For many women, shopping out in the real world is a social activity that involves a variety of human interactions.  But with online shopping, it’s usually a solitary delight.  But ShopStyle makes online shopping a social slice of heaven with a vast collection of shoes, handbags, clothing, accessories and more.

On ShopStyle, lovers of “pretty things” can create a profile and build their own stylebook.  You can spend hours surfing around, favoriting all sorts of gorgeous and ridiculously expensive things that you’d want in your closet if you had an unlimited budget.  From your stylebook, you can create individual looks where you combine specific items, that you can then share to ShopStyle groups and members.  And if you’re really proud of your stylebook and looks, you can create a customized blog widget to share with your friends and readers.

Gone are the days of flipping through a glossy mag for fashion ideas–you can check out what people are pairing, mixing and matching on ShopStyle any time of day, any day of the week.  While you’re browsing groups like Wear to Work or Express Yourself, you can rate members’ looks and save items from their ensembles to your own stylebook.  It’s sort of a style-building collaboration, or having a patient, quiet, fashionable friend with you in the store.

If you’re in the mood to update your closet, get some new style ideas or pretend you can afford a huge and  super-luxurious wardrobe, I’d suggest creating a profile and poking around the site.  And once you join, follow my stylebook to see what looks I’m lusting after and share your must-have picks.

Happy styling!

I don’t usually do this, but I call the shots around here, so I’m posting a few links.  Think of it as randomly finding really cool, honey-flavored pirate treasure on the Internet.

HP gets glitzy with the Vivienne Tam designed Digital Clutch: when your laptop becomes your hottest accessory

Thoughts on Airplane Mode and (Dis)Connectivity: when does a phone stop being a phone?

Send Your Respect in a Text!: when SMS becomes part of National Respect Day [Arrrrrrrrrrr (e, s, p, e, c, t?)]

Behold my favorite new purchase–the Burberry Montgomery bag in black:

As it’s been discussed here, here, here and here, Louis Vuitton is suing 26 year-old Danish artist Nadia Plesner for using an image very similar to one of their monogram totes in an anti-genocide campaign to support Darfur. This is a tough one, buddies–there’s some cognitive dissonance going on here. I instinctively think first, “Eww, why is LV being so heartless and money-hungry about this? Darfur needs our help, and instead of freaking out, they could be finding a way to meaningfully contribute to the cause, even if they were dragged into it.” But at the same time, my instincts say, “I see where your head’s at, LV. Protect your brand–you go and take her down for clearly exploiting your image.” I admit, I love luxury handbags, but my gut ultimately goes with my first response.

The image on Nadia’s “Simple Living” t-shirt and poster (a jab at Paris Hilton’s reality show The Simple Life), pictured at the right, depicts a naked African child holding a Tinkerbell-like chihuahua and what is very obviously her take on a white/monogram multicolore Louis Vuitton handbag. Her description of the illustration reads (eloquently unedited):

My illustration Simple Living is an idea inspired by the medias constant cover of completely meaningless things. My thought was: Since doing nothing but wearing designerbags and small ugly dogs appearantly is enough to get you on a magasine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention.

Without this glaringly negative comment, perhaps Louis Vuitton wouldn’t have gotten so bent out of shape over the image. But, I can see why they did. She’s essentially equating the LV brand (and chihuahuas?) with meaninglessness and media whoredom–not the prettiest epithets.

On Nadia’s site, there are plenty of supporters telling her to keep fighting the lawsuit and to continue standing up for herself because ultimately, her goal is a good one. And, it really is. One hundred percent of the money she makes from t-shirt sales goes to the Divest for Darfur fund.

So, does the end justify the means? Maybe.

I think Louis Vuitton, although perhaps within their rights, should have approached this differently. Yeah, at this point it looks like LV essentially got mugged and someone ran off with their handbag. However, with a different approach this could have been brand sharing instead of brand stealing. Like letting a friend borrow your bag because it went perfectly with her outfit. It’s still yours, but you’ll let her use it because in the end, everyone looks hot.

I wish Louis Vuitton had proactively done something to counter Nadia’s negative picture of the brand. Had they publicly shown where they’ve been a socially responsible company or, even better, struck a deal with her to donate a “meaningful” amount of money to her campaign, they may have avoided some of this media messiness. Given all the legal fees, taking that money and donating it to Darfur would probably have cost the company less and resulted in good press.

Louis Vuitton also could have created a place for people to talk about the situation to engage their various publics in a conversation about luxury brands, genocide, charity and anything in between. Just throwing out a lawsuit in this situation really wasn’t the sexiest choice. I think it’ll be hard for LV to rally support on this one. Either they’ll lose (which seems to be the more likely outcome) and be the brand that wanted to sue the girl trying to save Darfur, or they’ll win and be the brand that sued the girl trying to save Darfur. When the health and integrity of the brand is the important issue here, I think dropping the suit and redirecting their energy in a more helpful way would serve Louis Vuitton better in the long term.

I know this isn’t exactly breaking news, but what do you think? Is Louis Vuitton going overboard? Are they right on target? Should chihuahua breeders sue Nadia Plesner, too? If you have any takeaway thoughts, I’d love to see some reactions, ideas or new solutions in the comments section.

In other news, I got a new handbag today. And no, it’s not a Louis Vuitton. (It’s Burberry, *sigh, so pretty.*) Watch for a Today’s Honey post with a photo or two. You know you can’t wait. And don’t even think about mugging me. You think a lawsuit is bad? I’ll cut you.

So, here it is. Not a social media tool kit, not a social media tackle box, not a pair of social media Wrangler jeans. Me? I have a social media handbag, thanks.

In my social media handbag, the essentials are my Twitter, Facebook, ooVoo, Skype, del.icio.us and Google Reader. These are like my phone, T pass, credit card, lip balm, license and keys. Every girl has her essential items she needs to survive away from home–the things you use all the time and can’t live without. But then you’ve got the extra stuff that you just like having with you. You don’t always take these things everywhere, but you usually have them around just in case. For me, that’s Flickr, Utterz and Seesmic. My mini mirror, tissues and umbrella. Guys, I know you sometimes wonder what the hell we need these handbags for, but trust me, girls get what I’m talking about. And I mean, this could be taken in a variety of ways depending on your accessory personality–you could have a social media man purse, social media evening clutch, social media fannypack…

Girls, this is how I conceptualize my social media “stuff.” I’m a visual thinker. And I like pretty things.

What’s in your social media handbag?