As you may have gathered by now, I am, shall we say, not a novice in the field of online shopping.  I like going to the physical store as much as the next girl — there’s nothing like the experience of actually trying the clothes on and seeing them in person — but I’m a firm believer in the benefits of shopping online.  Physical stores give you the ambiance, but no physical store can rival the variety available on the internet, especially for mass-produced items like shoes or clothes.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something on a woman passing by or in a store that I couldn’t find in my size in person but managed later to turn up on the web (tips on that later). As a part-time resident of the blogosphere, I might be a little biased, but in my opinion, online shopping is just as indispensable as the stores.

In support of that principle, this is the first part of a series highlighting some of the best and most useful sites available on the web. We’ll be hitting the sites category by category, starting today with online clothing boutiques.  (If you have any categories you’d especially like to see, feel free to drop us a line and let us know!)  Here are some of the best, and our take on their pros and cons.

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Also in black, white, and oceanic!

Today we’re up to stage three of Betsy’s spring wardrobe update.  The next item Betsy asked for is coverups to go over dresses.  I’m sure you’re all familiar with the problem.  Yes, the summer months are coming and it’s going to get hot.  Unfortunately, plenty of offices seem to be air conditioned to a temperature suitable only to penguins or particularly hot-blooded men in suits. (They measured the temperature in my boss’s office at one of my former jobs and it registered at, no joke, 53 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is not, in my opinion, “room temperature.”)  This leaves most women and many men with the choice between either freezing in your office or sweltering once you step outside, particularly if your commute involves an AC-less subway platform or a car that’s been baking in the sun for eight hours.  Throw in the occasional movie theater and, if you’re lucky, cool evenings at the beach, and having a cute cover-up for your warm-weather dresses is a definite must.

For an office like Betsy’s, cardigans or blazers and other casual jackets are the easiest way to go. Yes, pashminas are great, but if you’re at the office, getting stuff out of drawers, attending meetings, and generally going about your business, wraps just aren’t practical.  Today we’ll focus on cardigans — they’re easy to roll and stuff in a biggish handbag, and in the right color, can be hugely versatile.

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