What's that you got on? Comme Des Garcons?

Coming from the person writing on a blog, someone who apparently has a lot to say about fluff, this is probably strange. But I don't get Facebook. Call me stuck in the '90s, but I just prefer email and meeting friends of friends in real life. At least that's my official story, and I'm sticking to it.

Truthfully, I have to admit, most of my reservations really begin and end with the pout-and-shoot-from-above-to-avoid-jowls nature of the "candid" snaps that are part and parcel of most social networking sites. I perennially close my eyes in photos and look shell-shocked at the mere prospect of a flashbulb, so the torment of taking a photo and starting a profile has meant that I have procrastinated on the entire endeavor since the bygone days of Friendster. Besides, I tell myself, do I really want to unleash my competitive streak and become consumed with gathering enough online friends to populate a small city?



That even Barack Obama has joined the Facebook generation before me, however, gives me no shame because I have discovered my own guilty pleasure and online escape in the form of osome.com . This is no forum for sharing witticisms, gossip or music, no this is a site with one very straightforward and unabashedly single mission -- shopping. Think myspace for the Wendy Peppers of the world: "Hey, I'm not here to make friends."

The format is simple: grab clothes from across the internet and pile them up in your own virtual closet for which you'll never need to buy new hangers. Then, fling the wardrobe doors wide open for all to peruse and comment -- no awkward photos required.

As someone who whiles away a little time (ahem) window shopping online, Osome has proved perfect for composing tricky outfits, albeit for the most improbable of social scenarios. "This is what I would wear if I had three black tie cocktail parties to attend in one week and could not be seen in the same outfit. This is what I would wear if I lived in Provence on a vineyard, oh and this would be perfect if I were Christiane Amanpour and about to interview Nelson Mandela." And handy enough for the site's creators there's also a "buy now" option ready to speed you to the online cart of one of their many retail partners.

You may be mistaken in thinking this is nothing but the latest in a long line of time wasters for material girls. But it's actually a savvy hybrid concept that keeps pace with a recent online trend that has seen sites from stylefinder.com (Hearst) to shopvogue.tv (Conde Nast) combine the immediacy of blogging and social networking with fast access to advertisers' web storefronts. As the publishing world awakens to the reality that readers are consuming fashion news and views in increasingly interactive, megabyte-sized portions, the boundary between editorial, shopping and entertainment is becoming blurred. Just take net-a-porter.com, one of several stores that make the urge to ditch fashion fantasy and reach for the credit card even stronger thanks to a sleek mix of magazine-like content and shopping.

This is why, until I find my inner frugal fashionista, I think taking a leap further into cyberspace at http://h30393.www3.hp.com/printing/gwen.html to indulge some of my online daydreaming might be wise. The style hails from Harajuku, the fashions from Gwen Stefani's Galliano-meets-Westwood world, and as for the pouts, they're paperdoll-perfect. More than can be said for what I could achieve on Myspace.