Fashion Style You

Welcome to the shiny new face of Fashion Style You hope you like what you see, if you are a regular visitor you may be forgiven for thinking you have arrived at the wrong site.

So why the new design?

We have changed the look and feel of Fashion Style You for a couple of reasons, firstly the old design (pictured right) which we loved to bits, had served us well for almost a year (its our 1st birthday on 21st May) but it was felt a change was due.

The second reason, and far more important in our book, is we wanted to improve the user experience of this site, one thing that was always a limiting factor with the old design was the width of the article area was very narrow so images and video needed to be scaled to fit, but we have a bit more room now so things wont be so cramped.

Also New (ish)

A couple of days ago we added a page of our Recommended Fashion Boutiques hopefully this will aid you with your online shopping.

You can now Subscribe to Fashion Style You by Email that way you don’t miss a single article, this was added a couple of months back to compliment our RSS feed and the newsletter.

Free Newsletter - Subscribe for free entry to our Competition, where you can win a fabulous Maya Shawl. Just put your email address in the box on the left margin.

Think that about covers everything, if you have anything to say about our new look, or any suggestions regarding how we can further improve Fashion Style You, simply add a comment below or contact us using the contact form.

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This is specifically for our US readership but as its such a worthy cause we felt a mention on Fashion Style You was appropriate.

Taking place during April in conjunction with Cancer Awareness Month, The Undie Awards annual contest lets American men and women cast their votes for their favorite brand of underwear.

This year, HerRoom.com, the organizers of The Undie Awards have pledged to donate twenty-five cents (12p) for each individual voter, up to 100,000 voters, to The National Cervical Cancer Public Education Campaign,

“If more education can save lives and wipe out cervical cancer, we’re prepared to step up and support that ideal,” says Tomima Edmark, Founder and President of HerRoom.com. “Just go to The Undie Awards, cast your votes and click the Count Me In! button. We’ll donate twenty-five cents for every voter who does that. Last year we received 12,500 votes and we hope to get many more this year. If 100 000 people vote this year we’ll donate twenty-five thousand dollars to the fund.”

To participate in The Undie Awards, voters enter information about their body type and size so that a comprehensive list of the best voter-chosen underwear can be compiled. This data allows HerRoom.com to see not only the overall winners, but also the best underwear for each specific body type, from plus-size lingerie to thongs to sexy underwear. Once voting process is complete the voter clicks the Count Me In! button to be included in the cervical cancer education campaign donation.

By teaming up with the work of the Cervical Cancer Public Education Campaign, which provides vital information about preventing this disease, HerRoom.com continues it’s commitment to both the comfort and health of women.

As you visit theUndies.com site, you’ll be able to view past Undie Awards winners, check out the most popular sellers, and find tips on best fit as well as other important health tips. Each year, HerRoom.com publishes a comprehensive results report of The Undie Awards that provides women of every shape and size, real information to help in selecting the right fit and style of underwear.

So click here and vote in the The Undies Awards, cast your vote for your favorite underwear and support the important work of the Cervical Cancer Public Education Campaign to eliminate cervical cancer.

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Marks and Spencer was named best UK shop for lingerie for the second year running in In Style magazine’s 2008 shopping awards.

The Topshop clothing chain collected the best high street shop award for the second time.

Awards List

• Best Designer Shop: Chanel
• Best Department Store (in London): Selfridges
• Best Designer Accessories: Selfridges
• Best High Street Shop: Topshop
• Best High Street Accessories: Accessorize~
• Best Shop for Lingerie: Marks & Spencer
• Best Multi-Label Boutique in London: Browns
• Best Department Store (out of London): Selfridges, Manchester
• Best Boutique (out of London): Whistles
• Best Jewellery Shop: Tiffany & Co
• Best Online Shop: Asos.com

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From today Sainsbury’s will be introducing a wider range of sizes in their Tu clothing range.

The Petites label aimed at women under 5′ 3″ (1.6m) will be available in twenty five stores, while the Grace label which includes sizes up to 28 is to be sold in fifty outlets.

The Tu Fashion brand was introduced by Sainsbury’s four years ago.

Sainsbury’s currently command a 1.7% share by volume of the UK clothing market.

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Fashion retailer Laura Ashley announced soaring profits of 62.3% (£19.8 million) in 2007, in spite of what a company described as a “challenging trading environment”.

UK fashion retail sales were up 7.7%, although there was a drop of 4.4% on a like for like basis. Overall group sales rose by 5.6% to £237.6 million, while UK retail sales lifted 7.2% to £187.2m.

Best sellers in the spring / summer season were dresses, while coats were a very strong performer in the autumn / winter season.

Laura Ashley chairman KP Khoo said:

“The improved profitability is the result of our successful store expansion and realignment programme, improved product offering and continued focus on operational efficiency,” he added.

In an update on 2008 trading to date, the company reported total retail sales had increased by over 5% up to mid-March.

Visit the Laura Ashley online store

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UK fashion website Lastseason.com has developed a Facebook e-commerce application, they are the first UK business to go down this route.

The Lastseason.com Facebook application allows users to see and buy what a friend wants through their Lastseason.com wishlist, the wishlist shows images of clothes that a Facebook user likes. Friends are able to click on an item and buy it as a gift.

Founder of Lastseason.com Stefano Passantino said:

“This is a really simple idea based on how people interact with each other, who hasn’t been in a situation of wanting buy something for someone but not knowing what they like? The norm is to find a roundabout way of asking, or asking a mutual friend. The Lastseason.com wishlist shows you want your friends already have their eye on. It’s a great example of how technology intersects with some aspect of human behaviour which then redefines the way that behaviour takes place - communication by texting is a good example.”

Facebook applications are little programs embedded within the site which users can use to do anything from quiz friends on their movie knowledge to play Scrabble.

In the past applications have not been direct e-commerce applications, this new approach to applications is expected to be the precursor to a seamless integration of commerce and business into social network sites.

Amazon launched a wishlist application last week.

Denver-based bSocial Networks Inc also last week released Market Lodge 2.0 - an application that lets members customise and host their own stores within Facebook. These individualised Facebook stores can be created in five minutes, the company claims.

Nick Boardman, the CEO of Rock Computers PLC who is backing Lastseason.com with a £1m investment, says:

“The great thing with the Lastseason.com application is that it taps into how people behave at several levels. There’s the idea of knowing what your friends like so it makes shopping for birthday and other presents easier, and then there’s other quirks of the human condition like admiring someone so much that you want to dress like them and buy all the same clothes they buy. On reflection, this sounds quite frightening! But I think you get the basic idea how the Lastseason.com wishlist is useful for people.”

Visit www.lastseason.com

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