
Dress.me: Because Guys Hate to Shop - dh
http://sonjajacob.tumblr.com/post/4002528981/dress-me-because-guys-hate-to-shop
======
edw519
Girlfriend: Your wardrobe needs updating. (I love you but you look like shit.)

Me: No it doesn't. (Yes it does, but I have no idea what to do.)

Girlfriend: There are some great sales at the mall. (I'll appeal to his sense
of financial responsibility.)

Me: I'm too busy right now. (I really am busy and I hate going to the mall.)

Girlfriend: You would look so much better in a palette more suited to you. It
seems such a waste to not take advantage of your dark eyes and olive
complexion. (I'll appeal to his vanity.)

Me: Wait, what? Dark eyes? Olive complexion? (She may be on to something.)

Girlfriend: Everyone thought you looked so cute in that shirt I got you last
month. And the haircut, too. All my girlfriends thought you were so hot. (This
works on ALL men...)

Me: No they didn't. (Hmmm...her girlfriends think I'm hot? Whoa.)

Girlfriend: And you can't go to that party in the same jeans and t-shirt
again. Every picture of you on Facebook is in the same outfit. Potential
investors might think you're a flake. (Threaten his start-up; threaten his
baby.)

Me: OK, OK. (Good point, I keep hashing to the same frame.)

Girlfriend: I'll get dressed. You get the car. We can stop for a couple of
drinks to celebrate on the way home. I'll probably love how you look. (Moving
in for the kill...)

Me: This is so superficial, but you win. (Thank you, thank you, thank you.)

There are still some experiences that just can't be duplicated on-line.

~~~
mambodog
So the lesson here is to target people without girlfriends?

~~~
rokhayakebe
The lesson is when your girlfriend says "Your closet needs updading" give up
immediately and go to the mall with her because she will win.

~~~
philwelch
You don't want to hold out for the flattery and the promise of drinks
afterwards? Negotiation is an important skill.

~~~
rokhayakebe
And what is the point of negotiating if you know there is just no way you will
one this one :)

~~~
lukeschlather
Knowing what you're going to commit doesn't tell you anything about what the
other negotiator is willing to commit.

~~~
rokhayakebe
Good lesson.

------
patio11
What I really need is my mother as an iPhone app: when I was younger, she
would tell me that "that shirt doesn't 'go with"' those pants". Apparently,
there is a system of rules for this.

Unfortunately, when everybody else went off and learned this arcane system I
was apparently playing Battletech. Now I know that large pulse lasers followed
by SRMs (order very much dependent) is generally strong play, and everybody
else knows that striped blue and white doesn't go with ... I have no clue what
it doesn't go with, but it doesn't go with _something_. A lot of somethings,
apparently.

It shouldn't be that hard to snap a photo of an item in my closet, play "20
questions" to classify it, and put it in a DB. Then every day, when I wake up,
the app generates an outfit (I don't know, maybe a genetic algorithm would
work for this, it is probably straightforward constraint satisfaction) and
tells me "March 25th: Patrick, get these three things out. Can't find one?
Click 'Backup Plan'."

~~~
JoeAltmaier
I wash my shirts and pants, hang them on the left side of the closet (shirts
on top; pants below). Then I wear whatever pair is on the right side.

Since there are a relatively prime number of shirts vs pants, every possible
combination eventually occurs.

But this works for me. I don't actually Want to look cool; I'm perversely
proud of NOT participating in all that superficial stuff.

So now the target market narrows.

~~~
endtime
Upvoted for amusing me, but I have to question this:

>I don't actually want to look cool

Why? What possible utility could you be gaining by looking worse? Perverse
pride sounds more like a ex post rationalization than a real reason.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
You got it wrong; I don't spend time on it, so there's no utility calculation
at all. Its a null set. Pride is also free.

I spend my time supporting a youth group; mentoring a high school game design
club; gardening. What possible utility do you gain by ignoring these things?

~~~
endtime
So what you really mean is that looking good isn't worth the perceived cost to
you. Your first comment gave me the impression that you prefer not to look
cool, other things being equal, which was the source of my confusion.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Well, I do prefer not to look cool, especially since its free.

------
jkkramer
Finding clothes that fit is an important part of looking nice/stylish. It's
also a serious hurdle to shopping online and why I never do it. I think a
service like dress.me will need to address this in some way or the process
will remain somewhat anxiety-laden.

~~~
jacobbijani
Or it just needs effortless returns, like Zappos or WarbyParker.com

~~~
jkkramer
Returns are always a pain in the butt. No matter how easy you make it sound,
people are going to be anxious about it. But even assuming returns are
effortless, they're a HUGE money sinkhole for online retailers (Zappos returns
average 35%).

~~~
pavel_lishin
And a huge time sinkhole for me. I have a few tshirts that don't fit very well
and didn't bother returning because I didn't want to take the time to go to
the post office and wait for the package to come back.

------
Ixiaus
I think the premise that _men hate to shop_ is quite false. Men _perceivably_
hate to shop because many men don't appreciate the art of looking beautiful
and it's usually because our society doesn't instill that in men - we are
instilled with this sense that women are fashionable and men don't have any
fashion sense (which is bs). I actually really like to shop for clothes that
make me look good but it has taken me a while to realize it and to realize
that my style wasn't "unfashionable" it just needed some "guidance".

And that, IMHO, is what you should be targeting - not the fact that men hate
to shop but that most don't have the confidence to refine their own personal
style...

Geeks/men aren't slobs and we don't always hate to shop.

~~~
matthiaswh
I hate to shop. And I'm a man.

Just to add more context so this doesn't come across as quite so snarky: I'm
only validating the OP's concept that men hate to shop and offering that as a
counterpoint to Ixiaus's suggestion that "the premise that men hate to shop is
quite false." I'm a man. I hate to shop. I know many others who do, and many
who don't. The OP addressed that in his post quite well.

In fact, I actually like looking good. I'm not a slob and I don't generally
dress like one. The problem is that shopping is annoying. I don't have much
fashion sense, I can't stand trying to pick a nice shirt out of hundreds of
options with a half dozen variables each, and I never am able to tell what
actually would look good on me.

A tool that did all the math and picking for me would be great. It's almost
like a replacement for a spouse or mom that does the shopping for me.

~~~
sonja
Exactly. The goal of dress.me is to be a replacement for a spouse/mom/metro
friend who is always available to help you with your purchases. Since I'm a
woman, I understand this whole process pretty well. It's how I came up with
dress.me--I was sick of helping out my significant other and guy friends when
it came time to shop. With dress.me, they'll have the service they need
whenever they want.

------
nsfmc
This is a promising market if other outfits like <http://www.trunkclub.com/>
and <http://manpacks.com/> are any indication.

I think the trick, though, is making sure that you can align style with your
customer. When i first saw trunkclub i thought "netflix for clothes" which is
a pretty novel concept if you figure that reselling overstock, late season
purchases ala <http://gilt.com/> is a pretty solid concept but if you also
add-in the whole "personalized wardrobe" aspect, then it's really something
exciting for folks that want _nice_ wardrobe standards similar to what jesse
at <http://putthison.com/> advocates but don't need it _this season._

~~~
qjz
If you love a DVD you got from Netflix, you still put it in the envelope and
send it back for a replacement. That's where all of these clothing services
fall short. If I keep the clothing I like, I end up with a pile of dirty
clothing (that I like). Let me return it all, check a box indicating what I
liked, then send me a clean but comparable replacement. Heck, if you follow
the Netflix model and let me browse styles online, I'll be able to fine-tune
my tastes in no time, without the help of any fashion consultant. As a man, I
don't mind shopping, but I'm frustrated when I'm confronted with swimsuits on
a day I want to buy a turtleneck, and laundry's a chore. An online closet
would solve a number of headaches for a lot of men.

~~~
philwelch
I rather suspect the segment of people who would rather ship dirty laundry via
UPS and have it replaced with different clothing rather than just doing their
laundry is comparatively small. The people who can afford such a luxury can
generally afford to have a washer and dryer in their residence, or at least a
straight-up laundry service.

Also, your idea would require used clothing to be laundered and shipped out to
other customers. There's probably room for an online Goodwill, but that's
literally what it would have to be.

------
warfangle
Interesting idea. Went to <http://dress.me> and saw a "Your site is ready,
please replace this index file" message and was immediately let down. Thought
this was a release announcement.

~~~
sonja
Hey! Thanks for the feedback. Sorry for the letdown. My post about dress.me
was for the AppSumo Lean Startup Challenge. I'm working on the landing page as
fast as I can! Hope you'll stay tuned.

~~~
blakeweb
My advice: forget about making a great landing page--you need a simple page up
now, as in today. This is getting buzz. Right now you should go to weebly and
set up a splash page for dress.me that just has a simple email capture form
for people who want to be notified of your launch. Find a friend or pay
someone hundreds of dollars to do this today if you don't know how. If I don't
get an email announcing launch, you can bet I won't remember about your
service.

Good luck, and it sounds like a great idea if you can make it work!

------
gm
Where do I get in line to be an early customer? Is there a "let me know when
you go live" sign up page?

And actually, I LOVE to shop. I just have no taste for clothes. I wouldn't
know how to define my style. I need help.

~~~
h5n1
Ditto this. A curse of being a nerdy comparative shopper and having little
sense of clothing style makes this a got-to-have service.

------
iamdave
Guys don't hate to shop, we just go to the store already knowing what we're
there to get.

~~~
mgkimsal
I think there's "shopping" (going in to a store to purchase something) then
there's "shopping" (browsing, learning, touching, comparing, deciding, etc).

I don't know many guys who like to _shop_ (the second meaning) for clothing,
but don't mind purchasing them (going in to a store, finding the item, paying
for it, then leaving).

~~~
wladimir
I don't like either one of them. As for the first kind, I don't even know what
to look for; there is too much choice. I also hate trying things on in the
store. And the second kind of shopping I simply don't have the energy or
motivation for.

I'm still waiting for a gizmo that does a 3d scan of me and automagically
finds the best fitting clothes, shoes, etc online :)

------
cletus
Clothes shopping has remained one of those areas dominated by brick-and-mortar
stores. I see three reasons for this:

1\. Looking at photos is not the same as looking at the real thing;

2\. Clothes are more than just the look. How they _feel_ is also important;

3\. You obviously can't try clothes on online. You can (and really need to) in
a store. I have clothes that fit ranging from M to XL depending on the brand
and style.

So there are those barriers to overcome. There are additional issues.

First, I read the dress.me blurb and it says that when you signup it asks you
several "this or that" questions. A theoretically reasonable approach but one
doomed to failure.

The reason is that people (men in particular) don't know what suits them. When
someone says they _like_ something, it means _they're accustomed to it_. This
is a key point service providers like this need to understand.

It's why you see people seemingly trapped 10, 20, 30+ years ago with their
haircuts, shoes and clothes. Typically this is how they looked and what they
wore when they were teenagers and in their 20s. That sort of thing sticks
because it's what they knew growing up (much like musical tastes tend to be)
or even it's just the nostalgic angle: that style takes them back to probably
what were more easygoing days.

Second, there are an awful lot of men--we geeks are particularly guilty of
this--who have a completely _utilitarian_ view to pretty much everything,
including clothes. There's a reason the programmer stereotype is t-shirts and
jeans. These clothes are comfortable, require very little maintenance, are
cheap and require very little thought.

Clothes, like many things, are a statement about who you are as a person.
Pretty much everything we do is some form of expression of who we are. This is
even true of things like programming language choice.

So the problem we geeks have in particular is that _we don't generally care
about what kind of statement our clothes make_ , which in and of itself is a
statement.

Anyway, watch any of the makeover shows that are on TV. Whether they be for
men or women you will see the first thing the self-appointed style gurus will
do is beat them out of their old habits into things that actually suit them.
Asking them what they like would get you nowhere.

This is also why the cliche exists of women shopping for men. I think women
are probably more naturally inclined to the "group" aspect of pretty much all
forms of self-expression, clothes being just one. Just watch a woman--
particularly a young woman--get dressed for anything and you'll quickly
realize it's a group not a solo activity deciding what to wear.

Sites like this I think are seductive to those who start them, much like
dating sites are. It seems like it should be easy, right? I think the reality
has proven and will continue to prove otherwise, at least until these
fundamental problems are somehow addressed.

The true meaning of "I hate shopping" is more likely to be "I hate making
decisions about things I don't know about, care about or both." The "knowing"
part can probably be fixed. The "caring" part is a much bigger problem.

~~~
punteney
I use another startup called <http://hendrickspark.com/> to solve most of
those issues for myself.

You have a "style expert" who you meet with over Skype video. They send you a
box of clothes to try on and review with your expert over Skype video. Any
items you don't like or don't fit you put back in the box and send back. They
include the return shipping label in the box so you just have to put the label
on tape up the box and have FedEx pick it up. You only pay for the items you
keep (no shipping charges or extra fees). They try to make the process as
painless as possible.

Over time as you meet with your style expert, it's always the same person, and
get to know each other they get a better sense for what you like and don't
like as well as keeping track of things such as sizes and fits. They also
recommend what things work well together so you know what things to wear
together, etc. They have definitely pushed me out of my t-shirt and jeans
comfort zone, without going to fashionista or anything.

The primary drawback is my clothes budget is definitely higher than it use to
be, as most of the clothes are significantly more expensive (no $20 dollar
jeans) as they tend to come from more boutique and small manufacturers.

While that probably sounds an awful lot like an advertisement I have no
connection with Hendricks Park other than as a happy customer.

~~~
darklajid
While this sounds interesting and made me check out their side, this _is_ on a
different scale than the issue we're discussing here.

Two things that stand out and (deliberately) separate this site from the
casual online shop experience:

"Hendricks Park is a _luxury clothing_ service for men who have better things
to do with their time than shop for clothing."

"Men who enjoy and value our service the most, tend to buy at least $1,250 in
clothing per season."

~~~
chopsueyar
Dumb question, in fashion, are there four seasons per year?

Specifically, should a man using this service budget $5,000 a year for
clothing?

~~~
inklesspen
Looks like two seasons a year, spring and fall.

------
lolizbak
There's a startup in France doing that : <http://dress-me.fr/beta> They are
polishing the beta, but the app is pretty solid. On wider range, social
shopping and social fashion have been really hot lately, and over the past 2
years.

I've worked on <http://styyler.com> for some time (never finalized it), and we
were inspired by the fashism.com, polyvore.com ($8M funding), chictopia.com,
lookbook.nu, weardrobe.com (acquired by Like.com), chicisimo.com, ...

~~~
lolizbak
And i forgot <http://coolspotters.com> , in the distant area

------
lux
Interesting, I love hearing about shopping options for men! There are too few
options for us out there, but that's both a blessing and a curse. If you're
savvy, it can save you time. Women have more options, but they also have more
to sift through. Men can be incredibly efficient by comparison, just because
we have less to go through and the good stuff is easier to spot.

In the last year I managed to transform my wardrobe from jeans + threadless
shirts to strictly dress clothes, but without looking conventional about it or
spending a lot. It took some work initially, and some courage to try things
out of my comfort zone, but now I dress well by default and it feels good!

First place I go is Value Village or another used clothing shop, maybe once
every couple weeks. I don't spend more than 5 minutes (you learn to be
efficient pretty quickly). I look at dress shirts, pants, jackets, and ties.
Nothing else. I may not find anything, but I feel good when I do ($5-10/shirt,
heck yes!). I've found several great shirts that would be $60+ new, and a
couple really sweet blazers too.

Then I hit somewhere like Winners, reasonably stylish but not so expensive.
When I find something I think I like, I ask myself a couple questions:

a) Does it look like a "dad" shirt/pant? b) Would a teenager wear it?

Both are deal-breakers. If I'm really unsure if it's too loud, I'll try it
anyway. But be strict on fit. Dress shirts that look like a garbage bag
wrapped around your waist are terrible. Of course, you have to tweak to your
physical size, but you can find things that flatter. If it doesn't flatter,
even if it's nice, put it back (even if it's "your size").

And for the first while, have a woman come with you, but tell her what you're
going for. She'll steer you away from the truly awful, but encourage you to
take a chance on the brilliant too :)

------
true_religion
I know "guys who hate to shop" is the target mass-market, but maybe the beta
can be pitched towards the niche of guys who either love shopping or at least
love evoking a personal sense of style.

As one of the later, I have to say that actual shopping is a pain and if I
didn't live in a little town replete with boutique attendants I probably
wouldn't shop.

~~~
chadgeidel
I would like to second the "evoking a personal sense of style".

------
larsberg
Have you talked to any personal shoppers to see how your thoughts on how men
want to be shopped for match up with their experiences?

Most of my more successful hacker friends in the finance industry whose wives
are not interested in shopping for them went this route, and rely completely
on their personal shoppers. Even the ones I would consider only slightly
better dressed than random selection love the service.

------
r00k
Man, you know you're on to a startup idea when your pre-implementation post
_about_ that idea can make the front-page.

------
stephen
Shopping is a waste of time. Instead:

* Find a favorite pair of jeans, buy 3-4 pair, wear them every day.

* Find a favorite a t-shirt, but 4-5, wear them every day.

* Ask for socks for Christmas.

Solid colors are recommended because then you:

a) aren't a walking billboard and,

b) it isn't as noticeable that "wtf you wore that same slogan/whatever shirt
two days ago".

~~~
abalashov
That's more or less exactly what I do. Last time I overhauled my wardrobe was
3 or so years ago; I went into Old Navy, found jeans I liked and got 4, and
found a shirt I liked and got 7 colours of it. Total in-store time, including
browsing, trying on, and check-out was 22 minutes. I'm rather proud of myself.

It makes complete sense. I can't stand retail spaces, and honestly, even
shopping every leap year is an insufferable, demoralising sink.

------
IgorPartola
What a frustrating article! <http://dress.me> is a default index.html. The
link to AppSumo Lean Bundle just asks for my e-mail. Same page linking to
AppSumo Lean Startup Challenge. Why bother linking to all this?

------
BenSS
I'm one of those hate-shopping because I don't really understand style. It's
just not part of my mental domain.

To "figure out what their style is" is really the missing link for me, and I'd
probably pay for this alone. However, I at least have some interest in it,
just because my brother is a complete 180 from me and is very into
style/clothing.

One cautionary note, the target has to recognize the need for the service,
which might make it a harder sell. Look at how hard it is to get people to do
something about finances! It's simply a blind spot for many, in the same way
style is. Those hate to shop folks don't see why we should care about it.
What's the benefit?

If I was at all style conscious I'd be more inclined to focus on the opinions
and suggestions feature, even though it seems like an afterthought to your
feature set. People who 'get' style and the clueless would both benefit (and
frankly, the in style people are going to be more passionate about it).

------
mark_l_watson
I already use a service like this: my wife. Sometimes she brings clothes home,
I try them on and she returns what I don't like. When I do feel like shopping,
she makes it a very fast by bringing clothes in quantity back to the changing
room. For going shopping my _reward_ is that we always go to a Thai or Chinese
restaurant for lunch afterwards.

I do go shopping voluntarily when we need to buy a nice dress for my wife
before going on a cruise vacation, etc. She likes to get something that I
like.

Way back when I was single, I bought some clothes pushed on me by sales clerks
that later friends mentioned didn't look so great on me. For single men, I
would advise waiting until you have a girlfriend with good taste - then stock
up using her advice.

Dress.me might work, but it seems like it would be difficult to do using only
questions on a web site.

~~~
JonnieCache
_> I would advise waiting until you have a girlfriend with good taste - then
stock up using her advice._

Maybe don't mention this plan on the first date though.

~~~
bhousel
Haha, I was in this exact situation once and it worked out awesomely. "I hate
my clothes and I could _really_ use your help" can be great first date
conversation.

Besides, it shows that you're clued in. She will definitely recognize that you
need new clothes before you do.

------
Lewisham
I think where this could shine is dialing up to 11 the recommendation system.
I'd happily pay $5 or $10 for a human "fashion advisor" to actually put
together a style for me, based on a photo of myself, plus some description of
the occasion that I'm going to be attending.

I tend to grow my hair longer now than I used to, just so I can go to my
hairdresser and say "You're the professional, you choose." Otherwise its way
too easy to get stuck in a rut, and to be honest, the styles that GQ and
Esquire show you usually require:

a) a bunch of money

b) a bunch of confidence that you look awesome and not a douche

c) a slender figure

Most guys aren't any of these things, so they'll buy a slightly too baggy
T-shirt and a pair of jeans and call it a day. There could be much more.

~~~
scott_s
In case you didn't see this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2350796>

------
GBond
A great under-explored market. Hurdle would be there needs to be some sort of
feedback loop of how the piece actually fits ON the customer IRL.

\- Every body type is different and every label has different sizes/cuts.

\- how the outfit fits makes up 90% of an outfit looking great

\- target market lacks the ability to judge fit for themselves

BTW, I'm not a fashion expert but I married one.

tldr: sartorially skillz are important

------
G2789
From a marketing standpoint, I wonder how you actually find the customers
you're looking for. Most start-ups seem to generate enough interest through
HN, TC, and other niche focused sites. However, I'm not sure these are your
key audience.

From my own shopping experience, I generally find one brand of shirt/pant/shoe
that work well and then it's my go-to brand. Anytime I need to buy something
new, that's where I go. I hardly deviate or try something new because as you
mentioned, I hate shopping and as other people have mentioned, fit and feel
are important.

However, I think you can expand your product by saying "hey, if you like Shirt
A, then maybe you'll like Shirt B". After all, the style from one brand often
remains the same and even guys will want different types of clothes for
different events/moods/etc.

------
jvagner
Guys don't hate to shop. It's just that women are constantly repeating this
idiotic maxim, and in the cultural discourse, you joke with the material at
hand.

~~~
BigglesZX
Agreed. I think it's more a case of "guys don't shop like girls". I might do a
proper clothes shop maybe two or three times a year at most, but I don't
actively dislike doing it. I just don't feel the need to constantly update my
wardrobe.

My one data point, FWIW.

------
radioactive21
This is kinda funny, but I actually love this idea and have asked out loud why
someone hasnt done this. BUT only if it's what I think it should be.

The one area that I have most trouble with isn't types of clothes it's the
color coordination. I've had hundreds of comments like "oh your shirt doesn't
match." To me it looks perfectly find. Or one that's strange to me is "that
color is not you." My answer is always, "I have a color?" but no one
clarifies.

Or I'll buy a dress pants in one color, and have no idea what color I should
buy for dress shirt and other stuff like coats or sweaters to match.

I imagine something like saying hey I have so and so pants what color or shirt
best matches it?

Something that works with your exist wardrobe, or teaches you how to color
coordinate would be great.

------
jdminhbg
I wonder if you could get somewhere by exploiting the middle ground between
"naturally stylish, enjoys shopping" and "hates shopping, same ratty t-shirt,"
namely "kinda enjoys successful shopping, but is terrible at it."

I'd think of it as being like those services where people go and put together
a couple weeks' worth of meals: those people don't hate cooking, they hate the
results when they fail at cooking. Personally, I enjoy when I find something
that fits right and looks good, I just have no idea how to go about making
that happen reproducibly.

------
consultutah
Interesting. I've been working on <http://tiemonster.com/> for 2 months now
which is similar, but focuses solely on ties.

~~~
rezrovs
I thought the idea was interesting so I followed the link to your site. From
the tag line, I initially thought that this was going to cost me $18 every
month. It was only after reading the other text on that page that I realised
that it's a once a month opt in.

~~~
consultutah
Thanks for the input: I should make that more clear. It was originally going
to be $18/month, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I
wouldn't want it that way if I were the customer.

Every month, you get an email with pics of 2-4 different ties. If you like
one, you order it. If you don't, you don't order it.

------
meatpeople
Great idea, and well stated. I'll add a plus-one for filtering based on
shipping territories.

It ties in with other peoples' comments regarding personal shoppers, but once
you get past the initial mvp stage, I think there's an opening for adding the
ability to ping my clothing-savvy (female) friends to say "what do you think
of this?" There's possibly an exploitable network effect in there.

------
acconrad
What are the "this or that" questions? As Jkkramer pointed out, fit is the
most important thing. I want to input my body measurements, and have you spit
out the companies whose clothes closest match my body measurements. For
example, APC makes great jeans, but they're too tight for me in the thighs,
despite being appropriately sized in the waist, knee and cuff.

------
vessenes
This could work, but it probably won't -- that is, it won't work if Ms. Jacob
wants to help guys enjoy shopping. It's antithetical to how most men's brains
work to want to do the 'gatherer' style shopping. On the other hand, just
reading her post and the posts here, I have a suggestion for a startup:

1\. Kinect for sizing you

2\. Clothes on your avatar

3\. Done. You are now a gazillionaire. Of course, there's lots of next steps,
like getting the Snoop collection, the slacker collection, the yadda yadda,
but fundamentally, when you can get sizing automated by your Kinect and shop
on your 360, the boys are happy.

I really wish I had some spare time to do this, because this would be
fabulous. In fact, you wouldn't even need to get sized that often; you'd only
have to do it once every so often. You could just open up the app, and throw
fashion on your avatar.

------
viraptor
Love it! I would really like to use this service right now. I don't really
mind shopping, but I can't visualise the clothes with something else. If I can
find everything in one place, that's a little better, but I'm completely lost
if I buy a shirt that I like and discover it doesn't really look that good
with what I already have.

I'm not sure if I would actually buy online, but asking me questions and
presenting with an idea what to buy would be a great help. I tend to use the
people working in the shop for this - since they usually wear the clothes
available in the shop, I end up with "I want to buy the stuff you're wearing"
(or some less creepy alternative) when I spot someone whose style is ok.

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hlfshell
I REALLY like the idea but it's going to require a REALLY elegant
implementation to streamline this.

I'm assuming you're going to monetize by eventually becoming a reseller or
acting as an associate of sites you link to (could be wrong). If not, then I
would advise this route over charging outright for using your service, as I'd
be far more likely to use it that way.

All that being said, I really look forward to your launch so I can try this
out. I am exactly your target audience.

~~~
xhonk
Agreed. Monetizing dress.me as a preferred associate of clothing sites, or as
a walled garden market where only you can offer select deals, would be far
more palatable. I am also in your target demographic, but all I want is an
algorithm that tells me when polka dots and stripes don't match.

------
jdunck
I think, in general, that there are likely a bunch of unmet needs that are
fairly obvious to women, and less so to men. Because of this, I think that
women entrepreneurs have an advantage in seeing these earlier.

When you see a dominant hegemony (as in male-dominated technical startups),
it's useful to imagine yourself as the minority and try to see what your
hegemony is missing.

It's hard to put yourself outside your range of experience, but it's a useful
exercise anyway.

------
blackman
I would totally use this. I buy clothing online all the time and have had
great success but I do tend to stick to big name brands (birkenstock, levis,
converse, ben sherman) that have easy to use size charts online or I have
bought in shops before anyway.

If they had a way of matching your favourite clothes to others and making
recommendations based on style and fit I think it could be great.

------
sgt
Brilliant. I've been dreaming about this the last 10 years. I hate going
shopping. Whatever I buy always looks a lot better in their mirrors than it
does at home anyway, so I don't see the advantages of fitting something
physically in the store.

If the website included a little "3d model" of a person, customizable to make
it my size so I can try on different clothes, that would be ideal.

------
sn
Geez, you think it's just guys who hate to shop?

------
ohnsmith
"And, with so many stores online to choose from, how can you blame them?
There’s no way a normal man can find a way to pull it all together. So he lets
dress.me do it for him."

I've been reading a lot lately about how the web is dominated by women, and
that men shouldn't try and sell to women. That. In reverse.

------
AmericanOP
This has been tried before, but good luck. I think the real opportunity in
men's clothing is the lack of community around 'men's fashion' for what most
men want to wear. Who actually wears stuff from GQ? Gilt group? There's just
no community around finding cool clothing that isn't high fashion.

------
brown9-2
Just for idle speculation: what options does the HN crowd think there are for
monetizing a service like this?

Charging a monthly fee for access to the service, or a fee for each
consultation? Some sort of referral fee or commission scheme for referring
customer to the (eventual) brands and stores?

------
Jun8
This is a great idea, the last (mostly) unexplored frontier. But the approach
seems somewhat simplistic. Have you watched a large number of episodes of
_What Not To Wear_? If not, I would strongly suggest you do to learn why
people get stuck with bad wardrobes.

------
Florin_Andrei
Even that is boring.

Go to GAP, straight to the jeans section, pick a 32/34 normal cut, pay, get
the hell out. Done.

~~~
georgieporgie
You best try those on before leaving. GAP (and Banana Republic, and Old Navy,
and probably all similar, but unrelated retailers) change their suppliers on a
regular basis. I've found huge differences in fit between two same-style pairs
of jeans in the same store, on the same day. One was made in Sri Lanka, the
other in Thailand. The variance in the cut and thickness of their tees is even
more significant.

------
juiceandjuice
This would be more interesting if you picked a girl by how she looks and asked
her to dress you.

------
fecklessyouth
It's really not that much trouble to learn how to dress. It's really not. Just
subscribe to a couple types of mens' style blogs and you'll become self-
sufficient quite quickly:

putthison.com selectism.com gq.com/style/style-guy
asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com/

------
kovar
Just checking - have you seen TrunkClub.com? I've not used them, but some of
what you're doing seems to be similar to their offering.

------
Dementati
This idea is genius! I really need this!

------
chaostheory
It sounds like a great idea... but where's the demo or screen shots?

------
davidsantoro
I would love to use it :)

------
Void_
I like shopping for clothes, but I do it online most of the time.

------
whatwhatwhat
I already want to use this site.

------
Nugem
and make UnDRESS.me cause guys like porn.

------
NY_USA_Hacker
There are some solutions to on-line shopping:

(1) Pictures. Now digital cameras are terrific, and so is the Internet for
showing high resolution pictures. So, high resolution pictures. Lots of them.

(2) Measurements. When I shopped for clothes for my wife for Christmas, she
wondered how I was able to buy her clothes that fit. Easy: In secret I went to
her clothes closet, picked out some of her clothes I knew fit her well, spread
them on the bed, drew a sketch, took out a tape measure and MEASURED
everything relevant. At the store, I did the same. At a store, e.g., Talbots
when they still had nice clothes for women, a sales woman came and asked me if
she could help and what size I was looking for, I explained that in clothes,
especially women's clothes, the stated sizes didn't mean anything and I would
use a tape measure instead.

(3) Colors. Colors should just be specified in 24 bit RGB, period. Then at
home given the RGB values, use some drawing program to put up a big patch of
the relevant color and compare with such data for other items already have and
the color pictures. Then can do well on color.

(4) Terminology. The rag trade needs to totall stuff it on their 'creative'
names that are poorly defined to anyone and just meaningless to men. So, to
say that a polo shirt is a 'pique' is nonsense. Instead, say "knit" and then
describe, in clear, complete English sentences and close up photographs any
more of interest.

I went shopping for blue jeans on-line at the site of one of the famous
brands, saw about three dozen colors, each with some concocted color name --
maybe New England burgundy or some such -- and gave up. I wanted just standard
blue jeans, and the color names were meaningless and the photographs were far
too small to see the colors.

One more, the rag trade has to understand that on color, about 25% of men are
partially red-green color blind.

Last, the rag trade has to give up on expecting men to buy clothes like women
do. Men just ain't gonna do that.

~~~
chopsueyar
#2 - you are a good husband.

------
NY_USA_Hacker
Men, that is, all 'real men' :-)!!, don't mind shopping and certainly don't
"hate to shop" and, instead, 'hate' the attitude toward shopping pushed on
young women by the fashion industry.

So, long the idea has been to play on the propensity for women to 'fit in'.
So, use some 'authority', say, 'designers' from Paris, Milan, NYC, etc. to
specify the 'new look', fill the stores with such rags and little else, and
try to get young women embarrassed to be see in anything else. And have a 'new
look' each 'season'.

Some of the seasonal changes have lost a lot of their punch, but there's
another, related idea: Young women are easily frustrated and dissatisfied.
This is an old point, e.g,, illustrated by the two sisters in the original
Disney 'Cinderella'. Thusly, frustrated, the women want a 'MAKEover' which
consists (as in 'Cinderella') of just throwing 'out the old' and 'bringing in
the new'. So, lots of good clothes are just thrown out. Huge waste. Men don't
like that or do that.

For men, now, for nearly anything, including business, shirts -- polo or
sport. Pants -- blue jeans. Shoes -- nearly anything comfortable, but actually
running shoes are only for more casual situations or athletic situations.

If an when a suit is needed, it's easy: There are only three colors, black,
navy, and dark gray. A pattern is okay as long as can't see it more than 2
feet away. Shoes -- black.

But the effort to get men to be 'fashion conscious' will never stop and, I
hope, never succeed.

------
clistctrl
In complete seriousness, if the author is on this site... were you by any
chance sitting in the table next to me at Cambridge Brewing Company a few days
ago :) I was literally just talking about working on something like this with
my girlfriend after a long terrible day of trying to buy a shirt ;)

I always find it fascinating how sometimes ideas can go a long time untouched,
but when someone finally decides to work on it, it seems like 20 other people
had the same idea at once.

------
tedjdziuba
Damn, I was hoping to sign up and start paying you money, but since you're not
launched yet, chances are I will forget about this service by the time you do
launch.

------
robwgibbons
Despite all of the criticism I'm seeing, I think this is a great idea. All
they're doing here is applying a suggestion algorithm to clothes shopping. Not
a big leap. Plenty of people buy their clothes online; all this does is tailor
(no pun intended) suggestions to your tastes.

------
lurker14
I thought sexist jokes are supposed to be downvoted on HN.

------
andrest
Wont work out :)

This or that questions wont help. You might ask: blue or white? I say depends;
you might ask: smart or casual? I say depends.

There are no questions that can 'solve' my style preferences and even if they
do, the items I buy will not always follow them (maybe found some really cool
green shoes that go with my blue shirt, which I wouldn't have bought if I
didn't already have the shirt). I like moccasins for summer and oxford shoes
for winter, seasons vary.

Even if you can somehow compile a perfect profile, then how the hell are you
going to find items that match it? Very few retailers list things such as
colour, season and material separately in a manner they can be easily
gathered.

I sincerely suggest you to look elsewhere.

