Just a few weeks ago we wrote about My Fashion Plate, a wardrobe management community for clothes hounds. While a variety of features are available on that site—including even personal shopping services—Looklet is a new contender that focuses exclusively on the design end with a virtual studio through which users can mix and match real designer clothes.

Now in beta, Stockholm-based Looklet offers a selection of seven models—each with various facial expressions—38 backdrops and almost 2,000 items of clothing and accessories that can be combined to try out new looks and combinations. All the clothes items are actual, existing pieces selected by stylists from real designers; users need only drag and drop them onto the model of their choice to create their own personal look, which is viewable from multiple perspectives. Once they've created a style they like, they can save it and share it with other users of the site as well as with friends on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. Some 76,000 users have already created more than 600,000 outfits on Looklet, all browsable, searchable and available for remixing.

There's no doubt both Looklet and competitor Polyvore offer the opportunity for fashion brands to engage with their target audiences in a much more compelling way than traditional advertising ever could. While Polyvore provides e-commerce links to enable shopping, however, Looklet currently does not, instead simply providing general links to the designers' sites. Seems to us users will eventually want to convert their dream creations into reality—one to partner with on the e-shopping end to help make that possible? (Related: Fashion blog is street version of shopping mags.)

Website: www.looklet.com
Contact: info@looklet.com

Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz

There are a multitude of foodie websites and blogs catering to most every culinary whim, but food52 is one with an especially clear premise: 52 weeks, 52 recipe contests, and a crowdsourced cookbook to celebrate the result.

Whereas the recent movie and book "Julie and Julia" chronicle a young food blogger's journey through "365 Days and 524 Recipes" using Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I," food52 is in many ways its opposite, celebrating instead the recipes of home cooks. Conceived in part by former New York Times food reporter Amanda Hesser—who has also written several cookbooks in her own right—the site is now on its 13th weekly contest, this time soliciting recipes for "your best beef salad" and "your best fruit tart." Visitors to the site have seven days to submit their favourite recipes for each week's category. Hesser and cofounder Merrill Stubbs then pick two finalists for each category, testing them and photographing them first; then, for 10 days the contest is opened up to voting. Winning recipes and author bios will go into the food52 cookbook, which will be published by Harper Studio; authors will also receive a selection of supplies from Oxo, the project's sponsor. Runners-up and other entries, meanwhile, will be highlighted on the food52 site, where users will also have a chance to offer their opinions on the food52 cookbook's photos, cover design and title.

food52 is currently in invitation-only beta—using, interestingly, Paperless Post to send its invites—but will reportedly open up to the public next week. An online store is coming soon, and Hesser and Stubbs hope to follow up the current project with future books as well. One to watch! (Related: Online marketplace for home-cooked meals — Customised cookbooks stir in online recipes.)

Website: www.food52.com
Contact: amanda@food52.com

Spotted by: Murtaza Ali Patel

Helping readers take blogs offline, Zinepal lets any user convert their favourite online content into ebooks and printable, magazine-style PDFs.

Users of British Columbia-based Zinepal begin by selecting content they like from blogs, Atom/RSS feeds and other websites. Zinepal then reformats that content into a printable PDF and ebook format for use with the Amazon Kindle and other electronic readers. Users can preview and edit or reformat the resulting "zine," even adding a title and logo of their own to customize the publication. Advertising images can also be included at the bottom of each page. Once their zine is complete, users can print it or request an e-mailed copy; they can also request that new zines be automatically created each day or week from the content they choose. Zines can be made public on the site for sharing and searchability; zine feeds, meanwhile, provide a way for users to offer subscriptions to their publications. There is currently no charge for using Zinepal. A video on blip.tv explains how the process works.

Similar also to BlueMailCentral, Peggy Mail and other tools that help forge the OFF=ON connection, Zinepal gives readers one more choice in deciding how their content is delivered. Even beyond that, though, it has the potential to spawn a whole new generation of small, niche publications similar to the (discontinued) The Printed Blog but put together by independent thinkers, organizations or even brands. One to try out! (Related: Magazine publishing for everyone and every niche.)

Website: www.zinepal.com
Contact: info@zinepal.com

Spotted by: Murtaza Ali Patel

If two heads are better than one, it's hard to argue with the premise of crowdsourcing, which taps multiple brains for a common end. Now offering such capabilities overnight is Ideas Culture, an Australian firm that puts creative thinkers around the globe to work via Twitter to solve a client's problem by morning.

Businesses with a challenge to solve can enlist Ideas Culture's "Ideas While You Sleep Service" to get a pack of ideas along with an evaluation matrix and implementation plan by 10 a.m. the next morning. After registering, they need only submit their challenge online by 4 p.m. By 6 p.m., Ideas Culture gets the challenge out to its Twitter-based Ideas Agents, who spend 15 to 30 minutes each on the problem. There are more than 200 agents from eight countries on the books, and each earns AUD 100 for four sessions, according to a report in the Age. Problems tackled so far have included recruiting more male customers for a singles matching service and increasing attendance for professional development events, The Age reported. Pricing—normally AUD 880—is now AUD 495 through a special trial offer.

Is there no stopping the power of the Twitter-enabled crowds? London's Royal Opera House is another organization that apparently doesn't think so. For more on putting that power to work for your brand, check out trendwatching.com's briefing on foreverism. Time to start thinking in 140 characters! ;-)

Website: www.ideasculture.com/ideas.php
Contact: enquiries@ideasculture.com

School lunches are increasingly a focal point in the ongoing battle against childhood obesity, drawing even the attention of British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. Following survey results suggesting that one of parents' top concerns is that they don't typically know what's on the menu on any given day, the UK's School Fund Trust has partnered with Somerset County Services to publish its school menu each day via Twitter.

Beginning this fall, parents who subscribe to the trial service by following @SCSSchoolmeals will receive a tweet each morning showing what’s on the school menu. Any parent, grandparent or care-giver can follow, whether their child currently eats school meals or not. The feed will also be used to update parents on special theme days, taster sessions and how to apply for free school meals. The trial is part of a raft of new initiatives the School Fund Trust is piloting to increase use of school meals; results will be made available online.

Chris Wainwright of the School Food Trust explains: “With this trial, parents will be able to ask what children thought about the food on offer, and which lunch option they chose. It gives parents the information they need to start discussions about healthy food.”

Given that some 6 million people visit Twitter each month, it's not too surprising that more than 100 local councils in the UK are currently on Twitter—nor that the UK government recently published a 20-page guide urging MPs and civil servants to embrace the microblogging platform. Consumers can use Twitter to track their packages, file civic complaints and apply for jobs; where could the ability to tweet benefit your brand...? (Related: In Jakarta, healthy meals at sponsored food carts for kids.)

Website: www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk — www.myschoollunch.co.uk
Contact: info@sft.gsi.gov.uk

Spotted by: Judy McRae