Google and Fashion?


November 30th, 2010 | Fashion News, General | No Comments

Google + Fashion = Boutique.com

What?!  Yes, that’s right.  Google has recently launched a new fashion website called Boutiques.com.  Unlike eBay or other fashion retailers, Boutique.com is not an e-commerce site but a place for retailers, designers, celebrities, and bloggers to connect with fashionistas around the world.  It is a fashion search site and community where members can check out and follow your favorite fashion styles.  Boutique.com is very similar to Polyvore and Shopstyle in terms of functionality and style.  It is Google’s attempt to dominate the online fashion world.

Boutique_My_Page

My personal Boutique.com page.  You can also upload your own personal pictures too, which I have yet to do myself.

After learning the launch of this site from WWD, I am eager to find out what it is all about and to share with you if it’s worth your time to use this site.   When you first sign up, it prompted a short quiz to find out your personal style, and it’d show you a series of pictures for you to pick.  Don’t worry.   It’s not an IQ test and it is actually fun to do.  After you finished the quiz, it will evaluate your responses and tell you what your personal style is.  You are now part of the Boutique community where you can make friends with other online fashionistas like you and me or search by trend, designers, retailers and even celebrities who have created accounts.  My favorites are Carey Mulligan and Nicole Richie.

By_Celebrities

How about follow your favorite celebrities and see their styles?

By_Designer

If you follow your favorite designers, you can see their current products and find the retailers that sell them.

By_Trend

Do you want to know the current trends?  Try exploring the site by trends and see the latest and greatest.

Because one of the purposes of Boutique.com is to promote retailers and hopefully purchases, the site makes it very easy for you to purchase the products that you love and will recommend similar products.  You can also save your favorites and share them with friends.

Overall, I would say that it’s a good styling resource for fashionistas everywhere to find great fashion pieces from a wide variety of designer brands and retailers, get inspiration, and learn how to style outfits together to get the look that you want.  In my opinion, the site is not as dynamic as, say, Polyvore but it is a great start for Google to get into fashion.  Google is also working on integrating YouTube and Google search to the site as well.  I’m curious how Boutique.com will evolve in the future.  Try it out and see what you think of it!  Do you think it is useful for you?


The Reality Side of the Fashion Industry


October 25th, 2009 | Fashion News, TV Shows | No Comments

As I am catching with my daily updates of the WWD fashion news, I came across a very interesting article “Is Fashion’s Mystique Gone?” about the changing trend towards revealing the behind-the-scene works of many designers and the fashion industry.  Shows like Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model have been sweeping viewers off their feet by revealing the good, bad, and ugly side of the fashion industry.  The statistics speak for themselves – there is an average of 3.3 million viewers for Project Runway and 3.1 million viewers for American’s Next Top Model.  I’m a regular viewer of Project Runway not only because fashion is what I do for living but also because the show is entertaining.  “Let see what kind of out of this world challenge are they going to make the Designers do this week!”  The drama is what keeps the viewer hungering for more.  Let’s face it – we enjoy seeing aspiring designers and models being emotionally tortured on national TV by Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks.

Project Runway & ANTM

Project Runway and  America’s Next Top Models

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