SPOTLIGHTm

Style.com for iPhone

What is it?

Style.com is the online home of Vogue magazine and is widely held as one of the top fashion sites online right now. The iPhone application for Style gives fashion fiends a quick look at the latest fashion shows, videos, blogs, and lines from their favorite designers.

How much does it cost?

Free.

Who is it good for?

Fashion lovers. Style.com’s application is most useful if you are already interested in the fashion industry so that you make best use of the incredible runway images, information, and video available through the application. If you’re not into fashion or designer labels, you’re probably not looking at this application in the first place.

Summary

Style.com’s iPhone application boasts some impressive fashion-focused media content in a simple design. While we wish that the application had more of the daily features from the website that feel like they could be easily implemented (latest news, shopping, “Look of the Day”), the application does more than enough for those who just enjoy flipping through pictures and checking out videos from the latest runway shows from around the world.

The pictures are beautiful and the videos are of high quality. But again, this application is only for those interested in fashion as its focus is much less “ready to wear” compared to something that you’d see in a People Style Watch or even a Lucky.

Keep it or Delete it?

Keep it (if fashion is your thing).

Miu Miu : Prada, Gap : Banana Republic

If you’re one to flip through picture after picture in fashion mags to see what’s hot at the latest fashion show, Style’s iPhone application will provide you with endless entertainment.

High quality pictures load quickly and you can learn more about the line and individual models by tapping a picture and selecting the text view on the top right corner. From Celine to Prada to Sonia Rykiel and even couture lines, Style’s iPhone application really shines in the photos department from all the latest fashion shows.

With such a focus on photos, something had to give. In thise case, what gave is news and more “Joe Six-Pack” friendly information. The Style app is much more about runway shows than it is about general news (like celebrity birthday parties). I guess the logic here is that there are other applications and iPhone optimized sites (like E!’s iPhone.eonline.com) that cover the celebrity that goes with fashion, so Style covers runway shows and does it extremely well.

While we’re not the biggest fashion hounds here in the office with our potato sack cargos and “Obama is my homeboy” trucker caps, it’s easy to see how someone who is into fashion could get completely engulfed with the latest shots from their favorite designers. If you know nothing about fashion, you can at least learn some brand names and if you really wanted to, you could probably pick up on different style trends from just glancing over the images.

Another excellent part of the application are the videos. The clarity of the videos (the majority of which come from… What else? Fashion shows) is some of the best that we’ve seen on the iPhone. The videos play in landscape mode by default (vertical or portrait is unavailable) and give Style readers a quick glimpse into different lines and fashion shows from all around the world. Even if you’re not into fashion, the quality is pretty stunning and worth checking out!

Just a blog, no news

While the media content is top notch, as we mentioned earlier, the text content could use a bit of a boost. Style decided to go with their blog instead of their features area, seemingly to keep the content a little more fresh with the frequently updated blog. Without a strong focus or consistency in its content, the Style Blog is something that likely won’t feel nearly as complete to those unfamiliar with Style.com.

And again, if you’re into fashion, the Style Blog could be just what you’re looking for (and used to!). The Style.com website has some great features every now and then and it would be great to see those implemented into the application, but with the depth of media content, we’re not complaining.

All in all, Style.com’s application is an impressive collection of photos and videos that cover the world of fashion. It’s pretty clear that the style faithful have embraced the application, along with the mainstream media being impressed by its features.

With its almost endless supply of photos, high quality videos, and beautiful pictures that span the globe, the Style.com application looks like it can provide fashionistas with more than enough goodies to make up for the little that it lacks.