Frequently Asked Questions
What does Fashionbone mean?
Some members of our team have an excellent fashion sense, while others aren’t quite as well put together. The least dapper of our bunch once quipped, “I can’t wait for this site to get launched and start getting advice on my outfits, because I haven’t got a fashion bone in my body”. But that wasn’t enough to pick that name… no… the clincher was when it was used as a verb suggesting that someone post an outfit to the site to get feedback, “Why don’t you Fashionbone it?”… and then as a complement, “That outfit tickles by my Fashionbone”. Can you think of other ways to use the name?
How is my Profile rating calculated?
We average the highest scoring five public outfits in your closet. So you can post as many outfits as you like, but your overall rating is just based on the best five.
Are all comments constructive?
Most members are fashion-loving and friendly and will post comments that are constructive. Sometimes they might just be positive notes saying that a particular item is attractive on you or that you look cute. Other time, someone might write a particularly harsh note that could feel hurtful. It’s up to you which comments you want to keep – if something seems gratuitously negative, you have the option of deleting the comment. Users are also encouraged to flag comments (by hitting FLAG next to the comment) that they think are inappropriate – we’ll leave it to you to decide what feels inappropriate. We will review flagged comments and reserve the right to delete them and possibly terminate a member’s access if they are consistently mean-spirited.
What do the Stars next to people’s Usernames mean? What’s a Thumbs Up?
Stars indicate how popular that member’s comments have been. The more “Thumbs Up” a member’s comments receive from others, the more stars they get. The Thumbs Up indicates that a comment is particularly constructive and that you learned from it. You can give a Thumbs Up to any comment, whether its on your outfit or some else’s.
What are Stylists?
Stylists are members who have worked their way up to 5 stars and been invited by a panel of Stylists and the Fashionbone staff to become a Stylist, who we consider to be our expert fashion commentators. Stylists may host their own blog featured in the Style Lounge section of Fashionbone. We also offer Stylists a special outfit search tool for finding particular types of outfits based on very narrow criteria (e.g. outfits featuring Prada boots worn by women age 23-26 in New York) to provide them with material for their blogs. Comments that Stylists post to an outfit are prioritized and displayed above all other comments. So once your fashion talents are noticed and you become a Stylist, all your comments will continue to be noticed… maybe by the professional fashion world. We’re certainly going to be doing all we can think of to promote the talents of our Stylists and to reward them for their important contribution to making Fashionbone the place people discover fashion.
What is the ideal outfit picture?
We recommend that you take a vertical picture of that shows your outfit from head to toe in a bright light. Try to crop away anything extra so that you taking up most of the frame. If you were to post the same picture at different resolutions, different sizes, and different levels of brightness, you would see that the largest, highest resolution, and brightest pictures get the best ratings and most constructive comments because that’s how people can see the outfit most clearly. If you crop your feet, no one will know how well the shoes match. If you crop your face, some of the proportions are missing that make it harder to get a sense for how well the outfit fits you.
What if I don’t want people to see my face?
We have creating a blur tool that you can use when uploading your photo to make it hard for anyone to tell who you are but still lets people see the outfit on an entire figure.
Why do I need to put in detailed information about the outfit?
We hope that users will diligently annotate the outfits with all the specific items they are wearing, who the designers are, and what occasion the outfit is intended for. The occasion lets people know whether the outfit suits your goal… the same blouse might be great for an evening out but wrong for the office. And if people are searching for Ralph Lauren skirts, they will only find the picture of you wearing yours if you annotate your outfit.
Should I keep an outfit public even if I’m not wearing it anymore?
Yes – please! You are welcome to keep as many of your outfits stored in your Profile as you like. Let it be like your own personal fashion story that you can refer back to and other people can still browse and learn from. Each outfit is a collaborative effort that includes you and all the members who posted their constructive comments on your page, and deleting that would make all the effort disappear. So keep those outfits up.
What is My Circle?
Your Circle are people you want to keep an eye on. Maybe they have similar taste in clothes as you or maybe they are friend. Adding them to your Circle will let you opt into notifications when they post a new outfit and will also let you narrow your Fashion Show to just the people you are interested in (though we recommend viewing the Random Fashion Show periodically to find new members whose fashion you want to track).
Can I search for particular outfits?
Yes. We created a series of search menus towards the bottom of the page that lets you narrow the Fashion Show only to outfits that match the selected occasion (e.g. Weddings), gender, age group, item type (e.g. skirt), and designer.
How do I rate an outfit? How do I see the average rating an outfit got?
If you put your mouse over the outfit image, a box will show up that lets you rate an outfit from 1-10. Once you rate the outfit, you will see what average rating that outfit got from other members and can then advance to the next outfit image.
Can I buy someone’s outfit or sell mine?
We haven’t specifically designed the site to facilitate this kind of transaction, but we certainly have nothing against it. If there’s enough demand for this, we’ll come up with some features to make it easier for membersof you or a model wearing your outfits and let people know in your bio that you are a designer. Eventually we may come up with some features to let new designers show off their work and help them get discovered.
How does Fashionbone make money?
Initially, we don’t expect to. But eventually, we hope to generate advertising revenue to designers and retailers. Our developers have to eat (better than they do), so if you think you might want to buy an article of clothing or an accessory, whether it be a Gap blouse, Prada bag, Marc Jacobs shoes, or an Armani suit, click on the designer links when you see them on our site. If you feel like having a few pizzas with a large salad and diet sodas delivered to us, we’ll do our best to make sure the server never crashes when anyone loads your outfits. Just email us at inglorioushungrybastards@fashionbone.com and we’ll tell you were to have the yummies delivered.