14 ms·

Dress.me: Because Guys Hate to Shop

172 points by dh 16y ago

consultutah 16y ago
Interesting. I've been working on http://tiemonster.com/ http://tiemonster.com/ for 2 months now which is similar, but focuses solely on ties.
- rezrovs 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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.
gm 16y ago
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 16y ago
  Ditto this. A curse of being a nerdy comparative shopper and having little sense of clothing style makes this a got-to-have service.
- Rickasaurus 16y ago
  For sure. When can I sign up?
- mikesabat 16y ago
  Yes, I'd love to hear when the site launches too.
iamdave 16y ago
Guys don't hate to shop, we just go to the store already knowing what we're there to get.
- mgkimsal 16y ago
  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).
  - iamdave 16y ago
    "I think there's "shopping" (going in to a store to purchase something) then there's "shopping" (browsing, learning, touching, comparing, deciding, etc)." Shopping vs. Browsing, then would be more fitting?
  - wladimir 16y ago
    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 :)
- arethuza 16y ago
  Not always, I must have spent at least 30 seconds choosing a new shirt at lunchtime.
- lolizbak 16y ago
  Yep, that's exactly it : the difference between men and women - or at least me and my girlfriend, to avoid generalization :) - is that we know what and where to buy what we need. When she goes out 'shopping', it defines a hobby, whereas it defines an concrete action for men. At least I guess :) (please don't call me macho !)
lolizbak 16y ago
There's a startup in France doing that : http://dress-me.fr/beta 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 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 16y ago
  And i forgot http://coolspotters.com http://coolspotters.com , in the distant area
- dh 16y ago
  Love the links and too funny there is one in France with a similar name. What is interesting is only focused on women.
BenSS 16y ago
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).
davidsantoro 16y ago
I would love to use it :)
lux 16y ago
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 :)
nsfmc 16y ago
This is a promising market if other outfits like http://www.trunkclub.com/ http://www.trunkclub.com/ and http://manpacks.com/ 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/ 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/ http://putthison.com/ advocates but don't need it this season.
- newobj 16y ago
  Never heard of Trunk Club, but I love the execution. The interesting thing I'm taking away as a point of comparison is how superior an identity like "Trunk Club" is versus a simple "I found a clever domain that was available" type identity like dress.me. "Dress Me" is kind of immasculating/infantilizing, whereas Trunk Club is kind of exclusive and sort of has an old world sophistication to it, both in use of throwback terminology "trunk" and the fact that clubs are such "guy things." Not really comparing the feasibility of one business or the other, just pointing out my reaction to the identities...
- matthiaswh 16y ago
  One thing that has kept me away from Man Packs is that I have no idea how often I need new socks, underwear, or shaving cream. I'd love to have them sent to me automatically when I'm in need, but it's hard to put that on a schedule. It's probably close to once a year - but it's far enough apart that I don't really know how often I really need them. Dress.me sounds like a better execution for my preferences - I need a new shirt and some new jeans, so I go to the website and it finds exactly the right items for me with minimal effort or decision making on my part.
- krsgoss 16y ago
  Trunk Club is exactly how I would of expected Dress.me to work if I were signing up. I think just recommending doesn't go far enough. Getting a box in the mail with everything put together for you seems much nicer. Having a personal shopper is appealing I think. That being said, their brands are definitely on the higher end and more than what I'd probably be willing to spend on clothes. E.G. Denim ranging from $165 - $225 means a single outfit could get pretty expensive quick. Still, I can definitely see the high end of the market being viable though. Seems like demand would exist at mid-market prices though too.
brown9-2 16y ago
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?
jkkramer 16y ago
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 16y ago
  Or it just needs effortless returns, like Zappos or WarbyParker.com
  - jkkramer 16y ago
    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%).
    - kmfrk 16y ago
      Do you have a link for the return rate? Not that I doubt you, but it'd be some great data to have.
    - pavel_lishin 16y ago
      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.
  - kmfrk 16y ago
    That works for things like shoes and t-shirts, but not trousers and regular shirts. It sends a bad sartorial signal to tell people just to slap on something with a decent-ish fit. It's fine for a shop, but bad for something aimed at dressing people properly and teaching them how to do so themselves.
    - camtarn 16y ago
warfangle 16y ago
Interesting idea. Went to http://dress.me 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 16y ago
  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.
  - Roritharr 16y ago
    Are you US based? Please try to include filters for shops that ship to europe... i'd love using your service since i'd rather wrestle an alligator than go clothes shopping.
  - warfangle 16y ago
    I definitely will! Thanks!
  - blakeweb 16y ago
    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!
mark_l_watson 16y ago
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 16y ago
  >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 16y ago
    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.
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  I would advise waiting until you have a girlfriend with good taste... How would you know she has good taste?
- smokey_the_bear 16y ago
  My fiance bought a new outfit right before our first date, and he couldn't resist telling me it was new and asking if I liked it in the middle of the date. I did like it, so he had the taste, just not the inclination in general. I don't think he got a single new article of clothing until we got engaged, when I started buying his clothes.
GBond 16y ago
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
true_religion 16y ago
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 16y ago
  I would like to second the "evoking a personal sense of style".
clistctrl 16y ago
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.
Dementati 16y ago
This idea is genius! I really need this!
acconrad 16y ago
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.
Ixiaus 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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.
  - rokhayakebe 16y ago
    You do not hate to shop. You hate the fact that you do not know how to decide what to pick.
r00k 16y ago
Man, you know you're on to a startup idea when your pre-implementation post about that idea can make the front-page.
andrest 16y ago
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.
hlfshell 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.
larsberg 16y ago
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.
cletus 16y ago
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.
jdunck 16y ago
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.
meatpeople 16y ago
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.
9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago
As a hetrosexual male, I would like to say I really don't hate having to shop. I'd actually say that it's media culture propping up this idea, intimidating guys to not shop because "yo dawg, that's what chix do," and then "ohmygawsh jack's belt doesn't match his shoes teeheee what a dweeb." And lastly, the environment for the most part is targeted against them, not towards them. I'd say those are the reasons men say they don't like to shop: they're called homos by bullies, made fun of by prissy schoolgirls, and they don't want to accidentally walk into a wall of bras. Men are way too emotional when it comes to picking out pants, so they throw up their arms and scream "I hate shopping, that's a chick's thing."
whatwhatwhat 16y ago
I already want to use this site.
jvagner 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.
- bfioca 16y ago
  It makes me wonder what kinds of underserved markets there might be for apps for women, because "gals hate to do X." Wait, that probably wouldn't go over very well. :)
- ori_b 16y ago
  I do, and I would gladly pay for a service that handled the bulk of the work for me. Especially if it had real people on the other end making the clothing suggestions based on my measurements and/or photos.
sgt 16y ago
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.
edw519 16y ago
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 16y ago
  So the lesson here is to target people without girlfriends?
  - rokhayakebe 16y ago
    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 16y ago
      You don't want to hold out for the flattery and the promise of drinks afterwards? Negotiation is an important skill.
radioactive21 16y ago
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.
patio11 16y ago
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'."
- nialo 16y ago
  I would buy this also, sounds amazing.
  - josefresco 16y ago
    I think I saw something like this on a T-Mobile commercial with Dwayne Wade. He was showing off an app that shows him his wardrobe. I've also heard about well known celebrities photographing everything in their closet so they never wear the same thing twice. Seems obsessive but I think there's a use for everyday folks. Although opening the closet door and looking at your clothes is pretty much the same thing.
- dacort 16y ago
  I've been wanting (to build) this for a while. I have lots of different clothes, but usually stick to the same set of outfits. Whenever I try something new, I have trouble knowing if it "goes well together" without some sort of outside confirmation. I've learned some basic tenets of what things "go with" other things, but I still don't branch out of that because of this problem. Populating your library would take some effort, but it would be worth it. Now couple this with another app/function that inventories your kitchen and lets you know what you can make for dinner and you've got a full blown bachelorator app.
juiceandjuice 16y ago
This would be more interesting if you picked a girl by how she looks and asked her to dress you.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sn 16y ago
Geez, you think it's just guys who hate to shop?
G2789 16y ago
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.
stephen 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.
AGorilla 16y ago
I don't hate to shop and I don't need you to dress me. Your branding is insulting and pretty sexist. EDIT: Here's a selection of quotes that just scream "math class is hard!" "Guys hate to shop." Some guys hate to shop, some guys love to shop. "There’s no way a normal man can find a way to pull it all together." So men who can figure out how to dress themselves in the morning are freaks. "(oh yeah, and he can specify how many items he wants at the outset, so as not to overwhelm)" Don't worry your pretty little head, we wouldn't want you to be overwhelmed! "...you’re not in the least excited about it, and somewhat fearful that what you do select will be horrible and you’ll offend your wife, a family member, the woman you’re taking out on a date, or whatever." Notice how only women are judging the way men dress?
AmericanOP 16y ago
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.
IgorPartola 16y ago
What a frustrating article! http://dress.me 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?
chaostheory 16y ago
It sounds like a great idea... but where's the demo or screen shots?
Lewisham 16y ago
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.
- drpancake 16y ago
  Agree completely. You need to democratise the concept of a 'personal shopper'.
- scott_s 16y ago
  In case you didn't see this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2350796 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2350796
Void_ 16y ago
I like shopping for clothes, but I do it online most of the time.
tedjdziuba 16y ago
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.
vessenes 16y ago
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.
kovar 16y ago
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.
viraptor 16y ago
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.
jdminhbg 16y ago
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.
robwgibbons 16y ago
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.
Florin_Andrei 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.
fecklessyouth 16y ago
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/
Jun8 16y ago
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.
ohnsmith 16y ago
"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.
NY_USA_Hacker 16y ago
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.
blackman 16y ago
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.
NY_USA_Hacker 16y ago
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 16y ago
  #2 - you are a good husband.
lurker14 16y ago
I thought sexist jokes are supposed to be downvoted on HN.
lurker14 16y ago
I thought sexist jokes are supposed to be downvoted on HN.
Nugem 16y ago
and make UnDRESS.me cause guys like porn.

172 points by dh 16y ago

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

rezrovs 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.

gm 16y ago

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 16y ago
Ditto this. A curse of being a nerdy comparative shopper and having little sense of clothing style makes this a got-to-have service.
Rickasaurus 16y ago
For sure. When can I sign up?
mikesabat 16y ago
Yes, I'd love to hear when the site launches too.

iamdave 16y ago

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

mgkimsal 16y ago
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).
- iamdave 16y ago
  "I think there's "shopping" (going in to a store to purchase something) then there's "shopping" (browsing, learning, touching, comparing, deciding, etc)." Shopping vs. Browsing, then would be more fitting?
- wladimir 16y ago
  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 :)
arethuza 16y ago
Not always, I must have spent at least 30 seconds choosing a new shirt at lunchtime.
lolizbak 16y ago
Yep, that's exactly it : the difference between men and women - or at least me and my girlfriend, to avoid generalization :) - is that we know what and where to buy what we need. When she goes out 'shopping', it defines a hobby, whereas it defines an concrete action for men. At least I guess :) (please don't call me macho !)

lolizbak 16y ago

There's a startup in France doing that : http://dress-me.fr/beta 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 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 16y ago
And i forgot http://coolspotters.com http://coolspotters.com , in the distant area
dh 16y ago
Love the links and too funny there is one in France with a similar name. What is interesting is only focused on women.

BenSS 16y ago

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).

davidsantoro 16y ago

I would love to use it :)

lux 16y ago

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 :)

nsfmc 16y ago

This is a promising market if other outfits like http://www.trunkclub.com/ http://www.trunkclub.com/ and http://manpacks.com/ 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/ 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/ http://putthison.com/ advocates but don't need it this season.

newobj 16y ago
Never heard of Trunk Club, but I love the execution. The interesting thing I'm taking away as a point of comparison is how superior an identity like "Trunk Club" is versus a simple "I found a clever domain that was available" type identity like dress.me. "Dress Me" is kind of immasculating/infantilizing, whereas Trunk Club is kind of exclusive and sort of has an old world sophistication to it, both in use of throwback terminology "trunk" and the fact that clubs are such "guy things." Not really comparing the feasibility of one business or the other, just pointing out my reaction to the identities...
matthiaswh 16y ago
One thing that has kept me away from Man Packs is that I have no idea how often I need new socks, underwear, or shaving cream. I'd love to have them sent to me automatically when I'm in need, but it's hard to put that on a schedule. It's probably close to once a year - but it's far enough apart that I don't really know how often I really need them. Dress.me sounds like a better execution for my preferences - I need a new shirt and some new jeans, so I go to the website and it finds exactly the right items for me with minimal effort or decision making on my part.
krsgoss 16y ago
Trunk Club is exactly how I would of expected Dress.me to work if I were signing up. I think just recommending doesn't go far enough. Getting a box in the mail with everything put together for you seems much nicer. Having a personal shopper is appealing I think. That being said, their brands are definitely on the higher end and more than what I'd probably be willing to spend on clothes. E.G. Denim ranging from $165 - $225 means a single outfit could get pretty expensive quick. Still, I can definitely see the high end of the market being viable though. Seems like demand would exist at mid-market prices though too.

brown9-2 16y ago

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?

jkkramer 16y ago

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 16y ago
Or it just needs effortless returns, like Zappos or WarbyParker.com
- jkkramer 16y ago
  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%).
  - kmfrk 16y ago
    Do you have a link for the return rate? Not that I doubt you, but it'd be some great data to have.
  - pavel_lishin 16y ago
    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.
- kmfrk 16y ago
  That works for things like shoes and t-shirts, but not trousers and regular shirts. It sends a bad sartorial signal to tell people just to slap on something with a decent-ish fit. It's fine for a shop, but bad for something aimed at dressing people properly and teaching them how to do so themselves.
  - camtarn 16y ago

warfangle 16y ago

Interesting idea. Went to http://dress.me 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 16y ago
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.
- Roritharr 16y ago
  Are you US based? Please try to include filters for shops that ship to europe... i'd love using your service since i'd rather wrestle an alligator than go clothes shopping.
- warfangle 16y ago
  I definitely will! Thanks!
- blakeweb 16y ago
  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!

mark_l_watson 16y ago

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 16y ago
>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 16y ago
  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.
yummyfajitas 16y ago
I would advise waiting until you have a girlfriend with good taste... How would you know she has good taste?
smokey_the_bear 16y ago
My fiance bought a new outfit right before our first date, and he couldn't resist telling me it was new and asking if I liked it in the middle of the date. I did like it, so he had the taste, just not the inclination in general. I don't think he got a single new article of clothing until we got engaged, when I started buying his clothes.

GBond 16y ago

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

true_religion 16y ago

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 16y ago
I would like to second the "evoking a personal sense of style".

clistctrl 16y ago

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.

Dementati 16y ago

This idea is genius! I really need this!

acconrad 16y ago

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.

Ixiaus 16y ago

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 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.
- rokhayakebe 16y ago
  You do not hate to shop. You hate the fact that you do not know how to decide what to pick.

r00k 16y ago

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

andrest 16y ago

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.

hlfshell 16y ago

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 16y ago
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.

larsberg 16y ago

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.

cletus 16y ago

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.

jdunck 16y ago

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.

meatpeople 16y ago

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.

9ec4c12949a4f3 16y ago

As a hetrosexual male, I would like to say I really don't hate having to shop. I'd actually say that it's media culture propping up this idea, intimidating guys to not shop because "yo dawg, that's what chix do," and then "ohmygawsh jack's belt doesn't match his shoes teeheee what a dweeb." And lastly, the environment for the most part is targeted against them, not towards them. I'd say those are the reasons men say they don't like to shop: they're called homos by bullies, made fun of by prissy schoolgirls, and they don't want to accidentally walk into a wall of bras. Men are way too emotional when it comes to picking out pants, so they throw up their arms and scream "I hate shopping, that's a chick's thing."

whatwhatwhat 16y ago

I already want to use this site.

jvagner 16y ago

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 16y ago
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.
bfioca 16y ago
It makes me wonder what kinds of underserved markets there might be for apps for women, because "gals hate to do X." Wait, that probably wouldn't go over very well. :)
ori_b 16y ago
I do, and I would gladly pay for a service that handled the bulk of the work for me. Especially if it had real people on the other end making the clothing suggestions based on my measurements and/or photos.

sgt 16y ago

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.

edw519 16y ago

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 16y ago
So the lesson here is to target people without girlfriends?
- rokhayakebe 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    You don't want to hold out for the flattery and the promise of drinks afterwards? Negotiation is an important skill.

radioactive21 16y ago

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.

patio11 16y ago

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'."

nialo 16y ago
I would buy this also, sounds amazing.
- josefresco 16y ago
  I think I saw something like this on a T-Mobile commercial with Dwayne Wade. He was showing off an app that shows him his wardrobe. I've also heard about well known celebrities photographing everything in their closet so they never wear the same thing twice. Seems obsessive but I think there's a use for everyday folks. Although opening the closet door and looking at your clothes is pretty much the same thing.
dacort 16y ago
I've been wanting (to build) this for a while. I have lots of different clothes, but usually stick to the same set of outfits. Whenever I try something new, I have trouble knowing if it "goes well together" without some sort of outside confirmation. I've learned some basic tenets of what things "go with" other things, but I still don't branch out of that because of this problem. Populating your library would take some effort, but it would be worth it. Now couple this with another app/function that inventories your kitchen and lets you know what you can make for dinner and you've got a full blown bachelorator app.

juiceandjuice 16y ago

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

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

sn 16y ago

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

G2789 16y ago

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.

stephen 16y ago

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 16y ago
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.

AGorilla 16y ago

I don't hate to shop and I don't need you to dress me. Your branding is insulting and pretty sexist. EDIT: Here's a selection of quotes that just scream "math class is hard!" "Guys hate to shop." Some guys hate to shop, some guys love to shop. "There’s no way a normal man can find a way to pull it all together." So men who can figure out how to dress themselves in the morning are freaks. "(oh yeah, and he can specify how many items he wants at the outset, so as not to overwhelm)" Don't worry your pretty little head, we wouldn't want you to be overwhelmed! "...you’re not in the least excited about it, and somewhat fearful that what you do select will be horrible and you’ll offend your wife, a family member, the woman you’re taking out on a date, or whatever." Notice how only women are judging the way men dress?

AmericanOP 16y ago

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.

IgorPartola 16y ago

What a frustrating article! http://dress.me 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?

chaostheory 16y ago

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

Lewisham 16y ago

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.

drpancake 16y ago
Agree completely. You need to democratise the concept of a 'personal shopper'.
scott_s 16y ago
In case you didn't see this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2350796 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2350796

Void_ 16y ago

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

tedjdziuba 16y ago

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.

vessenes 16y ago

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.

kovar 16y ago

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.

viraptor 16y ago

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.

jdminhbg 16y ago

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.

robwgibbons 16y ago

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.

Florin_Andrei 16y ago

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 16y ago
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.

fecklessyouth 16y ago

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/

Jun8 16y ago

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.

ohnsmith 16y ago

"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.

NY_USA_Hacker 16y ago

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.

blackman 16y ago

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.

NY_USA_Hacker 16y ago

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 16y ago
#2 - you are a good husband.

lurker14 16y ago

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

lurker14 16y ago

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

Nugem 16y ago

and make UnDRESS.me cause guys like porn.