Combining the ideas of both posts:
You can spend less if you buy more targeted-to-you and higher-quality items that you'll wear more often. Finding these items and customers is a data (and marketing) problem.
E.g. I spend less overall than I did a few years ago but each item I buy is more expensive. I've learned the value in quality clothes. I give smaller batches of more money to well-picked retailers rather than lots of small batches of money to big-name mass-market retailers.
An app that capitalizes on people coming to this realization (and knows how to market and execute it well) could make a killing.
But I also only own 8 t-shirts, 2 jeans, etc. And if I get a new t-shirt it’ll be quality and it’ll probably also mean I’m throwing away one that has become worn.
I spend less money overall on clothes now than I did a while back when I’d buy a random $7 t-shirt just because I thought what it said was funny (and then wear it maybe once or twice before it getting lost in the pile of countless clothes I constantly did laundry on but never wore / me getting rid of it)
I expect the leather jacket to last decades. And I’ll actually wear it instead of it sitting in a closet.
Help me find clothes that fit me and make me look good and are of good quality (I don’t care about brand names) and you can have some of my money. I’m looking at you, ShapeScale.
This applies not just to clothes, but shoes as well. Buy a good pair of shoes and they will last you a lifetime. 300$ for a pair of Allen Edmonds seems like a lot but they'll last for 3 years of daily wear at the very least, and then they can be resoled.
But aren't you wearing the same thing over and over? What's the point of quality clothes people see so often they think it is dirty or that you own three shirts? I just buy cheap clothes.
Yep. The main idea of the app is to help people decide how to wear their existing clothes. Many people feel they have nothing to wear when their wardrobe is full - truth is, sometimes the decision of combining some clothes is not an easy one and you simply stop using them. Or even deciding what to wear every single day can be a pain.
> E.g. I spend less overall than I did a few years ago but each item I buy is more expensive... An app that capitalizes on people coming to this realization (and knows how to market and execute it well) could make a killing.
I think that nearly every person trends the same as they age and approach their adult size, even without coming to that realization, so I'd say that you're even more true than your post implies.
I hope that the company will also focus on employing women and raising the numbers of women in tech! :-) Given that the user base is female, it would make sense and bring the company value to have a diverse workplace.
We launched an extremely early alpha of Chicisimo with one key functionality. We launched under another name and in another country. You couldn’t even upload photos… but it allowed us to iterate with real data and get a lot of qualitative input. At some point, we launched the real Chicisimo, and removed this alpha from the App Store.
Just yesterday I was wondering where to begin searching for clothing related apps to see what is available in this space. Glad to see this article.
There are teams focusing on the social aspect and grow via influencers. I’d think about utilities (help me do something):
- Help me decide what to wear: Chicisimo, Pinterest and (believe me) Google Images;
- Help me manage my wardobre: Stylebook, Glamoutfit;
- Help me be seen by others: Wear app, Lookbook and Chictopia (this last two worked really well on desktop);
- Help me decide what to buy: ecommerce apps obvsly, or Liketoknowit; or the second-hang category of which several are working really well, and are more widely known.
- Help me get feedback from my friends, no one really working I think, or feedback from the system (Echo Look -> Spark). And a new related category popping up: get feedback from a stylist with an in-app purchase model or even subscription; Wishi, Daam are some examples. This last category will be interesting to follow.
- Polyvore - outfits ensembling;
- Rent the Runway, Stitch Fix, Instagram obvsly. And I'm sure I'm missing many, but just trying to give you ideas of how to find inspiring apps.
I wonder if online fashion is like online music in 2005/6/7... with lots of noise, some tech focused products, and the spotify's of the world starting to be built. Fun times.
I'm assuming you're a woman, so forgive me if I'm wrong, but do you know if these apps work well for men's fasion? I think I have OK taste, but I'd like to get good.
I was idly fantasizing about a design your own app from a mass customization clothing provider, like French Rags. Put in your measurements and pick some parameters, like color, and play with it in an app.
Total fantasy territory, but that was what was running through my mind.
Readit News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16322720
E.g. I spend less overall than I did a few years ago but each item I buy is more expensive. I've learned the value in quality clothes. I give smaller batches of more money to well-picked retailers rather than lots of small batches of money to big-name mass-market retailers.
An app that capitalizes on people coming to this realization (and knows how to market and execute it well) could make a killing.
But I also only own 8 t-shirts, 2 jeans, etc. And if I get a new t-shirt it’ll be quality and it’ll probably also mean I’m throwing away one that has become worn.
I spend less money overall on clothes now than I did a while back when I’d buy a random $7 t-shirt just because I thought what it said was funny (and then wear it maybe once or twice before it getting lost in the pile of countless clothes I constantly did laundry on but never wore / me getting rid of it)
I expect the leather jacket to last decades. And I’ll actually wear it instead of it sitting in a closet.
Help me find clothes that fit me and make me look good and are of good quality (I don’t care about brand names) and you can have some of my money. I’m looking at you, ShapeScale.
I think that nearly every person trends the same as they age and approach their adult size, even without coming to that realization, so I'd say that you're even more true than your post implies.
We launched an extremely early alpha of Chicisimo with one key functionality. We launched under another name and in another country. You couldn’t even upload photos… but it allowed us to iterate with real data and get a lot of qualitative input. At some point, we launched the real Chicisimo, and removed this alpha from the App Store.
Just yesterday I was wondering where to begin searching for clothing related apps to see what is available in this space. Glad to see this article.
There are teams focusing on the social aspect and grow via influencers. I’d think about utilities (help me do something):
- Help me decide what to wear: Chicisimo, Pinterest and (believe me) Google Images;
- Help me manage my wardobre: Stylebook, Glamoutfit;
- Help me be seen by others: Wear app, Lookbook and Chictopia (this last two worked really well on desktop);
- Help me decide what to buy: ecommerce apps obvsly, or Liketoknowit; or the second-hang category of which several are working really well, and are more widely known.
- Help me get feedback from my friends, no one really working I think, or feedback from the system (Echo Look -> Spark). And a new related category popping up: get feedback from a stylist with an in-app purchase model or even subscription; Wishi, Daam are some examples. This last category will be interesting to follow.
- Polyvore - outfits ensembling;
- Rent the Runway, Stitch Fix, Instagram obvsly. And I'm sure I'm missing many, but just trying to give you ideas of how to find inspiring apps.
I wonder if online fashion is like online music in 2005/6/7... with lots of noise, some tech focused products, and the spotify's of the world starting to be built. Fun times.
I was idly fantasizing about a design your own app from a mass customization clothing provider, like French Rags. Put in your measurements and pick some parameters, like color, and play with it in an app.
Total fantasy territory, but that was what was running through my mind.
If someone had the plan to the goldmine why should he disclose it?