March

How to Avoid Online Holiday Shopping Scams

By avi maxwel / in avoid, holiday, online, scams, shopping /

Black Friday is almost here, and the shopping holiday brings with it a flood of promotional emails and text messages from retailers promising steep discounts—if you act fast. Scammers take advantage of the blitz by sending their own emails and texts, except their links are designed to phish your personal information or steal your money. Here are some telltale signs of scams to watch out for, and what to do to keep yourself safe.

How to spot a Black Friday scam

Creating a false sense of urgency is a common scammer tactic, and Black Friday scams can take many forms. In 2022, scammers posed as Home Depot, sending emails promising $500 gift cards to a limited number of shoppers as part of a Black Friday deal. The catch: Buyers had to pay a small shipping fee to receive the phony prize.

If you receive an email or text that appears to be from a store you shop at regularly and promises an unusually good deal, think twice. Look at every URL before you click, and keep an eye out for unusual constructions or misspellings. Amaz0n.com is not the same as Amazon.com, for example, and usps.upspb.com is not the US

March

Spring/Summer 2024 Fashion Trends

By avi maxwel / in fashion, SpringSummer, trends /

And juuust like that, another season of shows across New York, London, Milan, and Paris have come to a close. As an editor who’s been both fascinated and wiped out by the fashion month, I’m a little bummed that the hype is all over, but I’m happy we’ve got all these cool looks to anticipate. While there was a lot of newness found on the runways and at special presentations, there have also been a few trends that have come back around—but this time with an updated twist. And we like twists, don’t we?

Let’s get ready to embrace low-rise pants and micro-mini shorts (I mean, have you seen Hailey Bieber kill this look?), floor length fringe, and so. Much. More. And yeah, sure…we’ve pretty much just entered fall (and have finally accepted that fab, cold weather fashion is here to stay for a lil while), but we can still get excited for next spring and summer now, right? Keep scrolling for 6 major spring/summer 2024 fashion trends because it’s never too soon to start planning!

Fringe

Fringe is one of those trends that keeps coming back, so this resurgence wasn’t at all surprising. However, this latest vibe is everything.

March

How to Find Your Personal Style, According to Experts

By avi maxwel / in experts, Find, personal, style /

As a fashion editor, I often write about how to find your personal style, but the truth is, it took me decades to do the same. Growing up, I was very concerned about blending in with my surroundings, so for a chunk of time, my outfits could best be described as “Staten Island Italian — Teen Edition.” Even when I began working in the fashion industry, I struggled to find a sense of style that truly represented me and not what I thought I was supposed to be. I splurged on clothes I could barely afford and couldn’t quit trying to re-create whatever “It” trend I had spotted on the runway.

I’m not sure when I made the switch, but part of finding my own personal style was by accident. For a while, I suffered from folliculitis, and I’d often wake up to hundreds of tiny pimples all over my neck, chest, and back. Panicked, I would grab a bandana or scarf in order to hide my breakout, and it soon became a styling trick I couldn’t quit. The line between wearing this piece out of necessity and wearing it intentionally became blurred, and I liked that I

March

Online Shopping Is Arduous: AI Makes It Easy

By avi maxwel / in Arduous, Easy, online, shopping /

While AI isn’t an automatic slam dunk panacea for every business problem, one thing it’s incredibly gifted at is sifting through tons of information to help people quickly find the product of their dreams.

Anyone who’s searched for a product, be it an e-bike, laptop, or washing machine, is all too familiar with choice paralysis from information overload. Imagine instead, landing on a website and conversing with the smartest salesperson in the world available 24/7, who asks the right questions to give you the right product as fast as possible. Meet Zoovu, an AI-powered platform that helps B2C and B2B companies match customers with the exact product they’re looking for.

Functioning as the most intelligent and eager salesperson any of us could ever have, Zoovu’s AI-based assistant gathers relevant products using chat, as well as colorful visualizations.

getty

“Our cloud-based AI product discovery platform helps customers connect to their customers by surfacing the right product,” said Lamees Butt, senior vice president of global alliances and channels at Zoovu. “We remove choice paralysis by simulating the kind of in-store shopping experience that you would get with the most knowledgeable salesperson.”

Butt said that global brands, retailers, and manufacturers realize on

March

Alessandra Ambrosio, Sarah Lysander & Toni Garrn: Best street style pictures from Milan Fashion Week SS24

By avi maxwel / in Alessandra, Ambrosio, fashion, Garrn, Lysander, milan, pictures, Sarah, SS24, street, style, Toni, Week /

The street style at Milan Fashion Week is as refined and polished as we expected.

We’ve seen a slew of old and new trends that we’re taking notes on for AW23 including: double denim and quiet luxury minimalism aren’t going anywhere, brown is the new black for this season, and cheugy bandeaus are back.

MORE: The best dressed on the ‘Front Row’ of Milan Fashion Week so far

READ: Emma Watson just wore the chicest shoes of all time, and you probably missed it

See for yourself what the influencers, tastemakers and other fashion VIPs are wearing on the streets of Milan this autumn…

Alessandra Ambrosio

Alessandra wore a glossy tan oversized jacket alongside a striped shirt, navy shorts and pointed double-strap heels.

Toni styled a black sequin crop top with a voluminous pleated skirt and patent heels.

Sarah Lysander wearing a beaded yellow skirt — Sarah Lysander

Sarah opted for a grey boxy silhouette top alongside a lavish beaded mini skirt in a playful yellow hue.

MILAN, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 21: Camille Charriere wears white top, laced skirt, pointed heels, bag outside Prada during the Milan Fashion Week - Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 on September 21, 2023 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images) — Camille Charriere

Camille wore a white Prada vest with an embroidered sheer skirt, pointed ballerina flats and a grey jumper tied around her shoulders.

MILAN, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 22: Jodie Turner-Smith is seen during the Milan Fashion Week - Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 on September 22, 2023 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/GC Images) — Jodie