I just mentioned this website in a forum comment, and realized that this might be fun/interesting to others as well, so I'll bubble it up in a new entry. http://www.like.com/ works based on visual search technology; I've used it to browse shoes, but they also have other categories like bags.
How it works: You click on a pair of shoes you like, and then the site finds other shoes for you that have a similar style. It doesn't always work well, but I've found some good pointers in their results. They partner with a lot of shopping sites (e.g. Zappos, Shoebuy, Endless, and others for shoes), so you're getting a good cross-section of what's out there.
Might be worth a try if you have some specific style in mind... And of course it's just another fun site to get lost in