Virtual Stylist
Never before has great fashion been more accessible to the public as it is in the age of the Internet.
Magazine-lovers whose preferred glossies aren’t available in their own nations or who find the current prices of high fashion rags too steep can simply go online for the free, digital version. Electronic commerce has become a revelation—at the center of which are auction and shopping sites like eBay and, particularly in the Philippines, the bevy of web boutiques found on Multiply.
Then there are the bloggers—a battalion of well-dressed photo diarists whose mass appeal comes from that fact that they are real people like you and me. Nowadays, fashion bloggers are deemed so essential to the style beat that packs of them are invited to New York, Paris, Milan, and all the rest of the couture capitals during Fashion Week season.
Before all this, fashion was often portrayed in media as a pastime for trust-fund types. I find one of the best examples in the ‘90s sleeper hit Clueless, where Alicia Silverstone plays a wealthy Beverly Hills teen named Cher. For context: Cher lives in a luxurious mansion with her litigator father, drives a jaunty little jeep even though she doesn’t have a license, and rules her elite high school alongside BFF Dionne, who is prone to “courageous fashion efforts” (her first appearance in the film sees her crowned by a plastic Dr. Seuss hat).
Spoiled, cheerfully vapid, and decidedly upper-crust, you can bet these girls get their hands on all manner of chic—the kind that mere mortals do not.
But there’s another reason why I bring up Clueless—and it’s one that has to do with how the wheels of fashion turn today.
In the beginning of the film, Cher flings open the doors to her massive walk-in closet, complete with rotating racks and a software that picks out her daily get-ups. The software is basically a database of all the items in her wardrobe, categorized into different tops, bottoms, shoes, jewelry, and a miscellany of scarves and pantyhose.
Our heroine presses a button marked “Browse” to comb through two categories simultaneously. Another button marked “Dress Me” places all the pieces she has selected on a paper-doll image of herself. If the resulting look is unimpressive, the software labels it a “Mis-match;” but if it’s good, the outfit flashes in silent approval.
Back then, this kind of software would have been seen as a rich girl’s plaything—a state-of-the-art luxury afforded to the affluent.
Looking at it now, it seems hilariously clunky. But even with its analog trappings, this fictional computer program was way ahead of its time. It was, in every sense of the word, a prototype for online styling—something that every fashion-minded person with an Internet connection has unlimited access to today.
Here’s the scoop: over the past few years, a new breed of dot-coms that center on interactive fashion styling has changed the way you can view, coordinate, and acquire a look. In this the virtual world, to which admission is free, you are the stylist and the wardrobe is high fashion—or at least, high street. A few of the sites link directly to online stores so you can buy what you like after completing a look—but most thrive on the simple principle of tapping into your inner stylist, no spending required.
It’s a sophisticated way to dress up a Barbie or paste together a mood board—plus, you get this vicarious thrill from playing with designer digs. And on top of that, it’s really addicting (believe me).
One of the most popular of these styling portals is Looklet.com, a Stockholm-based website that enables online users to dress virtual models in the hottest trends. Established in 2009, Looklet dubs itself “the world’s first digital styling studio”—it features over 8,000 designer and high-end fashion items, a pool of 36 real models, and over a hundred backgrounds to give your look context. It even has a function that allows you to render certain “special effects” on your look, the same way a graphic artist works his magic on editorial images before they go to print.
The finished product can be a fictional magazine cover, complete with catchy blurbs; or a “candid” street style photograph ala The Sartorialist; or a simple studio-shot fashion look that represents your dressing persona (like a Yahoo! Messenger avatar). The idea is that every detail of the look has been handpicked, put together, and personalized by you, and can be saved and edited anytime you want—which makes it a gratifying experience.
Couturious.com, launched almost a year after Looklet, features a similar format—except you can actually buy the items. A “Shop” button is affixed to every piece you place on the model, and while nothing is directly sold on the site, pressing “Shop” links you immediately to the online store that does.
Still, the real difference between the two sites is how they are being utilized by the fashion world. Looklet, in particular, has emerged with a strong editorial edge. Last year, the site teamed up with Vogue.com for an application called The Stylist, which is basically a showroom for user-generated looks and a Vogue editor-created “Look of the Week.” The Stylist appears under the trends section of Vogue’s UK website.
California-based Couturious, on the other hand, has built relationships with collaborating designers. From its launch in early 2010, the site partnered with 6 top New York labels (Cynthia Rowley, Tory Burch, Yigal Azrouël, Charlotte Ronson, Alice + Olivia, and Tibi) which delivered photos of their respective Spring 2010 Collections, fresh off the runway. This meant that Couturious users would get first dibs on items that weren’t even available in stores! Soon after, Summer 2010 collections from Tracy Reese, Isharya, Alice by Temperley, and Cynthia Steffe were added to the roster. Now, over 30 designers and luxe labels are featured on the site, including Diane Von Furstenberg and Kate Spade.
Surprisingly, though, the biggest success story in virtual styling so far is a website with no designer team-ups, no models, and no special effects—just fashion.
Introduced in 2007, Polyvore.com allows users to compile fashion collages with images clipped from any online store. (And I literally mean “clipped:” the tool used to download and save all these web images into the site’s vast database is merrily called the “Clipper.”)
To create a collage, or a “set,” users drag and drop items unto a blank canvas. They can mix and match pieces to create a cohesive look, manipulate the size and position of the images for a pleasing whole, then save the finished product so it can be shared with the rest of the community or linked to their choice of social networking site.
It’s not rocket science, but public response has been explosive. As of June 2011, techie news vehicle GigaOM reports that Polyvore is “the most-visited fashion website on the web today,” attracting 10 million unique visitors per month. (Style.com, long-considered THE fashion website, draws in around two million). Not bad for a four-year-old Cali-based venture, whose meteoric rise is based on the simple idea of a style scrapbook!
Here’s my point. Websites like Looklet, Couturious, and Polyvore have transformed the Internet into a fashion enthusiast’s playground—one whose gates are open to anyone and everyone with an interest in style. Just look at their taglines—Polyvore encourages you to join its “global community of independent trendsetters”; Couturious urges you to “discover your inner stylist.”
While recent developments have teamed them with industry elites, these online styling tools have always been designed for the everywoman and everyman. They’ve carved out a niche for regular folks with a desire to create, repopulating the physical fashion world with a virtual tribe of stylist-hopefuls. They’ve stuck to their roots—but they’ve also changed the way fashion works.
As in almost all things, the Internet has proven to be the great equalizer. With these sites (and the host of others not mentioned in this column), the World Wide Web has democratized what was once exclusive. Now, you don’t have to buy high fashion to experiment with it. In fact, it’s not so much about the capacity to pay top dollar as it is the ability to play the digital dressing game—and play it with panache.- Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin.
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