A new application for the iPhone aims to move the best friends and sales staff when it comes to fashion advice.
Ask a stylist, “which was published today, sharing advice and style in real time. I do not know if that bright red coat is suitable for the job? Take a picture of it, please send your question and a professional stylist will tell if it’s a go or not.
The app, which claims to be the first to link up people in real time, is among the latest fashion tools to enter the crowded marketplace of 185,000 iPhone apps. Apple could not confirm it was the first request to provide advice in real time, citing the large number of applications available. Recent research on the iTunes Store featuring applications that enable people to find Web sites or send queries to social networking sites, but no experts to provide answers in real time to live and real.
Shopping Web site Like.com partnered with Glamour magazine to create “Ask a Stylist.” The app is free; Like.com plans to make revenue through branded partnerships.
“In the case of taste, fashion and experience, I really want to talk to someone, but you want me to respond as quickly as a computer,” Like.com CEO and co-founder Munjal Shah said.
A team of eight stylists trained and certified by Glamour magazine are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The user to take pictures of clothing, accessories, or they themselves choose a stylist and send a question to the categories of events such as “Girls’ Night” or “marriage.” A stylist to respond to their opinion. The designers have profiles (and possibly user ratings) so that consumers can find styles to your taste preference.
Because the app is essentially a real-time conversation, how questions submitted are worded can affect the quality of the answer received. We had a question about how to wear a sparkly gold belt, but neglected to say that we had already considered pairing it with a black dress or jeans. The designer told us: Use the belt with a black dress or dark jeans.
We tried to trip a stylist by picking a busy jacket with roses that could easily veer from cool to crazy. The response from the designer: Wear it with jeans and loose jewelry.
In our tests, the designers do not send links to buy clothes, but have the opportunity to suggest things to buy. Mr Shah said that the stylists are paid, but not by commissions on sales.
Mr. Shah says that the app format is still in flux, and may change once it starts being used. For example, it remains to be seen whether consumers prefer shorter, faster or advice of qualified responses may take longer to arrive. He said that the majority of users who tested the application uploaded pictures of themselves, sometimes using the clothes concerned. He said that men preferred procurement assistance to women, who have shown a tendency to advice on the style of clothes they already owned.