Best Fashion of 2017
The best-of-2017 guides — handbags, shoes, reading, shopping and social sites for fashion consumers
What is the best fashion of 2017? We would like to know the answer to that question as well. Unfortunately, we are not ridiculous enough to claim that we can give you an exact answer. Determining what is the "best" when discussing clothing, footwear or accessories is extremely subjective: a sense of style is based on, or influenced by, personal feelings, tastes and opinions. Who are we to tell you what is the best?
Knowing that you fully understand that creating a "best of" list is clearly a subjective undertaking, we are going to put together such a list anyway. Technically, this will be an "our favorites" list rather than a truly "best of" list. Five guides make it up: the handbag guide and its brand spotlights, the shoe guide and its Fendi favorites, the reading guide, the two-page shopping guide, and the social guide.
The Best of 2017 Guides
Five Guides, One Fashion Year
Each guide answers a different consumer question. The handbag and shoe guides are product guides: named designs, product codes, heel heights, strap drops and materials — the details that decide whether a piece works. The reading and social guides are media guides: where fashion conversation actually happened in 2017, which by then meant blogs, video and social platforms far more than print. The shopping guide sits between the two, mapping the online stores themselves, from global luxury platforms down to small specialist boutiques.
Taken together, the five guides sketch the consumer fashion landscape of 2017: designer product still led the wish lists, but discovery had moved online — to blogs for opinion, to social feeds for daily inspiration, and to a widening field of online stores for the purchase itself. Sneakers sit beside spiked espadrille wedges, and a knitted sandal boot shares the year with a wicker basket bag.
Favorites, Honestly Labeled
The honesty matters. A handbag list that calls itself "best" is really a list of favorites chosen by someone with a point of view, and this section says so on its front door. That candor is what makes the picks worth reading: the Valentino page admits it is presenting possibly the best Valentino handbag of 2017 — possibly — and the shoe page asks readers outright whether an amazing trend was missed.
That openness runs through every guide. The handbag pages invite readers to look beyond a single year, the shopping pages admit they do not care where you shop as long as you choose smartly and stay within budget, and the social page argues for its list rather than declaring it. A best-of list that cannot be argued with is just an advertisement; these were built as recommendations, open to correction.
How the 2017 Section Compares With Earlier Years
The 2016 guides covered handbags, shoes, reading, shopping and social. The 2017 section keeps that five-part shape but goes deeper inside two categories: handbags gain single-brand spotlights for Valentino and Givenchy plus a continuation page, and shoes gain a three-page Fendi study — a mule, a red knit sandal boot, and its black colorway. The shopping guide also grows a second page, because the field of worthwhile online stores had outgrown one list.
The best of 2016 hub remains the natural companion to this page, and the wider best of fashion for consumers collection gathers the consumer guides across years and topics. Many resources from earlier years were still beneficial in 2017, and the year guides are best read as a running series rather than as rivals.
A Historical Record of 2017
These pages are kept as a historical 2017 record. The products, store lineups and platform judgments describe that year: prices and availability have changed, some stores on the shopping list have since closed or been absorbed, and the social guide's platform roster — Snapchat and Instagram newly added, Google+ still present — belongs to its moment. The brand, store and platform links are the place to check what each company offers today.
We hope that this section helps you find what can become your favorite handbags, shoes, sweaters, dresses and more. Thank you for using the Apparel Search website. Start with whichever guide matches what you are looking for — a bag, a pair of shoes, something good to read, a store to try, or a feed worth following — and the rest of the section is one click away.
Common Questions
Are the 2017 lists really the 'best' fashion of the year?
They are favorites, honestly labeled. Judging the best clothing, footwear or accessories is extremely subjective — style rests on personal feelings, tastes and opinions — so the guides present the picks that earned a place, with the details a reader needs to disagree productively.
What categories does the best-of-2017 section cover?
Five: handbags (with Valentino and Givenchy spotlights and a continuation page), shoes (with a three-page Fendi study), reading options, shopping sites (a two-page guide) and social sites. Together they cover the products, media and stores that mattered most to fashion consumers in 2017.
How is the 2017 section different from 2016?
It goes deeper inside categories instead of wider: single-brand handbag spotlights, a Fendi shoe cluster in three colorway-and-silhouette angles, and a second shopping page for the stores that would not fit on the first.