(London) My colleague at my day job recently asked me for some tips on how to make a good fashion site. Here is what I told him:

Some key things a user wants in a fashion site:

 Shareability

1. Make commenting both named as well as anonymous
2. Have an option to post a comment without linking to FB or Twitter
3. IMAGES are King (or queen)
   1. Big images, bright colors
   2. Images are more of a headline/title than the title it self
   3. Make sure all the images are named appropriately so that we get lots of Google image traffic
   4. A sense of exclusivity and opinion
      1. If you make this a gated community, especially with tiered membership where some are more exclusive/popular than others, it will attract more user who aspire to get to the next level
      2. A badge the users can download and embed on their own sites to show affiliation with your site

 

 COLOUR/LOOK/FEEL

1.  Bright, poppy but not just pink or pastels
2. Well spaced out, no clutter
3. Add galleries with a refreshing ad unit in there. They generate TONS of pageviews
4. Some of my favourite looking fashion sites: http://thestylester.com/fashion/best-mens-fashion-sites/
5. A well loved site of mine: http://www.style.com/ and what this site does well
   1. Big pictures
   2. LOTS of pictures
   3. Clean looking
   4. Photo album look

See below for a little slideshow on basic do’s and don’ts of a fashion site. I used Glam Style’s UK site as an example. Although the site is quite awesome, just a few tweaks could really make it perfect. Those are the tiny details that will make your fashion site excellent and attractive VS dull and unoriginal.