When this month’s Elle arrived with a gorgeous black and white cover, it had to be read immediately. I’m glad it didn’t go into my pile of unread mags because when I read it, I spotted something interesting: a story very like a post I wrote last year.

The Elle story reports that fashion designers wear the same look for years, while they push a new look onto us every single season — much like my post that…

Some of the best recent reads from around the web.

Queen of hearts
Pretty ways to communicate love towards your beau, friends, or self.

Flavor bedfellows
How to match wine and chocolate.

Luxe for less
Rosewater delivers a lot of loveliness for its negligible cost … a bargain way to add beauty into your life in a multitude of ways.

Put to the test
They look stunning on the catwalk, but how do the latest designer collections work in real life?

Why do we read fashion…

My mom recently asked me why so many clothes have horizontal stripes and not vertical ones, since supposedly the former has a widening effect and the latter is slimming.

After all, all the fashion magazines and style shows keep repeating the same mantra, “Create vertical lines.”

Well, here’s the answer and how you can make it work for you.

Here are some fabulous style tips from Bargain Queen real style icon Kimberly Wilson, taken from her book Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life On and Off the Yoga Mat.

And don’t miss our interview in which she shares the secrets of her personal style.

Weed out your wardrobe

Make it a habit to give away at least one item for every new piece you add to your closet. This will help keep your wardrobe from growing too large…

Fashion trends get a bad rap — so much so that many people would hardly call being labeled “trendy” a compliment. In her series on The fashion industry’s biggest secret, Sara illustrates how many fashion editors, designers, and icons don’t seem to follow trends at all — while fashion victims do.

Keeping an eye on trends isn’t a bad thing, though. In fact, smart shoppers know the value of watching trends, since their coming and going determines what’s…

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

Everyone has features that make them different, unusual and special.

If you’ve read a lot of magazines, you might consider these attributes to be ‘flaws’: you’re too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, flat-chested, top-heavy, pear shaped or whatever else.

I’ve written previously about why your unusual features aren’t flaws at all.

Today, some practical tips for embracing, rather than hiding, the…

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

Fashion magazines are arguably the single most influential source of fashion information. They show their readers the new trends, hot designers and desirable items - and they encourage readers to buy them.

The editor of a fashion magazine has a great deal of influence over the tone and content of their publication”¦ but they rarely wear most of the trends…

As part of my strategy to focus on small gifts to make Christmas shopping easier and cheaper, I’m compiling the ultimate lists of gifts for under $20.

If you have a techie on your gift list but don’t speak in computer acronyms don’t fear; this is one area I’ve got plenty of experience in.

My husband and I are both techies, as are many of our friends. Yes, for all my talk of shoes and bags, I’m…

In my recent post My gift shopping strategy, or why small gifts rock, I explained why making small gifts the focus can make shopping both easier and cheaper.

With that in mind, I’ll be compiling the ultimate lists of gifts for under $20 between now and Christmas. I’ve covered bags for him and her, now here are some ideas for the bookworms in your life.

Some of the book lovers on your list might be drooling over…

Fashion magazines may be full of adolescent models, but that doesn’t mean fashion and style are the dominion of them alone.

To the contrary, the best dressers can be found among older women who have enough experience to know who they are and what works for them, unlike many younger girls who are still fad-hopping as they try to find themselves.

It’s no wonder, though, that many women baulk at experimenting with their style for fear of…