The problem with online shopping is that its, well, online. Until we have photorealistic 3D avatars of ourselves, it will always be better to try things on in person. But the truth is, we dress for other people, and we often need outside opinions when deciding what to buy. So we shop with friends or end up returning half of our purchases, right? Or perhaps you pull out your phone, snap a photo of an item, and send it to a friend. This is what Brooke Moreland and Joe Weisenthal noticed people doing, which gave them an idea: “Wouldn’t it be cool if you got a personalized review about how something looked on you “in real life”, before you made the purchase?”
This insight prompted the couple, along with co-founder Chris France, to start Fashism, a community-driven site for crowdsourcing your style. Snap a photo, send it in, and get votes and comments from the site’s vocal community of fashionistas sent back to you in real time.
“Instead of sending a dressing-room photo to a couple of friends (who may not even be around) for confirmation, why not ask a crowd of unbiased strangers?,” says Moreland. “And with the ubiquity of iPhones, and other camera phones, there is no reason why you can’t.”
Indeed, the phone is a bridge between our digital and physical worlds. It lets us take all the benefits of the web—instant access to information and our social networks—with us at all times. We increasingly expect seamless connectivity, and Fashism (like Twitter) blurs the lines between what is “online” and what is “mobile.”
To encourage activity, the site has incorporated gaming elements (similar to what Tumblr and foursquare have done). Users can earn points, medals, badges, and other prizes for uploading, tagging and commenting.
Offline, Fashism will begin throwing events with retailers. This Saturday, they are hosting their first “in-store studio” at Inven.tory in New York City (237 Lafayette @ Spring). Shoppers can try on clothes and get their picture taken for the site by a professional photographer. A $100 gift certificate will be awarded for the best look as judged by Fashism users. Get all the details here.
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