Each morning – I get up, run to the bathroom, check the time and pick out my clothes for the day. I don’t consider myself a style guru nor do I l completely lack a fashion sense. I’d like to take some time to make sure everything matches. Unfortunately, after I check the time I realize that I am running late – I just fought 15 minutes with my alarm clock (I win the daily battles, the alarm clock wins the war), so to compensate I just throw something on and run to the office.
Can’t the web with its infinite power fix this? Imagine you “upload” your clothes into the cloud, tell the cloud the general style you are looking for (business-casual) and it spits out some matching and stylish outfits for the week. You ask it to send you daily reminders the night before of what you are wearing the next day and you diligently take the clothes out. Problem solved. Now you can look great and sleep-in at the same time. This is not impossible…tell an algorithm your size, complexion, type of suit and color, type of shirt, its color and patterns, belts, socks…and the algorithm can create matching outfits based on some simple heuristics.
Sounds like a dream come true. Does this make me too lazy? I think not, I’d love to have a professional opinion on what to wear, especially when dealing with my work clothes. The reminders it sends would keep me organized. It could even remind me that I am running out of shirts and should bring them to the dry cleaners. And if there’s more people like me out there, there’s revenue to be had. The business model here is not simply online advertising revenue but more importantly affiliate revenue. If I had a service that picked out my outfits every week and if it suggested new shirts to go with the rest of my clothes, I’d think I’d actually buy.
The goal of this system is to bring an image consultant – style consultant to the masses. In theory it could even be a learning algorithm, becoming slightly personalized for each user. With partnerships with other companies, this company could make some good commission money. Why am I not building this? Well first of style is not my forte, at least not to a point that I could create a sophisticated algorithm and secondly, who says I am not about to launch this concept. Some things better remain a mystery…
