friends, trends, and (thank the gods) some goths!

Ashe Romance, of exquisite taste, amazing ability to find beautiful stuff on etsy and dramatis personae, agreed with me when I blogged about StyleMob and its annoying lack of diversity. Yesterday she commented again with a link to Shoutfit, which is a similar site, but to my great delight, has far more members who dress on the dark side*!

How this happened is a bit of a mystery. Shoutfit is no more dark in colour theme (StyleMob is predominantly green and white, Shoutfit mostly pink). StyleMob awards points for activity and the site owners enter those who have gained the most points in the last month and those with the most points overall into a raffle to win prizes. However, this is not a feature I am particularly fond of because it could lead to spammed comments from users trying to collect points. However, like StyleMob, membership to Shoutfit used to be by invite only so I suspect that has something to do with the predominant styles on each site.

Neither of these sites are overwhelmingly popular which means they are easy to stay up-to-date with, but their forums are very slow. I am prefering Shoutfit at the moment because as well as having a diverse membership, it is possible to link to individual outfits and items, whereas with StyleMob you cannot. Being able to do this is important for me as a blogger, because it means I can share photographs I like with you, as I will do in an upcoming post!

Another good thing about Shoutfit is that is has Trends which work kind of like Flickr's photopools, in that you can join them and submit images. These already include fabulous styles like Vintage looks, Steampunk and Pirate Chic - the latter being subtitled, to my delight, as "Dashing, swashbuckling, maritime-inspired raditude". There is even a Trend dedicated to Striped Stockings. Be still my beating heart.

Oh, and Shien Lee has an account, where she models some of Vecona's clothes! Only obsessive Emilie Autumn fans and forum members will understand this excitement, so I'd better explain. Shien Lee is a friend of Vecona. Vecona, or Lady Vecona, Teakeeper of the Asylum as we know her, is a fashion designer and one of Emilie Autumn's Bloody Crumpets (her backing performers). Shien Lee was mistaken for another Bloody Crumpet, the Lady Joo Hee, Center of Happiness, by a forum muffin a while back, which is how she came to our attention. Check out Vecona Baroque dress with original blue corset, Vecona Baroque dress with black corset and Corpse Bride inspired Victorian dress by Vecona to find out why this is so awesome anyway!

Other notable members include Sir Frederick Chook of Frilly Shirt - The Belle Époque is everynow, Gothic Charm School's The Lady of The Manners and Miss Malaprop (blog).

It's not all goth all the time, however, it would be just as bad as StyleMob if it was. There are Trends for Nu-Rave and Alternative 80's Fashion...So join! You'll be in good company :)




*Ooh I like that. Should that be my tagline? this second's obsession - dress on the dark side? Please comment!