Recs for women's style guides

[noobanker]

There are some great resources here on men's style. There's also great websites, instagram accounts, and youtube channels.

What about women? Any recs?

 

[dieworkwear]

I read Vogue and The Cut for "big media" sites.

For personal style sites, or sites that started as personal style sites and have grown to be a bit more, I like Rosenrot, Man Repeller, and Style Bubble.

Cutting Class isn't updated that often, but they have great technical breakdowns of womenswear runway shows.

If someone is looking for something more "basic" and practical, they can try Female Fashion Advice, a subreddit that's sort of the female counterpart to Male Fashion Advice.

PurseForum is also good for purses and some related topics (including general style). It's one of the many online womenswear forums.

 

[rwtc]

We haven't found an equivalent resource to SF's CM online. The most talk about quality that we've seen, is when women discuss Carminas on Reddit, but that's pretty much it. PF is mostly brand driven. I recall reading a thread, in which women were recommending each other's DHs (Dear Hubby) on what shoes are the "best", and they pretty much decided on Bally, Ferragamo, and Gucci. Someone mentioned C&J but they just dismissed it.

We find women generally favour nouveau riche brands, and tend to focus much less on quality than men. They also tend to go for what's "in season", which is something that we've never paid attention to.

The nature of the industry doesn't help, as many women's fashion houses produce clothing made from synthetics or low quality natural fibers, so the only option for us at least, is to go for bespoke or purchase RTW BC.

In terms of retail - many designs for women, for example blazers, are just downright unattractive and poor quality. The gorge, lapels, length, pocket, and button designs are a complete joke. No idea how these "designers" are employed. We went through pretty much all the stores locally before settling on BC as a local option, and a few bespoke resources in Europe and Asia that have proven to be reliable. At the end of the day, retailers carry whatever that sells, and apparently these monstrosities have a good turnover and ROI, which says a lot.

We went to a big name Canadian designer's private sale and they raved about their quality and design, but at the end of the day it was just not so good. Just typical of women's RTW unfortunately. Sometimes we luck out and find something well designed with quality materials, but it is definitely rare.

There is a very small minority of women that purchase bespoke Attolini / Kiton, but they typically do not post online to show & tell their wardrobe or compare the number of LV/Chanel handbags that they own, because they have no need for social validation.

 

[dieworkwear]

PF is mostly brand driven.

Hm, my experience has been the opposite. I find the userbase at Purseforum to be extremely knowledgable. There are very in-depth guides on leather and leather goods construction, probably on a level that rivals or even surpasses StyleForum.

I don't think the frameworks for menswear apply to womenswear, and it's not because women are stupid about clothing. On the contrary, I find the discussions in womenswear to be much more sophisticated than what happens in menswear. It's true that most women are "brand" or "trend" driven, although I would say that's not only true for most men, but also "menswear enthusiasts."

But mostly, I find the discussions about craft and detailing to be much more sophisticated. Just look at the discussions around couture or very high-level designer brands.The embroidery work that goes into Dries Van Noten, the leather that goes into Hermes, etc. I also think they have a better grasp of how just how to put together a good outfit, whereas men often get stuck in this idea of quality that makes them buy clothes like they're purchasing computer equipment ("which is the best value for my money," "which is the best made," etc).

If someone wanted a very practical guide on how to get dressed, in the sort of very basic CM way, then Female Fashion Advice serves that purpose. But there's also a lot of womenswear media that's very hard to compare to menswear, mostly because womenswear is much more advanced as a subject.

 

[rwtc]

That's completely fine. We have never viewed PF favorably and neither has our circle, and that's fine, as we recognize that our tastes are not exactly mainstream. We also view Hermes very unfavorably, especially their silks, which is very thin and not high quality mulberry silk. We're not a fan of RTW silk quality in general, so we source our silk from a few factories and get commissions done with a few shops that have proven themselves.

We view the brands under "Premier Designers" and "Contemporary Designers" from PF's homepage as low quality and gaudy. Understand that's a personal preference and many will disagree, but that's our assessment of the brands listed.

We are unfamiliar with the embroidery for DVN so cannot comment. Similarly not big into Hermes' bags. No one in our circle goes for that anymore so we can't comment on leather quality now. We have some high quality European beaters and some BCs, and they're all very discreet. Some of our friends went for bespoke discreet looking bags. Each to their own. We can only say that in certain work environments, loud brand names are very negatively looked down upon, including all of the brands advertised by PF.

Well designed clothing and high quality materials & construction are not mutually exclusive for women's clothing. However, it is generally the case with RTW and many of the brands mentioned and adored by PF.

We find that most women’s taste in clothing is not advanced, but rather akin to herd mentality. They do discuss bags from Hermes and other mainstream designers to a great degree of passion, but we fail to see any truly “advanced” discussions on how to look nicely with quality and attractive garments. The general taste of PF is very gaudy and reeks of a nouveau riche style.

 

[noobanker]

That's completely fine. We have never viewed PF favorably and neither has our circle, and that's fine, as we recognize that our tastes are not exactly mainstream. We also view Hermes very unfavorably, especially their silks, which is very thin and not high quality mulberry silk. We're not a fan of RTW silk quality in general, so we source our silk from a few factories and get commissions done with a few shops that have proven themselves.

We view the brands under "Premier Designers" and "Contemporary Designers" from PF's homepage as low quality and gaudy. Understand that's a personal preference and many will disagree, but that's our assessment of the brands listed.

We are unfamiliar with the embroidery for DVN so cannot comment. Similarly not big into Hermes' bags. No one in our circle goes for that anymore so we can't comment on leather quality now. We have some high quality European beaters and some BCs, and they're all very discreet. Some of our friends went for bespoke discreet looking bags. Each to their own. We can only say that in certain work environments, loud brand names are very negatively looked down upon, including all of the brands advertised by PF.

Well designed clothing and high quality materials & construction are not mutually exclusive for women's clothing. However, it is generally the case with RTW and many of the brands mentioned and adored by PF.

We find that most women’s taste in clothing is not advanced, but rather akin to herd mentality. They do discuss bags from Hermes and other mainstream designers to a great degree of passion, but we fail to see any truly “advanced” discussions on how to look nicely with quality and attractive garments. The general taste of PF is very gaudy and reeks of a nouveau riche style.

very helpful.

by the way, when you say “we,” do you mean Style forum? Or another group?

 

[rwtc]

My family, but it's a view shared by our friends as well. We do not wear anything with visible branding.