Hi, I've been following the forum for several months. It's so fun to find a community of fashion-minded women of all ages & backgrounds. I'm a 53 year old retired lawyer, current homeschooling mom of two boys. I've always like to dress well, but my present lifestyle is very casual and home-based, with lots of outdoor activities (Little League spectator, hiking & camping, etc.) so I'm struggling with how to look put together and stylish without appearing overdone. I'm a 5'4" hourglass (I think) working on losing weight, but my focus is on dressing the body I have, not the one I'm aiming for. I like to mix boho style (peasant blouses, Indian tunics) with classic neutrals (e.g. jeans or denim pencil skirt). And I love shoes! As yet, I have no clue how to take photos of outfits and I'm chronically short on personal time, but I really enjoy spending some of it here.

Hello everyone,

I am here because the girl I like is a great fan of this blog. She reads it the first thing in the morning, although I dont think she posts here. She is much more an "observe from a distance" kind of a person.

I suppose I just want to try to understand fashion a bit, and try not sounding like a caveman everytime she talks about sphagetti tops and striped maxi dresses and whatnots.

So kindly excuse my unfortunate ignorance and be gentle.

Have a great week ahead y'all

Awww that's so sweet, welcome on board x

Thank you Louise, I am just starting to get a hang of the website, I must say it is not completely intuitive to navigate. I suppose though, with time I will learn.

Such a sweet and creative forum. Fun and learning at the same time. I love it. And I want to join you. Hi to you all!

Hi everyone! I am a 32 year-old mom of two: an almost 4 year old and an almost 7 month old. I live in New Orleans and work at a nonprofit. After years and years of college and graduate school I finally (sort of) have enough money to get a better wardrobe. I'm try to slough off my frugal (read: cheap) midwestern roots and buy quality items that actually fit right and look nice, instead of whatever's on sale.

Hello everyone! I'm a wife and SAHM who lives in a small town not far from Springfield in the Missouri Ozarks.
This forum is so much fun plus educational as well. I love fashion magazines as well as reading about the latest cosmetics and fragrances.
I'm very pleased to meet you all and be part of the forum!

ps I've been posting for a while but thought I should formally introduce myself to everyone.

Hi everyone!

I'm Suzanne, and I'm a 26 year old receptionist in Los Angeles... I'm and hourglass with all the typical fit issues: Large chest, tiny waist and full hips. But I love it! I do a combo of Target, thrift and retail shopping.

My style is all over the place, and my only rules are: it must fit well and I try to stay away from too much black. My biggest issue is work clothes. No skirts allowed (that makes me sad) and pants must be black or gray I'm begging for brown!

I love shoes, and I've never found a heel too high I'm also addicted to scarves, winter coats (2 years in WA state will do that to you) and the perfect jeans.

My YLF style icons are: Angie (duh), MaryK, Rae and Aida!

I'm looking forward to all the amazing advice and support you wonderful women have to offer! Thanks for reading

Hello everyone!! This seems like a great group of people and I am enjoying catching up on all the posts.

I am a 41 year old, happily married (almost 21 years!) mother of 3 boys, ages 14, 12, and 6. I live in Texas and my husband and I own and operate a small architectural wood door company.

I just recently discovered the world of fashion blogging and I am completely entranced by it and can't get enough. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time and I already feel that my style and wardrobe has improved ten fold.

I am 6' tall with a Column shape which is supposed to to be the easiest to dress so I'm thankful for that. My biggest fashion challenge is in SHOES!! Being so tall already, I am not comfortable going with anything higher than a 2-2.5 inch heel and trying to find stylish shoes with that criteria is HARD let me tell you! Oh, and I wear an 11 and most stores don't stock anything over 10 so thank goodness for Zappos...I couldn't live without them!

Anyway, I happy to have found you guys!

Hello everyone! I've been lurking for months, but today is the day I decided to open my own account. I love the friendliness and supportiveness of the forum, and can't wait to be a part of it!

I'm a 30-something programmer in Seattle, married with no kids. My two biggest challenges are:

(1) I'm a programmer on the west coast, so the dress code is very very casual. Deep down, I fear that if I start dressing nicely, my peers won't take me seriously. It's an unwarranted fear (my co-workers are not so close-minded!), but I use it as an excuse to hold myself back on my style journey.

(2) I have a teeeeeeennnnnnnyyyyyy closet. I have space for maybe a dozen bottoms (shorts, pants, skirts) and two dozen tops. Yikes!!

I look forward to meeting you all and overcoming these challenges together!

Welcome Charmian. I relate to your closet issues. Mine is the same size as yours. Unfortunately I have too much stuff hanging on a coat tree and my bathroom door, but it works.

Thanks CocoLion. Your outfit photos look awesome, and they're a great reminder that looking great and wardrobe size are unrelated. I didn't realize I'd let myself feel inadequate because I live a 30-for-365 lifestyle, but I shall stop doing so immediately

Hello! I just discovered this site a few weeks ago and am completely addicted! I so enjoy looking at the outfits that are posted to get some new ideas for myself.

I am a sahm of 6 in a small town in Washington - not very fashion forward here but I still want to learn to look the best I can. My style up until now could probably be summed up with one word - boring!! I've never experimented much with accessories beyond a watch and earrings, don't have much print in my closet and I do like my neutrals! So I am trying to jazz things up a little.

I cannot figure out what body type I am no matter how many times I read over the descriptions. Maybe I will post a photo once I am allowed to for some help. I'm a new member and don't have an account with any photo sharing sites and I'm too lazy to sign up!

I'm so glad to have found this site. There seems to be a great group of helpful, supportive women here that I look forward to learning from

Carolyn

Hello all! My name is Susan, I am a 45 year old American living in Germany. I work in our local library, so my every day wardrobe is pretty casual; usually jeans, sometimes a skirt. Germany has very changeable weather, June 1st found me with a coat on, and the heat on in the car; today I am planning on going to the pool! Needless to say, this sometimes creates a real fashion challenge.

I can't seem to figure out my body type either: somewhere in the range of pear/rectangle, I believe. I actually don't have much of a clothing budget; no high end pieces in my wardrobe. I do like to look cute, though, and I love fashion. I think my tastes tend to run to 'sweet', which is not always age appropriate...what can I say? It's what I love.

I was perusing this site regularly a year or so ago...then somehow I lost the bookmark. I just found YLF again, and decided to register. So happy to have found you all again!

Hi,

I was introduced to YLF a few months ago from Insideoutstyleblog and have been reading regularly. With the new Iphone app, it makes it easy to get connected with the forum.

I am 44, married, step mom of two and dog mom of a Bichon rescue. I work full time in a corporate managerial position. I split my work time between work@home and in-office environment. Our office dress code is business casual with many approved jeans days, but I really like to dress up in skirts and dresses.

My style challenges are working within the limits of my 5'2 short waisted frame and finding clothes that don't look too youthful or matronly. I spent the earlier part of my career in conservative firms where suits were the norm. Now that I have the freedom to wear what I want, sometimes I feel stuck on what looks nice. I live in Texas, so the summers are scorching and it is a challenge for me to find weather appropriate clothing for work and church. Thankfully, I have found inspiration on this site and look forward to being part of the community.

Welcome on board Carolyn, luckgirl and Briar x

Hi everyone - I am new too. This is such a great website and I've been a lurker for months. Today I just wanted to say thanks so I joined up. I have gotten so much great inspiration and ~permission~ to be myself from the hints on this forum.

I am a youthful-spirited gal and I love to laugh. I am constantly looking for the humor in any situation and my husband and I take turns cracking each other up. We make our living as home-based computer geeks, website designers, and videographers in Southern California.

Fashion-wise, I am a babe in the woods. I have taken many more fashion risks lately since reading Angie's words of wisdom and seeing the creative outfits of all you cute forum ladies. I now gravitate to wearing more contrasting colors, and try to create a theme each day in my outfit, echoing a shirt color in a hair do-dad, for example. Being creative with my look makes me feel more feminine and just more ME, which is a great feeling. My style could be described as smart casual, but I'd like it to get a whole lot smarter. I find I really like bohemian style and would like to incorporate more of that into my look.

A couple of fashion challenges-slash-perks:
1) I am a hedonist so I must be comfortable.
2) My clothing budget and my closet size are both tiny.

Thanks for reading and again many thanks for making this forum so much fun!

http://flic.kr/p/9GNmwb

I don't know how to post pics, but this is me.

I am trying to rebuild my wardrobe after my husband relocated here (to Oregon) from Australia. We didn't bring much with us, then we had a sort of prolonged period of being pretty low income due to his immigration stuff taking waaaaaaaay longer than we anticipated. He is from Perth, Australia and I am from Oregon. My whole family is here, and my dad has been ill so we decided it was time to relocate.
I am in my early 50's and wear plus sizes. I am also pretty short (5'2") AND have a bad back, so use a cane part time. According to my doctor, that means NO HEELS, which I hate!
I work part time for a small non-profit. I am the receptionist so I have to dress up a bit, but slacks are fine. I don't wear very many skirts, due to my ankle swelling because of my bad back (yeah, just one ankle and it's very off and on, blah).
I went to school in Australia to be a makeup artist and nail tech, but I don't do that for work anymore.
That picture is before I went back to darker hair. Those are not blond streaks, but rather gray ones. I got tired of that. I am growing my hair out to shoulder length, I think.
I haven't posted much but will, I promise.

Hello everyone!

I have been reading the YLF Blog for a while now and I finally signed up last week. I am 36 years old with a hubby and 2 kids. (7yr old daughter & 10 yr old son) I work in a medical clinic doing mainly admin/financial work in a University/College setting. I have been wearing scrubs (no by choice) for the last 4 years and somewhere along the way I lost my sense of style and my motivation to put together an outfit. I have also recently, in the last year and a half gained 35lbs...

So, recent changes at work have open up the doors to being allowed to wear "clothes" to the office and I am begining to think that this is a good idea. If only I could remember how...

Wanted to wish all the new YLF'ers a warm welcome and then I realized... I have been active on the forum for quite some time and I haven't even introduced myself. Sorry about that - terrible omission. I'm Suzanne van Eeden gleaming info all the way from Cape Town, South Africa. I'm (still...) a student who dresses my (somewhat) awkward shape on the shoestring budget known to all students. I favour jeans and basic t-shirts but I love it when other people dress up or dress very femininely. (comes from a childhood of dressing Barbie, I guess.) I also adore this blog - everyone is so forthcoming and your style and ideas inspire me to the point where I'm LITERALLY taking notes.

I'm tall and, according to your (very flattering) opinions, hourglass shaped with "leanings" towards the linear. My body has kept me back so much in the past (recovering from a lot of body hang-ups) but I'm determined to admire and appreciate it for what it is and to dress it accordingly.

Just want to end with a big thanks to Angie and all the ladies (and the few gents - Greg included) who make this blog special. To all of you: You Are Fabulous!

My name is Matt Lahut. I grew up in the Albany NY area, went to college at Carnegie Mellon Univ (graduated this past May), and I'm currently living in the Seattle area working for MS, testing the Visual Basic compiler/IDE. So I'm still acclimating to this concept of "the real world".

Those reading the boards carefully may have noticed that I found these boards after Jonathan_The_Red posted Eric Yeh's Gibberland puzzle to an internal MS puzzle group, which stumped me enough to ask google, and the rest is history.

I've always enjoyed puzzles of various sorts. At least half of the easy section brings back some memories from high school or earlier. And of course, Martin Gardner is the man; I somehow managed to acquire a couple dozen of his puzzles without ever obtaining a Scientific American. The good/bad computer puzzle came from a college course at CMU (15-251, highly recommended if you're a young'un thinking of going to CMU). Near the end of college, I got hooked on topcoder.com, which as been very enjoyable, and even did some development work for them. Say hi to me if you see me there (as Garzahd).

Outside puzzling, I enjoy gaming of all sorts. Currently switching between the Asheron's Call 2 binge and a new nethack binge for the tournament this month. I also play bridge competitively and watch entirely too much anime. I like bridge and Go puzzles too, but decided that it'd probably be wrong to post them. If there are sufficiently many interested people, let me know and I'll post a couple.

Hello everyone, I’m 29, live in Canberra, Australia, and have no kids (except for two Bengal kitties). Over the past couple of years I’ve started to realise the jeans-sneakers-graphic tee combo of yore (+ a hoodie on cold days) really needs to go, as does the black dress pants-black flats- dowdy shirt work combo. Updating the work wardrobe seems to be much easier than the casual for some reason. My style is very much undefined as yet – to me anyway.

I’m a 5ft 8in tall (or 172cm), and pear shaped, leaning towards hourglass. And I have a shoe habit.

I have started going through my wardrobe and have realised that years of bad shopping habits are going to take a while to replace, in particular the casual stuff. But that’s ok My biggest challenge is the physical layout of my wardrobe - the hanging part is in a separate room to my drawers and there are no shelves, so I always have to plan ahead or risk dsahing between rooms when I get ready of a morning.

Looking forward to posting photos and commenting on others

Hi, I am Cindy. Well, after my graduation, I think I should change my dressing style. Who can give my any advice? A modern and young OL style is better.

It was very helpful.

I suppose I should have introduced myself before just jumping into posting...oh well!

I am in my early 30s, live in a small (~5,000) Midwestern town, work very part-time at a small college, am married, and have two boys (almost 4 and 16 months) and two cats.

I never really knew what my style was or knew much about fashion until I started reading fashion blogs and participating in discussion forums a couple of years ago. I had previously watched What Not To Wear for a long time but discussing specifics with people helps more. I definitely lean towards an "elegant" vibe and love lace and pearls. When I go to work I am usually way more dressed up than most people, but I don't really care. I haven't quite figured out what body shape I am but with being pregnant twice in the last few years I've been all over the place and so haven't really pursued it much.

Anything else?

Hello YLF'rs!

I have been a long-time lurker to this site and decided to join after I saw Bei-Jing's kick butt style. I also especially like the reference to Angie and Bei-Jing wondering about being too old for certain trends.

At 46, I also struggle with that.

The fashion blogs I like to visit are mostly ones hosted by full-figured women in their 20's who flaunt their individuality and say to blazes with the old rules about what larger women should wear. As a result, my eyes have been opened to this whole new world of plus-size online shopping that has made me feel like I am closer to dressing the way I want to look rather than the way that (name of major plus-size retailer redacted) dictates. Even though I like a variety of clothing styles and enjoy adopting seasonal trends, my personal style stamp (ideally anyway) is ladylike with a nod to goth/punk. You will never find me in a head-to-toe hippie look.

That said, my reality is very casual. I work from home, go to the gym, walk my dog and live with a wonderful b/f who favors t-shirts, jeans and hiking boots. I hate unwalkable shoes and constrictive clothing. And I am always looking for good fashion tips and interesting fashion discussions. I think I have a lot to say, so I look forward to posting more on the forum and ylf blog.

Hi everyone! I'm Tara (screen name is my middle name, Nakidra). I'm 33 and the mother of 3 kids under the age of 6. I work full time as a government attorney. At work, I have to dress conservatively, suits, closed-toed shoes, etc ... we don't have casual Fridays - casual is not wearing a suit. I am athletic.... I've completed several 1/2 marathons and I'm training for the Chicago marathon in October. Even though I'm athletic, I never wear sweats when I'm not working out .... never unless I'm traveling to and or from the gym! With 3 small kids, it's hard to find the balance between fashionable and too causal so I tend to lean to the dressier side of things which sometimes makes me feel out of place in my uber-casual, slightly-rural suburb (I live outside of Chicago). Since I don't wear sweats on the weekends, I'm always looking for the cool casual style that I crave. I usual end up wearing dark denim, skirts or dresses that are not appropriate for work or something like that.
I love, love J Crew .... probably 85% of my closet is J Crew. My style is sort of minimal, but classic.
Recently, I donated a kidney to my mother! (random I know!!) so I've been catching up on me internet and internet shopping while I've been off of work. My wardrobe for the last week has been pjs!
Glad to be here and hope to get to know you all better!!

Hi everyone!

I'm Jessica and I honestly decided to stop lurking on the blog and join the forum because I don't even know what my own style is. I like a LOT of different styles-- I'm drawn to rocker styles (think Amy Winehouse or Debbie Harry), and flirty/girly styles (Zoey Deschanel), girl-next-door/all-American casual (Jennifer Aniston), and sleek professional style (pencil skirts, tall heel, I think you get the idea). I do tend to gravitate toward more '70s oriented fashion, though not Bohemian.

I'm 5'5", 26 years old, rectangle shape, average-waisted, and I LOVE HEELS. Since I do a bit of manual labor in my job, I'm resigned to baggy tee-shirts, jeans, and Nikes for most of the week, but even if I make a run to Target, I use that as an excuse to dress like a woman. I don't even like heels that are shorter than four inches. (That being said, you can sometimes find me in bright red Converse or Tom's when I'm channeling my inner hipster and wearing my skinny jeans and a band tee shirt.)

I think that's it, at least fashion-wise. =)

The only other personal info to add is that I am married, contentedly childless, but have adopted two retired racing greyhounds named Parker and Shiner, who don't seem to care what I wear, since they are indiscriminate shedders.

(My username is a reference to the fact that I'm a photog, and an aspiring drummer).

Hi everyone, I tend to be a lurker but randomly posted earlier so I'll jump in.
I am about to be 42, am a petite one as well at 5 one and a half. My body is definitely straight- ruler, I guess. I am trying to break out of my rut as I have kinda had the same look since college- Gap cut-offs and tshirts, jeans and cords with a pretty basic top. I pretty much wear Birkenstocks, clogs, and Frye harness boots. Not terrible, but am trying to make more of an effort- I want to dress a little more my age without going too far from my comfort zone! I love that Angie loves Frye boots and think she is adorable! I just bought a few scarves and chunky bracelets- baby steps!

I have been married for 15 years and have 3 kids that I home school. My boys are
nearly 13 and 10 and I have a little girl who is seven. I am in Georgia, so it is warm about 9 months out of the year!

I love the Gap and have recently discovered Loft petites. So many petite clothes are not the same look as regular, so Loft makes me happy. I'm very open to branching out. (I have an identical twin sister who is much more adventurous with accessories and jewelry and looks great! Yes, we do pretty much look just alike!)

Happy to meet everyone. I'll try to get a pic up when my computer-savvy husband can help.

Hi all! I found this website after someone on a mommy board that I frequent was discussing the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and posted a link of Angie's top choices. Since then I've been reading the blog and this forum and have now become much more interested in fashion and upgrading/reinventing my wardrobe. This is such a great website and source of inspiration! Besides Angie, the YLF'ers that piqued my interest so far are Bei-Jing and lyn (especially since she's in the same field as me!), although I'm looking forward to getting to know the rest of you better as well.

I'm 38 and a mom of 2 little ones (4 year old girl and 1 year old boy) and a doctor and live in the SF Bay Area. I'm 5'5" and about 128 lb. About 10-15 years ago when I was in medical school/residency, I used to shop at places like Ann Taylor and Banana Republic and got a lot of career-wear from there, mainly trousers, printed bias cut skirts, and sweater twinsets. But other than maternity clothes (which I got mainly from Japanese Weekend), I had not really bought any clothes for myself in the last 5 years since I got pregnant with my first. After that, I spent all my time and money buying cute clothes for the kids from online places like Tea Collection or Hanna Andersson. It was so much easier and more fun to shop for them...I was anxious about trying on clothes because I didn't think they would fit right, and didn't have time to shop in stores.

Another hurdle was my husband seems to have stronger opinions and different taste in clothes than me, and often didn't like the few outfits I brought home so I returned most of them. For example, I like sweaters and printed skirts and dresses with empire waists or wraps and black/white/red combos, but he hates those styles and prefers me in solid color buttoned shirts and shift dresses or sweetheart necklines which I don't think flatter me.

Also, even though I have dropped back down to my pre-pregnancy weight by 1 year both times, my proportions have changed. My nursing boobs and mummy tummy are throwing things off--the buttoned shirts are straining and the sweaters are having a hard time covering the tummy bulge. Also I had gotten lazy about my appearance and dressed mainly for comfort. My mom on the go outfit was jeans, T shirt and REI fleece jacket or hoodie and my work outfit was one of four or five slacks and blouses/sweaters with Merrell Jungle Mocs or Dansko clogs (I am on my feet a lot at work so I was worried about my feet hurting if I wore pumps). So I had gotten stuck in a (non) style rut, until I found out about the fabulous NAS sale and YLF and my interest in fashion has been sparked!

I bought about 7-8 items from the Nordstrom sale including some fabulous brown Via Spiga riding boots which I can now use with my skirts and still have comfortable feet. I'm experimenting with wearing my ballet flats and kitten heels to work, and even pumps on the days that I'm doing less walking at work. And I am digging through my closet and unearthing things that I haven't worn in 5-10 years or more and trying to come up with new combinations. My husband has been bugging me to pay more attention to my wardrobe and appearance because I am now out of training and he says my patients will take me more seriously if I am more professionally dressed and look nicer (I see a lot of well-heeled well-dressed folk around here!). I think he is right, so I am motivated to put more effort into my appearance. And now, fashion has become fun for me thanks to this site!

I would like to change things up a bit style wise--I am tired of the twinset and skirt look and would like something a little funkier/edgier/fashion-forward, but still appropriate for a professional work environment. I have not paid any attention to accessorizing, layering clothes, makeup/hair, or anything but the basic shirt plus skirt/pants, so I need help putting outfits together.

I have also realized that I am missing a lot of basic wardrobe essentials, so I need to do a fairly major overhaul of my wardrobe. For example I have zero belts--I donated the one I had because it no longer fit around my waist :(, no scarves, very little jewelry accessories, no tights, leggings (the last time I wore leggings was in the 80's when they had tapered legs and stirrups, haha!) or skinny jeans (I would like to start wearing my new boots over my pants), and only a couple casual dresses and one more formal dress, but nothing for nicer work parties or date nights. So I will be doing a LOT of shopping since I'm making up for years of lost shopping time (fortunately I have been working extra hard and have the money to spend on this and my husband's blessing!) and I will need your help to spend it wisely! Thanks everyone for your advice and support!