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Looking for WordPress fashion themes?
I’ve got you covered. In this post I’m going to cover the five things I believe every theme should have, go through the pros and cons of free and premium themes, and give you my top theme recommendations.
What should you be looking for in a theme?
The website theme you choose for your fashion blog should be one that checks off on all of these criteria. It should be simple, work with page builders, have great support, mobile responsive, look great on all browsers, and compatible with the necessary plugins.
Is the theme simple?
It’s easy to overlook a theme because it seems too simple. A simple theme is one that helps you get subscribers and is easy to navigate.
Is the theme compatible with page builders?
It used to be that you really needed to know how to code or hire someone to create your site for you. This isn’t the case anymore. Page builder plugins have become extremely popular in recent years.
With a page builder, you drag and drop elements where you want them. This allows you to easily design a site without any coding experience. The top page builders are:
Does the theme have great support?
Support is super important. Questions are going to come up and you want to feel like your theme company has your back. Even though I’ve been building websites for 5+ years, I still run into problems that I need help with.
The best way to tell if they have good support is to email them your questions and see how quickly they respond. Hopefully their response is helpful.
Related Content: How To Get Your Blog Noticed With Fashion Hashtags For Instagram
Is the theme mobile responsive?
Having a responsive WordPress site is a non-negotiable! According to BroadbandSearch, “By 2019, media average daily media consumption on mobile devices had actually surpassed desktops by nearly 37%.” source
In other words, more people are using the web on their mobile phones than they are on desktop and laptop computers. Test the theme using Google’s free mobile friendly testing tool.
Additionally, Google made mobile responsiveness a ranking factor. Your site will rank better in mobile search results if it looks good on mobile devices.
Does the theme look good on different browsers?
The majority of internet users are primarily using Google Chrome (62.48%), Safari (19.94%), and Firefox (4.21%). source
To see how your site looks on different browsers, use a free tool like Browserling.
Is the theme compatible with the necessary plugins?
The best way to find this out is by asking the theme developer. The plugins you should ask about are:
- Shortlinks by Pretty Links
- Akismet
- W3 Total Cache
- Contact Form 7
- Yoast SEO
- Google Analytics by MonsterInsights
If these plugins won’t work the theme, ask the developer if there’s an alternative that they suggest instead.
Related Content: Ultimate Guide To SEO For Fashion Bloggers
A Word About Free vs Premium Themes
Before you go downloading any theme, you should know what you’re getting into. There are pros and cons to each. By free theme, I’m talking about the themes listed in the WordPress theme directory.
The pros of a free WordPress theme are:
- free
- they’ve gone through a strict review process
- they’re minimal and because of this, they can be fast.
- easy to use
- compatible with most plugins
The cons of a free WordPress theme are:
- you must credit the author of the theme
- no support is available
- limited features and functionality
- they’re not unique because so many people use them
- rarely updated
The pros of a premium WordPress Theme:
- access to support and detailed documentation
- always up to date
- more customization options
- unique because less people have it. This will help set you apart from your competition.
- more secure
The cons of a premium WordPress Theme:
- cost
- can load slowly due to all of its features
- no official review process
- can be incompatible with certain plugins
- more of a learning curve
Top 10 Free WordPress Themes For Fashion Blogs
When you’re starting out, it’s perfectly okay to go with a free theme. As you start making money and fall in love with blogging, you can easily upgrade to a premium theme.
Here are 10 free themes that will work well for your new fashion website.
1. Envy Blog
The Envy Blog theme is a clean, modern, and minimal WordPress theme with responsive design that’s beautifully designed. It’s suitable for any kind of blog and used on 2,500+ sites.
2. Generate Press
With 300,000+ active installations and 1,000+ 5 star reviews, you can’t go wrong with GeneratePress. It works well with page builders, built with speed in mind, and is fully responsive.
3. Kale
This theme by Lyra Themes is charming, elegant, and easy to set up. Take a quick look at the support forum and you’ll see that they provide helpful support to its users. If you end up using this theme and loving it, there’s an option to upgrade to Kale Pro for even more features.
4. Juliet
Juliet is another feminine, lightweight theme created by Lyra Themes. It’s integrated with WooCommerce, which will allow you to create a beautiful online store.
5. WP Diary
WP Diary from Mystery Themes is another awesome theme that’s built almost entirely through the WordPress Customizer. This theme is highly customizable, thereby giving you the freedom to truly make it your own.
6. Ashe
Ashe is used on 50,000+ websites. It is social media friendly and has an intuitive design, making it perfect for a WordPress beginner. By being compatible with the Yoast SEO plugin, it’s SEO friendly.
If you love what you see when you demo the theme, you’re in luck because you’ll have the ability to import the demo content. This makes it so you won’t have to set the whole blog up by yourself.
7. Anariel Lite
This is an elegant theme that you’ll surely fall in love with. Some of my favorite features are that it’s social media integrated, has subscription boxes (which will help you build your email list), and has gorgeous typography. Upgrading to the premium version of Anariel will give you more options and access to over 700 fonts to choose from.
8. Cenote
With 10,000+ installations, you’ll be in good hands with this theme. Some key features are: demo import option, loads quickly, browser compatible, easy to customize, page builder integrated, sticky menu (this is where the menu stays at the top of the screen when you scroll down the page), and great theme documentation.
9. Olsen Light
This clean theme comes with an impressive number of features. Some of my favorites include: custom widgets which will give you more functionality, social sharing icons, and the ability display your latest instagram posts in the footer of your site.
10. Bard
The Bard theme comes with some unique features, such as being retina ready (gives you sharper and clear images and resolution), 14 site layouts to choose from, ability to write right to left (perfect for international users), GDPR Compliant, and coded with SEO in mind.
6 Premium WordPress Themes For Fashion Websites
I put a premium theme on every blog I own. I’ve used free themes before and found them to be quite limited in terms of features.
1. Foodie Pro
If you like what you see on this blog, then you’ll love this theme because it’s what I’m using. I love it so much that I put it on my other blog as well. I chose this theme because
2. Gallery Pro
Gallery Pro is a gorgeous theme that’s minimal, mobile responsive, translation ready, and comes with lots of customization options.
3. Pepper+
This theme from Artisan Themes is mobile responsive, easy to use, requires no coding skills, is compatible with WordPress plugins, and comes with 13 website layouts to choose from.
4. Generate Press Premium
What you see in the picture above is one of the 37+ Generate Press site layouts you can choose from. While the free version of Generate Press is great, the premium version is even better. With it you get:
- 14 additional modules
- the ability to use the theme on unlimited websites
- one year of top notch support and updates
- 40% renewal discount
5. Beloved
The pretty Beloved theme was created by Restored 316 and runs on the Genesis Framework. Some of this theme’s best features are:
- Instagram page template, which creates a link you can send your Instagram followers to.
- lifetime theme updates
- 6 months of theme customer support
- sales page template, which is perfect for selling a course or an ebook
6. Foodica
Foodica is a easy to use theme created by the WPZoom team. It is robust and comes with lots of options. Here are some of the theme’s best features:
- ad friendly since it has 4 ad locations in which you can have ads
- theme options panel, which will allow you to easily change every detail of your theme
- built in disclosure statement
- author bio widget, which is perfect if you’re going to be accepting guest posts.
What theme will you choose?
If you have any questions about picking a theme, let me know in the comments or send me an email.
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