Selling apparel is not enough to make people look stylish and stunning—showing how to wear footwear and clothing items is essential for any apparel brand, which cares about their consumers. The best way to deliver great style solutions is to display lookbooks, created by the brand’s fans. Amazon-owned retailer Zappos has collaborated with new social fashion site Chicisimo to launch a microsite, where fashionistas may post their looks, vote for the coolest ones and then purchase them from the retailer’s online store. The project will be launched soon, says the official page of the initiative.

Photo: Zappos-Chicisimo flower badge, chicisimo.com/fashion/events/event-zappos/

“Zappos is excited to work with startups that develop active communities and proactively enable people to both express their individual style and have fun. Chicisimo is a shining example of the type of startup we like to work with,” shared Graham Kahr, social commerce product manager at Zappos.

Users are invited to upload their looks, created using items which can be purchased at Zappos, vote for the most successful outfits and get badges, the Zappos Flower, and will get featured on the Zappos and Chicisimo Facebook pages.This online experience is not only about sharing. The new project also has a competition component since Zappos is to award the user who posted the most popular look with a $500 gift certificate.

In the era, when social websites are on the rise, with the user’s love getting shifted to social photo sharing platforms, collaborating with Chicisimo may be a truly winning choice for Zappos. In the end of 2011, the brand released an interactive iPad magazine to capitalize on the tablets apps’ popularity.