My friend Jeremy Somers has gone on and produced a range of women’s swimwear called We Are Handsome which is very unique. Okay, it’s totally unique. Check it out ladies. What do you think?

Amidst the dead-til-friday strip of bars in Philadelphia’s Old City, one store front boosts its allure with searing pink. Smak Parlour is the brainchild of Abby and Katie, two Philly girls whose aptitude for design brought to life their vision of girliness. The duo claims they found inspiration from the old school Barbie wardrobe; not hard to believe when you walk into Smak Parlour. In a domain of pink, a pallet of gaudy flare is harnessed to create designs that embody the Abby and Katie’s expertise, self-professed as all things vintage-inspired, girly, fun and flirty. Smak Parlour is at 2nd and Market Streets in Philly.   

The popularization of the mind/body/soul lifestyle has brought about a few good changes — the most important being a proliferation of healthier people. But those of us who have been there since the beginning know that it hasn’t always been as easy to jibe with. In fact, even if you are among the newest of followers, you probably already have some experience sifting through the occasional dose of power-hippy, (i.e., things that are a little too all-or-nothing to meld into our individual paths). Thankfully, there is a new approach to conscious living that is rapidly gaining momentum, and it has more to do with the pursuit of happiness than the perfect patchouli. A great example of this progressive mindset can be found in BeThree, an online lifestyle community that is using its message of an energized existence to put the hip in hippy.

The premise of BeThree is simple: spread the gospel of all things fresh for the mind, body and soul. Geared towards women, the daily publication aims to share the most exciting, relevant and uncut truths about today’s health-conscious lifestyle, and aims to do it in the most mod way possible. Delivered in a voice that is engaging, inspiring, and most importantly, realistic, BeThree takes living consciously to a level that is more worldly than new agey. In other words, while the site may cover ways to incorporate more healthy herbs in your life, it won’t coach you through bombing your home with a fistful of burning sage. As an extra perk, the contributors to this site have been at The New York Times, Delicious Living, and Rock and Ice, insuring that the content is coming from the mouths of people who are not only health-savvy, but also rather adept at sentence formation. Read up and sign up here.

Whether or not they’ve ever heard of the Spice Girls, adolescent females in developing nations have more or less served as the embodiment for the phrase “Girl Power”, displaying an unparalleled ability to foster drastic socio-economic change in not only their families, but also their communities and countries. Recognizing the power of these individuals and their importance on the global landscape, the Nike Foundation and the NoVo Foundation have donated $100 million and worked in conjunction with Norfolk based Grow Interactive (designers of this site) and Portland ad agency Wieden + Kennedy to bring the world’s attention to The Girl Effect. The organization and site aims at investing resources to ensure that young girls can grow into educated women and don’t fall victim to trappings such as poverty, disease, early marriage, and pregnancy, so that they may instead focus their energies on becoming the leaders of their community and making the world a better place. The site details some startling facts as to what happens when a girl gets a chance and what happens what she doesn’t. We recommend you check it out and help fix this messy world up a bit.

The stylists at Tobi have one of the best curated collections of men’s and women’s apparel at hand, and we were lucky enough to have Catherine, Tobi’s Co-Founder and stylist, list her holiday picks for us. A mix of warming and heartwarming, these winter goodies will leave the lady in your life looking sweeter than a Christmas cookie. More on the man-side of things? Check out Tobi’s incredible interactive Holiday Gift Service, where an online stylist helps you hunt down a great gift for anyone, then rewards you with a $20 gift card. Positive reinforcement is a beautiful thing; Catherine listed her must haves for giving AND receiving as Tobi’s Love quote scarves, Mike and Chris Jude Lambskin Trench and the Tobi Exclusive Paper Cut Cut tee. To those, we must wholeheartedly agree.

I know, I know, the name of this site caught me off guard too (Chicks Dig Games? They do?). But, being the curious beta-browser I am, I gave the bubbly-looking site a browse, and found myself in a section that seemed perfect for me: ‘Chicks Who Don’t Play.” Here was an argument of why I should pick up a controller and start collecting lives and fire power; It was kinda silly, mostly solid, and delivered via an interview with someone else who only recently started PS2-ing. Afterwards, being somewhat convinced, I bounced around the rest of the site, learning about Halo 3 and wondering if I’ll ever really be able to slip the words “Metroid Prime 3″ into my vocabulary. Final verdict: I don’t ever want to say Metroid Prime 3. In fact, I don’t really want to be heard saying any word suffixed in -oid (other than “altoid”, I mean; gotta keep it fresh). However, I would consider playing a game ending in -oid, because, as it turns out, a lot of girls already are, and they like it…and they’re going to beat your ass the next time you’re involved in an internet gaming battle. Boys, tell your girlfriends; Girls, tell your best friends: “chicks dig games” might be the truest series of words since “The Rockies got spanked in the 2007 World Series.”

On July 26th, Nike’s first ever female-designed limited edition sneaker will be released. NY graf artist Claw Money is the its-about-fekking-time name behind the three new Blazers, and — much like everything else the woman touches — they look good. As for the “progressive” approach via Nike; I don’t know whether to be sending a tear-soaked thank you note, or just be a little disgusted in realizing that I had absolutely no idea that girls weren’t designing sneakers up until now. Either way, Claw Money’s Blazer has been getting ridiculous amounts of hype, so if you manage to get your hands on a pair, yay for you; feel free to knock out a few dudes ahead of you in line.

You know, you can always tell a true lady by the way she totes her necessities when traversing the Swiss Alps. Like my mother told me, there really is no better way to test ones dedication to beauty than to forge a snowy pass with perfectly applied glitter eyeliner. It’s a good thing that Paul Frank happens to be the neighbor and friend of Urban Decay, because were it not for that desirable situation, 750 of us would be left without this Swiss Glamour Camping Kit, a very limited-edition make-up/sunglasses/bear-proof (oh, kidding!) travel case combo that will help to keep the adventurous side of your lady well balanced with, well, the lady. The set includes a bunch of fun Urban Decay make-up and your choice of some awesome (actually, the more I check them out, really awesome) sunnies. However, the case itself might be the number one best thing about the whole get up — check it out up close on Urban Decay’s site (which is also the only place where you can purchase the set). Mountains, ho!

If one of Erica Weiner’s mantras is “Make inexpensive jewelery that doesn’t look cheap,” the others must read something like “Make the most badassest jewelry on the planet,” “Use my own personal basass status to increase the overall population of badasses,” and “Eat badass for breakfast, lunch and dinner so that everything I touch may too become badass.”

If you’ve been a reader for awhile you’re probably no stranger to my slightly obsessive posts regarding lines of jewelry (including the amazing Alex and Chloe and Kimberly Baker), but something about Erica Weiner’s vintage-inspired designs are seriously getting me going. Her necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings — which are all humorous, peculiar, and charming — are little works of creative genius, and the pricetag rarely stretches over $80 a pop. Erica’s travels with good friend and business partner Lindsay Salmon keep the line bursting with interesting materials and concepts, and often result in incredible pieces like this one — the Be Prepared For Bears necklace. Taken from a vintage boy scout badge, this incredibly awesome slice of…badass…dangles a menacing grizzly from a few pithy words of truth.

The story of MOB reads something like any other history-in-the-making type tale: Founder Leah sat on her stoop in NYC, drinking tequila in effort to fill the gaping void that was women’s streetwear in 2004. Two margaritas and one stroke of genius later, MOB (a tribute to Leah’s crew, the Most Official Bitches) was born, an urban label that has since become one of the most repected in their category. Technically, I should have written about this line after spotting some of their snarky tee’s at Denver’s the 400 months ago, or at least before most of their spring collection was sold out. But it’s better late than never for this women’s-only line, because the stuff that is left is still cooler than anything else out there. Because MOB’s apparel is designed by women/for women, their resulting product has the same strong urban energy as a lot of the men’s offerings in that area, but manages to deliver a totally different product. In other words, the edge of men’s street wear is evident in MOB’s designs, but it’s communicated in a decidedly girly fashion (that allows for girls like me to pull it off without looking like losers). You can shop from MOB’s own online store, but a deeper search through small sites like Azita might help you find some of this seasons tough-to-find leftovers.

Daryll Peirce started INDVSL in 2004 as a means to circulate design ideas and to channel artists across multiple platforms. The art is of utmost importance to INDVSL, and their clothes are meant to inspire people to think, imagine, laugh, question, and dream through one ‘human wrapper’ at a time. Their newest design by Lesley Reppeteaux, ‘Up in Arms,’ features a subtle illustration of a girl’s arms going through a ‘beauty and the beast transformation’ as they pass through the stomach pocket of the sweatshirt. The ‘beast’ side of the arms is printed in glow in the dark ink, and they playfully throw and catch leaves scattered all over the sweatshirt. They only printed 500 of this design, so you ladies (and guys shopping for your girlfriends) need to get a move on!

Last year, Josh scored some extra web traffic when he blogged about the girly site I See France and their quest to demolish the average tighty-whitey (or maybe it was the accompanying picture of a hottie in undies that did the trick, who knows….). Lucky for all of us ladies (and our lovers, ahem), the I See France crew has put together a killer clearance sale of their entire stock of anything-but-boring underwear just in time for the holidays. These comfy knits really spice up the underworld with fun styles and graphics; my favorites are this Fine Jung Woman set and the Ski Love set Josh wrote about not so long ago. Hurry up and get to their site, all of this awesomeness won’t last long, especially once I get my paws on it…

If you’re a lady and feel left out from all the cool streetwear/urban gear that the guys love to sport these days, fret no more. Being Hunted, a leading online magazine and store that caters to the (male) streetwear market, has just joined forces with women’s online shop Naive in a new venture called A Girl’s Life. Although Naive has been open for less than a year, it has already established a reputation for itself with a stock list of very select independent labels ( Blissen, Milk Fed, xgLA, etc.) that produce creative and well-constructed goods. A Girl’s Life is essentially a new section on the Being Hunted website where you can find reviews on a variety of items that are handpicked by the impeccable taste-makers at Naive. The combination of these two fashion trendsetting entities will no doubt prove to be a potent combination in the future. Have at it ladies!

My friends over at Coolhunting have a great feature up right now called “Where the Ladies At?“, which is all about the female sneaker collectors of the world. Sneaker collecting is a funny thing, and I’ve learned it isn’t always the super-cool-dude with the sneaker fascination, really just about anyone can catch the bug. The article has a nice look at a few different sneaker collecting chicks, one even has a 500-pair collection and she spends around $15,000 every year to feed her sneaker addiction. Check the article out, it’s worth a read!

I’m totally digging the fashion design from the folks at Gentle Fawn. Their Spring ‘05 collection is distinctive and sharp. Ladies, check it out. A husband and wife team are behind all these designs. Gentle Fawn was spawned from a ceramic Fawn figurine while they were shopping for vintage furniture. They say their designs are influenced by the 40’s, 50’s , and interior design with simple architectural elements, among other things.