Online Fashion Boutiques, Take Note!

If you're a frequent reader then you will know that I love to shop - designer clothes, designer shoes and designer handbags. However, there's something about fashion retailing, especially online fashion boutiques, that really sucks and often turns me off my passion. Simply stated, this relates to the way that many online fashion boutiques display their merchandise.

I don't know if you're like me but often I find designer clothes that are simply displayed and photographed against some backdrop or being modelled by Casper, just suspended in mid air. The halter top shown above is an example. I'm sure you've see lots of this yourself but if not then take a quick look at the teen clothing shown on online fashion boutiques like Aeropostale and Delia's, and the sassy and chic clothing shown at The Warehouse and Miss Selfridge. Now don't get me wrong as I happen to love all of these online boutiques. They are merely examples of the point that I'm trying to make here. I just find that displaying fashion like this does not do justice to the items and often I will simply move on.

Take for example the halterneck top by Bilingual shown above. I wrote about this piece in my post Up To 50% Off La Star Style Celebrity Fashion back on August 18, 2007. As I wrote then, when I first saw this halterneck even at the 50% discounted sale price of £39.99 I asked myself "yeah sure, who'd pay that much for this?" Intrigued, I had a closer look and if you click on the image you'll see how this halterneck top looks being worn by Hollywood A-lister, Halle Berry. How quickly I changed my mind when I saw it modelled in this way. It's nothing short of super sexy and I too wanted one of these exclusive and very limited tops.

Now what I've labelled as 'Casper displays' is not the only thing that sucks as I also often come across pictures of designer clothes on mannequins, life-size dummies sometimes with an egg head with no defined features or anatomical details but also often headless, or armless, or just a torso, and I say, "Yuck. No Thanks". Yet I can see the exact same designer clothes pictured being worn by live models and say "Wow. Yes Thanks" and either go ahead and purchase or at the very least dream about owning them!

Now this isn't always the case as there are some exceptions, however I have to say that this is mostly true for me. Here is a couple of current examples of this taken from another one of my favorite online boutiques, ADASA. The first, the designer dress shown in the picture on the above left, is the Mason by Michelle Mason Dress with Waist Ties in Grey currently priced at $297 at ADASA and the second, shown in the picture on the right below is the Mason by Michelle Mason 3/4 Sleeve Boatneck Dress in Purple, available at ADASA for $407.

Each of these two modelled designer dresses by Los Angeles fashion designer Michelle Mason I could easily order online. I think they're gorgeous, sophisticated and sexy, and look absolutely stunning, just too cute to mouse click past. So here's a simple experiment. As you look at each outfit click on the picture and see how these gorgeous designer clothes look in the alternative displayed on a mannequin. Much like the Bilingual halterneck top shown above, these two Mason by Michelle Mason designer dresses displayed in confident stylish poses on headless mannequins, I can assure I would not look twice at.

Even though mannequins can be very realistic, capable of a myriad of natural human poses and based on human measurements and proportions to die for, as well as being flesh-colored and with that perfect smile, looking so very youthful, I can't explain how as a frequent fashion shopper why I feel this way. I'm not at all sure if my reaction is because of the wooden or plastic doll look or if somehow my brain recognizes that these dummies are not the real thing, that they're just a non-personalized representation of the human form, youthful and with that perfect body but somewhat idealized and stylized, to model the designer clothes. Perhaps it's in the mannequins' body language or that I simply see that they are Barbie dolls, too perfect and not having the body shape of today's average woman makes me feel bad about myself! It might even be that I just get a different perception of beauty and the human body when designer clothes are displayed on mannequins. I really don't know but the result is that I don't buy!

And I have to say that the same applies to mannequins modelling designer jeans and to a lessor extent designer shoes and accessories like designer jewelry and designer sunglasses! And this isn't restricted to online merchandising either as I often have the very same reaction when it comes to mannequins in storefronts or magazine advertisements. Somehow they are a turn-off! Crazy I know but if there are many like me then I think that the display of designer clothes in this way is far less effective than retailers may realize!

Miss Selfridge Up To 70% Off!

As a boutique brand, Miss Selfridge has a long history supplying distinctively feminine, flirty, fun and contemporary style womens clothing for fashion aware women. In fact, it has been operating in London since 1966.

This much loved brand on the British high street, currently has an up to 70% off sale on selected womens clothing across dresses, petites, tops, bottoms, outerwear, sleepwear, swimwear, footwear, hosiery, lingerie, vintage, suiting and accessories.

There are some bargains there and I found the cute looking, funnel neck brown birdseye check coat in the outwear section. The coat, shown in the first picture below, was originally priced at £75 and is now on sale at only £15. I also like the silver grey sailor long parka shown in the second image. The 100% Cotten, machine washable parka is on sale at £30.

With the fickle and unpredictable English weather, even the current English summer, I think that each of these items would be useful evening attire for whisking off to the theater or having an intimate dinner overlooking the River Thames :)

Miss Selfridge Up To 70% Off!

Can't face the high street sale crowds? Then shop online and scoop some of the fantastic sale items on sale now at up to 70% off at Miss Selfridge.

Subject to availability. While Stocks last. Terms and Conditions apply.