From online retail sites to mobile apps, last year was all about fashion websites/apps. ShoeMint (all the Mint properties, really), Moda Operandi, OpenSky. The list can go on and on. But 2012 will be even bigger and better. Fashion technology is rapidly growing thanks to new apps and sites that are shaking up the digital space, offering users a chance to dive into their closet and rediscover their style.

From selling your clothes back to booking discount beauty appointments, the new wave of apps and websites make being a gal so much easier.

Here is a list of the 5 Apps and Sites I’m keeping an eye on (and you should too):

1. ReQoop: Do you ever find something amazing at a store, snap a picture, then forget where you were when you found said amazingness? It happens to me all the time! However, enter ReQoop, the newest mobile app that allows you to take pictures of items at your favorite store, upload them to the site, then share them with other users. It’s like having a personalized catalog with items from all of your favorite stores!

2. Buyosphere: The best part about having a personal stylist is being able to ask them all sorts of questions. Where to purchase things, what kind of items you should stick with, etc. Instead of paying for a pricey stylist, try using Buyosphere, a website that tracks your purchases and gives you the chance to host your own Q/A with your fellow shoppers. Need to find a white maxi dress? Ask Buyosphere. Want to know what is trending in colors? Ask Buyosphere. It basically acts as your personal shopper! What could be greater than that?

3. Lifebooker: When it comes to beauty treatments, you need to book appointments fast. You don’t have time for chit-chat nor do you want to sit on the phone for an hour trying to find an open spot on your stylist’s calendar. You want something quick and relatively cheap that leaves you looking gorgeous. Thanks to LifeBooker, you can search  for salon, spa and beauty deals near you. Getting your eyebrows waxed now is almost painless.

4. Poshmark: Move over, eBay. Poshmark is here to make your clothes reselling experience 10x more enjoyable. With Poshmark, you can browse a fellow fashion girl’s closet, sell your (gently) worn designer clothes, and participate in virtual meetups and shopping parties. With its secure database and easy interface, it has never been easier to make money of off your wardrobe’s neglected pieces.

5. MADE Fashion Week: Thanks to Milk Made, fashion’s cutting edge resource and studio, runway collections can be delivered straight to your smartphone. Users get live access to collections, share favorite looks with social media followers and learn more about designers. For every blogger who attends fashion week and can’t be at every show, this is your best friend. Or, for the fashion lover who wants front-row access, this app gives you an up-close-and-personal view of Milk Studio’s hottest collections.

My iPad is already overloaded with fashion apps but these new ones are worth it! What do you think? Are you loving our fresh crop of apps or are sticking true to the ones you already have?

It’s safe to say you all LOVED last week’s Chic Geek Giveaway! Your comments and suggestions were dead on. Many of you wanted sturdier bags, colorful bags, and bags that offered more compartments. I couldn’t agree more; there is nothing worse than a bag that falls apart right after purchase or a boring bland bag.

This week, I have another gorgeous bag from ONA, which means “to feel,” “to believe,” and “to experience with the eyes” in Swahili. Created by Tracey Foster, the ONA bag is a stylish take on the traditional camera bag. Instead of lugging around the fashionably-challenged camera bag, you can carry your camera in a bag that works for brunch, date night or shopping with your friends.

Foster states, “Each ONA camera bag is handcrafted from premium materials and designed to blend the functionality of traditional camera bags with contemporary styling. ONA camera bags are produced in limited quantities to ensure that an unparalleled level of attention is paid to every detail.”

I think what makes an ONA bag so special is the quality. From the full-grain leather exterior to carefully planned compartments, it is exactly what a budding street style photographer would love to have while shooting and not be embarrassed. A chic alternative to the basic messenger bag, ONA’s Venice is one beautiful bag, featuring long straps (easy for you carry cross-body or over the shoulder), and padded compartments for your DSLR or tablet. My other favorite parts of the bag? The gold buckles and zippers. What girl doesn’t love a little splash of gold?!

We are giving away one Venice bag to a lucky reader this week and here’s how you can enter to win:

1. Tell me how you currently carry your DSLR now in the comments section. Small purse? Camera bag?
2. Like IFB on Facebook 
3. Be sure to leave a valid email address.

UPDATE: CONTEST IS CLOSED.

Have you ever noticed that fashion and technology don’t always go hand in hand? All these gadgets and gizmos sure work well, but when it comes time to accessorize them, I’m often left high-and-dry.

Enter IFB’s new Chic Geek reviews, delivering all the stylish and sleek tech accessories you could ever want.

From ever-so stylish tote bags to bold cases, I’ve got plenty of gorgeous products coming your way. And you know what makes the column even more sweeter? I will be giving away one item each week especially for you IFB readers.

First up is the OMG, Lo & Son’s Overnight and Medium Bag. Get it, OMG- overnight medium gym bag? I thought it was cute too. Big enough for your office notebook, 13-inch laptop, water bottles, iPad, and secret stash of candy (don’t lie, you know you have it), the OMG is perfect for the girl who is always moving. Yet, it’s not so massive that you feel like you are carrying a 5-lb weight around town.

My favorite part of the bag? It has so many secret compartments. All of your pens, business cards, spare lip gloss, and miscellaneous stuff will be neatly organized with this bag. Which means no more endless bag searches in your gigantic black-hole of purse! I should also mention that the hummingbird lining is super adorable too.

The only con about this bag is the black nylon. I know, I know! Nylon is great because it is water-resistant, which means my clumsy ways won’t ruin it. But wouldn’t it be great in a bold print or hot pink color? I guess I’m just a sucker for a bright pop of color. What do you think about the bag? Do all the compartments make you as giddy as me?

One lucky IFB reader will get the chance to review his/her own Lo & Son’s bag and I can’t wait to hear your feedback.

To enter the giveaway:

1. Tell me what your ideal laptop bag would look like below in the comments section.
2. Like IFB on Facebook 
3. Be sure to leave a valid email address.

Good luck and be sure to check out the rest of Lo & Son’s collection.

UPDATE: Contest is closed now. Thanks for participating!

Last week I wrote an article with 5 gift ideas for bloggers.  These little blog investments might not be the most impressive thing to see when you look into your stocking this year, but hey, ‘tis the season.

1. WordPress Theme
For about $40 to $80 you can purchase a Premium Theme for your WordPress blog.  Remember that each theme is about showcasing what’s most essential to your blog: if you have a photo-oriented blog you can get a theme that showcases your photographs; if you have a blog that provides style and fashion news you can invest in a theme that makes your stories neat and easy to read.

2. Mic
Video is becoming more and more important in the blogosphere.  These days most every digital camera can shoot video and if you want the best quality for your audience then you’ll need good sound.  Mounting a shotgun mic on your camera is usually your best option and they start around $50.  If you don’t have a camera that can shoot video and are instead using your laptop to record yourself then you could invest in a USB mic; a very good mic is about $100.

3. Cheap Camera
There is a whole world of cameras under $100 and this Canonis one of the better ones because it shoots HD video.  Be careful with these though; cameras in this price range are easily breakable and don’t offer a whole lot of anything special.  To be totally honest, if you already have an iPhone 4 or 4S, there is no point investing in one of these.

4. Tripod
Since you’ll want all your stills and video to be shake-free, you should consider investing in a tripod.  For the more run-and-gun stuff, consider a flexible Gorillapod for around $50.  These things are improbably cool; they can be wrapped around just about anything.  If you know you’re going to have a bit more room and want something even more stable then I’d consider something a little larger; Manfrotto and Giotto both make excellent tripods under $100.  Do be careful though, when you’re buying a tripod; they are one of those things where you get a lot of invisible bang for your buck and the difference between a $50 and $100 one is huge and the difference between a $100 tripod and a $500 tripod is astronomical.

5. MailChimp
Keep all of your readers up to date with each week’s new posts and information.  With programs like MailChimp it’s never been easier to design newsletters and get them sent out to huge numbers of fans with just the click of a button.  MailChimp is free to use, up to 2,000 subscribers, and has very moderately priced plans up to 10,000 subscribers.

6. Hootsuite Pro
For only $5.99 a month you can keep track of multiple Twitter accounts with Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and other monthly reports.  This program is perfect for the modern startup social media team that needs to manage multiple accounts at once.

7. Photo Editing Tools for iPad
There are plenty of good photo apps for the iPad.  For more professional uses I would suggest something like Adobe Carousel; Carousel both organizes your photos and makes sharing them easy.  Carousel is a monthly subscription of $4.99.  On the free side of things there is plenty as well: Instagram is an absolute must for any fashion blogger and Photoshop Express is pretty useful as well.

8. Camera Remote
Unless you have an extremely understanding boyfriend or a professional photographer to follow you around everywhere.  Costing about $20, these things are a very cheap and easy way to get way better photos of yourself than you could with a self-timer.

9. Webhost
Beef up the capabilities and the bandwidth of your site by investing in a webhost.  Sites like HostGator.com make the process relatively pain-free and highly affordable.

10. FinalCut Express
This just breaks the $100 mark, coming in at about $110, but FinalCut Express is about all the editing software a blogger could need.  This program has all of the tools necessary to make your videos look clean, neat, and shiny.

1. Fuji X10

Let’s start with the most expensive item on the list, coming in at about $600.  For roughly the last decade Fujifilm has been in something of a slump.  Last year however, their retro-styled X100 brought them back to the forefront of camera innovation.  The X10, their newest model and a step-down from the X100, continues this trend.  Designed like an old school rangefinder camera and featuring a 28-112mm zoom lens, pop-up flash, and excellent low-light shootnig capabilities, this is a camera you’re going to want to show off.  Perfect for going to an event, a showroom, a whatever.

2. iPhone 4s

If you’re like me, you’re a sucker for any new product that Apple launches.  The iPhone 4s is no exception.  With a seriously upgraded camera, a ton of storage space, and a creepily intelligent digital companion in Siri, the new iPhone is the gadget that everyone wants this holiday season.  For blogger purposes I would normally suggest an iPad, but with the iPad 3 (hopefully) being released soon, I would hold off on buying the iPad 2 this holiday season.

3. Aphrodite USB Hub

Now you can charge all your USB-based electronics with some Hellenistic flair!  Never be out of USB ports: charge your iPad, your phone, upload pictures, and back everything up to an external hard drive all plugged into this single USB hub.  And it’s available for around $35.

4. Fashion Foie Gras Coach Bag

Fashion Foie Gras’ Emily Johnson recently had the opportunity to collaborate with Coach to design a bag made just for bloggers.  The bag features a padded pocket to hold an SLR, a compartment for a pair of flats, and ample room for a laptop, iPad, an anything else you can imagine.  Emily Johnson really hit the proverbial nail on the head with this one: it fulfills your every blogging need and makes it easy to do what you love no matter where you are.

5. J. Crew DodoCase for iPad

On the stocking stuffer end of things J. Crew’s new DodoCase can make your iPad look like a trendy little notebook.  As if the iPad weren’t cool enough on it’s own here’s an accessory to make it look even cooler.  Designed with classic bookbinding techniques in mind and featuring a hard bamboo holding tray and the ability to fold back to act as a typing desk, the DodoCase makes the iPad cooler than ever.  The DodoCase comes in a variety of colors and in a lovely leopard print variety.