. We’re going mobile! As of yesterday afternoon our new app, “Realtime Style Advice”, is available on the iTunes App Store. Android users, don’t fret. Your version of the app is in progress.

Realtime Feedback On The Go

We are starting our foray into mobile with the thing that we thought would be most useful on the go: getting rapid feedback on outfits and items. You can take a photo, add some text, optionally add a yay or nay poll, and post it for feedback.

Put differently, the new app brings the Realtime component of the forum to your phone. When you make a new post using the app, it also appears on the forum as a Realtime post. When people post Realtime posts on the forum using their web browser, they also appear on the phone.

Starting Simple

We have started with Realtime topics because we think that’s where a phone can add the most value — giving and receiving time-sensitive feedback. Whether you are in a store dressing room wondering which pair of jeans looks best, or at home in front of your mirror deciding what to wear for date night, this app will be a quick and easy way to ask for that input.

And if you are waiting on line, taking a breather at work, or need a break from Twitter, then opening the app to give people some on the spot feedback might be a fun way to kill some time.

Of course, it would be great to have the entire forum experience available from the app, and that is exactly where we plan to take the app next.

Free is Not Free, YLF is $4.99

Many iPhone apps are free. Some have free “light” versions so you can try before you buy. We have decided to do neither of these things. The YLF app costs $4.99. This reflects our goal of attracting people who are sincere about participating in the YLF community. There is no doubt that a free app would get more uptake than a paid one, but that would come at a cost to our existing community if spammers and trolls were even a small percentage of the uptake. We think that $4.99 is enough of a hurdle to ward off casual downloaders with questionable intentions.

It is probably also worth mentioning that while the app brings convenience and the ability to upload photos directly from the iPhone, it does not offer anything that you can’t do already (for free) using YLF in your web browser.

Brought to You by the YLF Village

Our good friend Morgan Belford did all the iPhone programming. I’ve been making software for a couple of decades, but no project has been as close to my heart as YLF. So it was pretty scary getting another programmer involved. It turned out to be an absolute pleasure and so much fun to have someone else join me and Angie to define a new part of YLF. Most of all, I need to thank Morgan for being incredibly patient with my constant design tweaks. We’re all looking forward to working together on lots more mobile goodness for YLF.

Of course, there are many other people helping us to define the future here at YLF — we have a constant stream of great input from the forum. The ability to post pictures from the dressing room for rapid feedback is a feature that several people have requested (I think forum member Maya was the first) and we’re so glad to finally bring it to life.

Last, but not least, a small group of YLF’ers with iPhones helped us to test the app. Thank you, ladies!

Please let us know if you experience any difficulties. You can comment below, post on the forum, send us a private message or use the contact form. We’re here to help. For a little more information on the app itself, check out its page in the backstage area. As always, feedback of all shapes and sizes is very welcome.

Enjoy!

Flat oxfords with laces have been around for a while and I LOVE the trend. More recently, the laceless variety has popped up in stores and I am equally enamored with that incarnation. It’s an easy shoe to slip on and off.

I like the look of flat oxfords best without visible socks (secret socks and hosiery are great options). Perhaps this only makes sense to me, but flat oxfords (with or without laces) lose a bit of their arty and spunky edge when worn with visible socks. That being said, I have seen them worn with shorts/dresses/skirts and low contrasting knee-high socks or baggy shuffle socks. This combination can look adorable when the components of the outfit are just so. It’s hard to get right though.

I’ve had all these styles on my feet and my clients’ feet. They are all reasonably comfy and look super fab. I bat for Team Flats and vote yay, yay, yay to laceless flat oxfords. What’s your verdict?