The Posh Foodie

It’s been over a year since Polyvore was abruptly shut down. Since then ex-Polyvorians have found new homes on a number of platforms including URSTYLE, Fashmates, ShopLook and TrendMe. I create my sets mainly on URSTYLE. But I’ve also made them on Fashmates and ShopLook. I have not used TrendMe but have seen some amazing sets designed on this platform. It’s definitely another option.

I would like to share my user experience on the first three platforms in this blog post in hope to help those who are still deciding where to create sets.

URSTYLE, Fashmates and ShopLook all have made tremendous improvements during the last year. Users can do the following easily on all three:

• Create fashion sets
  • all functionalities including crop, flip flop, rotate, duplicate, move forward and backward, remove/delete etc. are available;
  • Categories are much more comprehensive and better organized in comparison to the previous versions on all of them;

• Create home and art sets. I would recommend URSTYLE or Fashmates for creating home and art sets because ShopLook has very limited selections in these categories. Home decor and furniture are in “Images” instead of a separate category on ShopLook;

• Members can create and join groups as well as participating in contests;

• Upload sets created on Polyvore (I chose not to because I wanted to start fresh);

• Clip and import items from the web – this tool is called “clipper” which was originally introduced by Polyvore. Click on the following if you would like to know more about it:
  • URSTYLE Clipper – Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera
  • Fashmate Clipper – Google Chrome (Log in as member to view info)
  • ShopLook Clipper – Google Chrome

• Shop clothing and accessories. Visitors and members can also shop home products (furniture, home decor, kitchenware etc.) on URSTYLE and Fashmates.

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

URSTYLE

• Country: Poland
• Instagram: @urstyle

I chose URSTYLE because it was the only platform that allowed me to cut/crop items when I was looking for a replacement for Polyvore in 2018. I wrote a review on URSTYLE last year – URSTYLE, One of the Alternatives to Polyvore – My Review. This is what URSTYLE looks like today.

• Member Profile

• Canvas Area

Features I like:

1 . Categories

I like the way URSTYLE categorizes the items the most. In addition, it seems to have the most amount of products and items to choose from, not only in fashion, but also home and art.

Creating sets take time so any feature that can help save me time is attractive. I love that they added the “Art” category and each sub-category is very well organized. I’m a foodie so I often like to include food and beverage in my sets. “Food”, “Drinks” and “Nature” are my three favourite sub-categories in “Art”.

If you love to create home and art sets, I highly recommend URSTYLE. I’ve seen some incredible home and art sets on URSTYLE that I haven’t seen on Fashmates.

2 . Easy to View Top Fashion Sets

URSTYLE posts Top Sets almost every day on its home page which is open to public. Anyone including non-members can view member profiles and sets.

I know some members create sets on two or more platforms. However, I see the majority of Polyvore Top Fashion Set creators on URSTYLE (I could be wrong). It’s not surprising that now you often see their sets on URSTYLE’s homepage as Top Sets. I get a lot of fashion and design inspiration from them.

What I would Like to See:

1 . I didn’t know the sets on URSTYLE’s homepage are Top Sets until only over a month ago. It would be great if URSTYLE can communicate to its members that these sets are Top Sets.

Polyvore had a section on its Homepage called “The Best From the Community – Top Sets” or something like that. The title is self-explanatory. They posted 30 Top Sets each day in four categories – Fashion, Beauty, Home and Art. I am mindful that Polyvore was a much larger company and had more resources. I don’t expect any of these three companies to do the same while they are still growing and expanding. But if their goal is to replace Polyvore completely, they need to eventually offer everything Polyvore did and more. I have no doubt in my mind that they are all working on it.

2 . An easier and faster way to follow other members as well as liking and commenting on their sets. For example, recommend members to follow and show a feed that showcases new sets published by the members I am following.

To this day, I still don’t know how other users who are not following me find my sets. Perhaps on the homepage or maybe in “Categories” in “Get Inspired”?

If I’m already spending an hour creating a set, and another hour liking and commenting, I really don’t want to spend an additional hour searching for whom to follow.

3 . When I click on the “Heart” (like) button on my set, it would show a list of all the members who liked it. This would allow us to go directly to their page to follow, like and comment. Another time saver.

We all have busy lives. I simply don’t have time to go through all the notifications because “Notification” not only notify members who liked and followed us but also include notifications on new contests, new topics, winners of the contests etc. It can get overwhelming.

What can URSTYLE improve on?

• There have been times when other members and I had trouble logging into the website. This could be caused by heavy traffic to website. I know URSTYLE has been making every effort to solve the problem;
• I’ve had trouble publishing sets. It just froze. But eventually the sets always re-appeared on my profile. However, I have noticed that I haven’t experienced this problem in the last week. Maybe it’s been fixed?
• Some members including me experience problems on commenting. When we clicked on “Post a Comment” nothing happened. The next time I went back to the same set to comment, it showed that I posted 10 of the same comments;
• I can’t find other members by search users sometimes. When I typed in my own user name, it showed “No Results”.

Overall, I am really satisfied with URSTYLE. Every time I contact them, they respond in a timely, friendly and professional manner. Hopefully one day URSTYLE will have a mobile app like Polyvore once did. I do understand it takes time and money to develop one. Polyvore wasn’t developed to perfection overnight.

Fashmates

• Country: U.S.A
• Instagram: @fashmates

In my review “Fashmates.com Review” last May, I couldn’t even create a set. That’s no longer the case.

• Member Profile

• Canvas Area

Features I like:

1 . Saves items already cut/cropped by me or other users like Polyvore. This is a time saver.

2 . When publishing a set, you can choose categories such as Casual, Formal, Officewear, Celeb and Street Style.

3 . Shows where other users create their set – web (computer) or smartphone or tablet. Not really important to me, but I just think it’s cool.

4 . “My Feed” shows sets created by the users I’m following which allows me to like and comment easier and faster.

5 . Recommends users to follow.

6 . Shows a list of the members who like your set by clicking on “likes” in your own set.

7 . Offers an app version for smartphones (I haven’t used it, therefore cannot comment further).

8 . “Quotes” is in its own category and love the large amount of cool quotes in this section.

What I would Like to See:

1 . A homepage that offers more information such as popular products, top trends, top sets, member spotlight, set of the week etc. Right now when I log in, it just takes me to “My Feed”.

2 . When I click on “Save Draft”, the set doesn’t disappear into drafts. This is one thing I prefer using URSTYLE over Fashmates. I like to save drafts periodically to ensure that I don’t lose what I’m working on. I don’t see “Auto Save” option on any of the platforms. On Fashmates, I have to click on “Open” to re-open the set I was working on after saving it which is time consuming.

But maybe other members prefer this way?

3 . A better organized “Popular Collection”. When I was searching frames in “Frames and Border” I couldn’t find what I wanted so I ended up in “Popular Collection”. It’s a great concept, don’t get me wrong. But it doesn’t look visually appealing and inviting at all which makes me want to exit right away.

The sub-categories are in no particular order. As you can see, some of them have the same title but actually contain different items. Everything is all over the place.

What Fashmates can Improve on?

• Several times when I clicked on categories under “Embellishment” such as Magazines and Articles, Music and Quotes, it froze.

• Sometimes when I comment on other members’ sets, the pages appear blank with a computer coding in the middle of the screen.

ShopLook

• Country: U.S.A
• Instagram: @shoplookio
• Founder: Laya (She also creates sets which is awesome!)

I also wrote a review last year on ShopLook – “ShopLook Review”. ShopLook has improved leaps and bounds in the past year.

• Member Profile

• Canvas Area

Features I like:

1 . I like ShopLook’s Homepage the best. It shows popular products and trends, featured contests etc. I am not sure if “#ootd” showcases its Top Sets.

2 . When publishing a set, you get to choose all kinds of categories which is fantastic!

3. Offers categories such as “Spring has sprung”, “Daisy: April Birth Month Flower” and “Coachella: Festival Style” in “Create”. I think this is a very thoughtful touch because it allows members to find items related to these themes easier.

I don’t use ShopLook enough to recommend what it should improve on and what I would like to see. This is the only set I’ve created on ShopLook.

I think all three are wonderful platforms for creating fashion sets. They conduct routine website maintenance and their staff seems very friendly, supportive and personable. So when it comes down to it, it’s personal preference.

I would love to hear from you which platform(s) you use to create sets and why? What it (they) could offer in the future to better your user experience?

Have a wonderful day! XO