MISSY CONFIDENTIAL
The most addictive fashion website since… well… the last one we were addicted to!
Ever wanted to be snapped by The Sartorialist? Well now you can do it for yourself on Lookbook.nu

Nov 15, 2012 11:01
by Sally Creagh

We’ve spent hours looking at fashion layouts on Polyvore, and even longer on Pinterest. But Lookbook.nu takes fascination with fashion one step further. It’s absolutely mesmerizing. Try scrolling though Lookbook.nu for less than half an hour – you won’t be able to do it.

There are two kinds of fashion – the fantasy you see in magazines, and the fashion you see on the street. Both can be equally inspiring, but street style is so much more accessible. That's why Lookbook.nu, a website dedicated to street style, with images submitted by real people in self-styled fashion shoots is so hugely popular (we're talking over 4 million visitors per month!).

Want to be on Lookbook.nu? Then post an image. Your “look” image is then streamed onto the “New” page where members vote or “hype” looks. If you're hot, you'll get voted onto the “Hot” or front page.

Current stars from the Hot page include Lina T, who describes herself as a “21 year old photographer from Hamburg”; or Leeloo C, a “20 year old lunchbox and sound collector from over the clouds”; and Violet E, a 22 year old photographer/ blogger from “hell”…

If you skip to the Leader page you can search on the most popular members of from this week, this month or all time, the current top spot being occupied by Flavia D. of Brazil, who has over 700,000 votes across all her images.

Many of those who submit images are bloggers, photographers or artists etc, some are just regular people who want to be seen and hopefully appreciated for their fashion sense.

So is this a blog?

Over the last decade, blogging has challenged the authority of “official” fashion coverage by magazines such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, with street style photographic blogs such as The Sartorialist, being a big part of that revolution.

This change has been called the democratization of fashion publishing, but the blogs still mimicked the structure of fashion magazines, that is, they were curated by the individual blogger who then gained like minded followers, and in effect became a mini Anna Wintour along the way.

Lookbook.nu bypasses that individual authority altogether.

Then what is it?

Lookbook.nu creates a public forum for what creative people have been doing since forever – interpreting current fashion into individual looks.

Now we get to see them all in one place.

While plenty of fashion fans have always been inspired by the fantasy and artistry that goes into a traditional magazine fashion shoot, it can be hard to replicate those looks, because the fashion items are inaccessible or because of the rare body types of the models.

In daily life, many are more commonly influenced by what they see the people around them wearing. You can see what looks really work on a regular person, and if that look could work for you. The fact that these are “real people” is the secret to why Lookbook.nu is so captivating.

It’s like being able to get a good long look at what the coolest girl in the class is wearing, but this is all the coolest girls from all the classes all over the world! And the best thing is, they often identify the pieces they are wearing, so you can try to find it, which on Pinterest can often be a frustrating wild goose chase.

There is something about seeing looks on people on Lookbook.nu that gives you permission to try that look too. After all, if Katarina, 24, from Warsaw can rock that look, you can too.

Lookbook.nu is the brainchild of San Francisco native Yuri Lee and she will be speaking at a Portable TV event in Brisbane on Tuesday 27th November, in Sydney on Thursday 29th November and in Melbourne on Friday 30th November.
Click here for further details: http://portable.tv/events/lookbook/

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