Most men hate to shop. It takes way too much time, we are out of our element, and we end up getting really dorky clothes because we feel like not buying something is an admission of failure. Online shopping is better, but most of us would rather browse through cameras, Web phones, and computers than shirts and chinos (at least I would). Enter the Trunk Club, a new way to shop online.
The Trunk Club gives men their own personal shopper via Skype video sessions who try to figure out what kind of clothes they wear, what is lacking in their wardrobe, and what kind of clothes they might be willing to try. (These are real people, not virtual personal shoppers like Covet). Then they put together about nine different pieces of apparel and send it to the customer in a FedEx box. Once a man (the service is only for men) gets his “trunk” of clothes, he tries them on via another Skype session (he is supposed to change off camera, but I am sure some perv customers will “forget”), gives his feedback to his personal shopper, and then decide which ones to keep. He can return any or all of the clothes at no expense to him. He only pays for what he keeps.
The business model is the same as a retail store. The Trunk Club buys clothing at wholesale and sells it at a normal retail markup. Except that the company has deals with clothing manufacturers which doesn’t require it to buy any minimum inventory. In fact, there is no inventory. Clothes only gets shipped when there is a customer who needs a particular item. It is not a discount service. But the personal shoppers come for free (thanks to Skype and the Internet). Customers don’t pay anything extra for them as they would in a fancy department store. The personal shoppers get a commission based on how much clothes they sell. And the men who are its customers never have to step foot in a store again.
I went through a mock session with one personal shopper from the Trunk Club, Lisa Bruckner. She was very personable and it was fun talking to her. I told her what kind of clothes I wear (jeans or suits, depending on where I am going), what is missing in my closet (polo shirts for summer), my measurements, and other details. Normally, she would then have a box of clothes sent to me and then we would have more back and forth on Skype to fine tune the selection process. But since I was on deadline, I asked her just to send me pictures of what she would have sent (see below). Of the nine items she sent, maybe three of them are things I would actually buy. I’m not really a $48 T-Shirt kind of guy. The Hugo Boss dress shirt looks decent, as do the Penguin Polo, and the pants. But that orange Polo just wouldn’t fly in New York (maybe Palm Springs). I was hoping for better results, but then I am really picky. I am sure that with a little back and forth Lisa would soon be able to hone into my quirky style. However, my wife (who has final say in what I am allowed to wear out the door) was not a fan of the selection, and didn’t like the idea of another woman picking out clothes for me. But she likes shopping, so she doesn’t see the appeal of the service.
The part I don’t like about the service is that you don’t get to see what your personal shopper picked for you until it arrives in the mail. I guess there is an element of surprise akin to opening up a present, but you really have to trust your personal shopper to know what you want. At least initially, it would make more sense for there to be some back and forth digitally between the customer and the personal shopper (with the personal shopper presenting a few ideas and then narrowing them down quickly).
The other problem the Trunk Club is going to have to deal with is men who sign up not because they want to spend $572 for a box of clothes, but just because they are lonely and want to talk to a woman over video Skype. (All the personal shoppers are attractive women). There is a whole perv element that these personal shoppers are going to have to learn to deal with, but all they need to do is hang up and block those men from Skype.
The Trunk Club was started by Joanna Van Vleck, a personal stylist who opened up a showroom for her clients in Bend, Oregon. She was planning to open up retail outlets across the country where men could come in for their personal shopping sessions, but her angel investor backed out after the economy tanked. By necessity, she turned to the Skype model and only needed $50,000 in angel capital to get going. She has been in private beta with about 600 customers for the past six months. She now has 21 shopping experts working on commission, and is adding 5 to 6 every month. The Trunk Club’s hybrid approach is both high touch and scalable at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more retail concepts like this spring up in different categories, with real people helping you make a buying decision over Web video.
Here’s a promotional video that explains the concept:
HEY! That sounds really interesting. But it is at present an “US-only” service, right? So guys c’mon and please help to make it work, so that one day we gonna have it one day in Europe too.
But I usually go commando? Can I still return my clothes. I don’t want the web camera to see me changing.
Joe,
Ha ha ha ha — that was a good one.
Clothing can be returned. This is something that you will decide with the assistance of your Trunk Club Expert.
Stepping away from the camera during outfit changes keeps everyone feeling 100% comfortable.
Enroll today — you’ll love it!
~Thea
Dear Splish Splash,
As long as postal service comes to your area, so can the Trunk Club! I work with members all over the globe. We would love to have you join us!
Best,
Lisa
Obviously: the nerds reading this blog find the idea appealing because it requires them to do nothing except type.
Nerds: Go upstairs. Walk outside. Get on your sister’s bicycle. Ride toward shopping mall. Get beat up. Dust yourself off. Go into men’s clothing store. Use Mom’s discover card to purchase shirt and pants. Ride sister’s bike home. Log into daily diary under “Greatest adventure EVER.”
Nerds.
Best reply ever.
I think I’ll try that.
so.. “The personal shoppers get a commission based on how much clothes they sell.”
Sounds like they are incentivised to tell you that a particular item looks great on you
Actually that’s not the case, I am a customer now and have found they are brutally honest. Some of the items I thought worked got nixed by the personal shopper.
They have an incentive to create a relationship with you so you come back for more. They also are very conscious of my budget. I’ve been pleased and look forward to continuing to use the service.
Uh, yeah. Like any sales clerk.
Thank you, Chuck. All of our TC experts are trained to serve the member. We want all members walking around being confident and looking good in their clothing. We would much rather have a long standing relationship with all of our members than a one time sale. Our experts are here to be your best ally, by also being your best critic.
Kind of like that episode of Family Matters where Laura gets the job over her friend because she is honest about what looks good versus trying to just go after the sale.
+1
Yeah, I would be careful of referring to trunk club as TC on Tech Crunch.
Investors of this hairbrained idea will get better return sticking money up ass and setting it on fire.
Interact with other humans. Shop like grownups. Put on big boy pants.
Interact.
Nerds. Gotta love em.
Yes, that’s exactly it: incentivised. Not “motivated,” which is completely different, but incentivised.
I’m a Certified Trunk Club Expert that is brutally honest with all of my clients as I want our members looking and feeling GREAT!
~Thea
Dear Riaz Kenani and Jehosephat,
Lisa here (the one in the picture who is in mid-sentence-thanks Erick!
. Please allow me to explain this mysterious member-consultant relationship further with a typical example.
This week (I don’t want to name the day for member privacy reasons), I talked a member out of a pair of pants he was seriously considering. Sure, I could have talked him into it, but that’s not my job. My role as a style consultant for Trunk Club is to build a long-term relationship based on trust and honesty. I told him “I don’t think it’s the best look for you. I also worry you won’t wear it enough or like it enough to justify the price. I don’t want you to fill your closet with things you don’t love.”
I hope this helps explain what we do and how we serve your clothing needs better.
Best,
Lisa
Duh. Welcome to the way the world works. Building relationships is far more important than one sale, however.
Definitely fills a need, but it doesn’t address the priority that that men have for visual inputs and a minimal degree of control. As a colorblind man, I’ve had countless people tell me to never shop alone again, which I’m fine with because I find the experience so horrible anyway. I’d rather go to the dentist than shop for clothes.
A Skype solution won’t work for me. I absolutely need to try stuff on.
A better solution would be to have a one-hour sign up for a personal shopper that could get me in and out of the store in as painless a manner as possible.
Anthony,
You’ll never truly know unless you try it once. Shipping is free so you would be crazy not to checkout the services. Believe me……….. you’ll prefer your Trunk Club Expert over the dentist.
~Thea@TrunkClub.com
You need to try stuff on? Duh…that’s what they’re offering.
Some comments on the article.
1. Use a spell-checker
2. I’m disappointed the author didn’t highlight the possibility of misaligned incentives with the female shoppers earning pay as commission on how many items they “sell”. This is worth discussing.
3. The problem of these women being harassed etc. could easily be avoided by employing gay men as well.
a great idea for someone to stay up at night with his pants down
Cool, i like it!
Erick, first, check for typos before publishing your articles. Typos take credibility away… one at a time.
Second, it is a dumb idea – when women in your life pick up your clothes [mom!] you go into an unpredictable universe. Just imagine, “she” choosing what you are going to wear while having one of “those” days: white bell bottom jeans paired with a tight orange-green striped polo shirt!… Or that shiny purple shirt with a wide collar…
You know it happens, guys, particularly on birthdays. And if we get one of these “special” gifts, we will *have* to wear them…
@splish.splash – It may never come to Europe. And it would be a very good thing, because Europeans have a much better sense of fashion and style.
nobody cares about typos. go read a newspaper.
Not true. Many people do care, and perhaps those that don’t should.
Typos, grammatical errors, even messed up punctuation are all a sign of poor attention to detail. If an author can’t make sure that words are correct, how can you be certain that other, more important, facts are correct?
Take, for example, a sentence like, “Today, the service can not be used in Europe.” What if this had a simple, invisible typo with an inadvertently omitted word: “Today, the service can be used in Europe.” Obviously the sentence has a new (and wrong) meaning. You wouldn’t care about that?
That said, typos, bad grammar, word omissions, sloppy punctuation, etc., are all intrinsic to blogging today. So we all learn to live with it, be a bit skeptical, and double-check what we read by reading other blogs as well.
not not true. nobody cares.
I concur.
True no one cares, Grammar police need a day job.
Totally agree – if you want to comment on typos go teach school where the students have no choice but to listen to your blah, blah, blah…
I agree. If the person writes for a living, one would reasonably expect that they know the English language well enough to be able to post a seven paragraph article without sloppy language and typos.
What typos? Point ‘em out and I’ll fix ‘em.
All 3 of your points are either wrong, stupid or a combination of both
I’ll second that.
1) Nitpicky readers pretending to be editors have no credibility at all.
2) If my wife didn’t buy my clothes, I would dress like a bum.
3) A European version of this service would presumably hire European personal shoppers with this superior fashion sense you reference.
Paul, I disagree.
Having a personal shopper is not the same as having “the women in your life” dress you every day. It’s about choosing a wardrobe, not making your daily decisions within that set. (I would probably benefit more from the latter, but it would mess with my solitary lifestyle.)
I don’t see myself as a customer of this service, but my reasons are atypical- I can’t fathom paying prices on that order of magnitude for clothing, and I disagree with the labor practices of most major labels. But for someone who is comfortable with “department store prices” I can see this service being a less confrontational way to handle the process.
I think this is a brilliant new way to combine the benefits of mailorder and brick and mortar. In the end, this will only be good for consumers- men can get a female-selected wardrobe without feeling embarrassed or confused in a retail setting, they don’t have to worry about a high pressure selling environment (a woman on your computer screen can’t match the pressure level of an in-person salesman, especially when a return policy is presented), and the selection can potentially be much larger. And, a new category of business is created to flourish in the bad economy.
Excellent work.
cool, I like it too
I love shopping for clothes. …. is something wrong with me?
Nope. Some guys may consider it kind of “fruity” however IMO, it shows, independently of our personal taste, confidence on ourselves and an affirmation of our individuality… which [related to my previous comment] does not sit well with many women. You know, it is a kind of a control thing.
“Fruity”… is that a technical term?
No, it’s code for homosexual.
You soab – would like to see you in your leaf underwear … trying to pull a girl …
I’ve got no problems shopping for my own clothes.
If my wife had her way, I’d look like some trendy jackass or prep. F%#K TH@T!!
Yes, there is something wrong with you: you have no need for the site being advertised in this pay-post here.
ehhh
Sam,
Nope………. nothing is wrong with you at all!
There are several women who do not like to shop and there is nothing wrong with them either.
There are some AWESOME perks with Trunk Club though. Meet with a Trunk Club Expert and learn more about what we have to offer.
SHOP ON Sam!!!
~Thea
I just realized how funny it is that trunk club would be “advertising” (by responding to every comment with an additional plug) on TC. I guess they think TC readers are their target customer! Makes sense…
I don’t like being negative but come on. I know there are more interesting startups than this….
Combining the power of the web with real-time communication, human-powered consulting, and financial arrangements that can actually work for everyone… yes, so uninteresting.
There’s no need to apologize for complaining. When you speak up simply because you feel a post is not that interesting, you’ve made your day’s small pleasures pretty clear, no?
He didn’t say the post wasn’t interesting, just the company.
I think the company IS interesting because there is a big gap in retail e-commerce solutions, especially with clothes. People prefer purchasing some things at brick-and-mortar stores, and clothing is the classic example. This startup is attacking a problem that some mammoth industries have yet to overcome.
If someone can tear down the brick-and-mortar walls of boutique clothing, what could be next? What other products could follow this model?
The part I don’t like is the part where you pay $179 for a shirt. ONE SHIRT. Or $78 for a pair of shorts.
No thanks.
$48 for a T-Shirt?
Just bought 12 of them on eBay for about $40, shipping included. Item 220417229537.
Great quality, heavyweight 100% cotton…
Give me a break…
Yeah that one jumped out at me too. But, but it’s a 7 for all mankind grey t-shirt, it must be worth it.
I can’t believe what people buy sometimes.
Marshall!
Thank you for letting us know what you do and don’t like to spend on clothing. One of the benefits of being a member is that we discover that about you in the membership process and only send you clothing that fits your price points. We can send you lots of different price points.
As a guy who would rather spend 8 hours working than 1 hour shopping, I think this is a great idea. I hope its a success!
Mark,
Thank you for your kind remarks.
like many other guys, I don’t have the shopping gene. When I need clothes, I carefully plan a trip to the mall, maybe three times a year.
My approach is: first stop, the Apple store. Then after about one hour, I engage on a commando operation: a few shirts, chinos, jeans and shoes…
Rarely return or exchange anything. I still find in a my closet brand new stuff that I bought years ago….
Another thing…. “The Trunk Club” will work maybe with some dorks too lazy to get away from the computer. Otherwise, IMO, it will fail.
Very interesting.This concept of business is just really cool.
Ha wish this is effective. I am heading for a shopping spree right now and I hate it.
Ha wish this is effective. I am heading for a shopping spree right now and I hate it. I would like to avoid trips like this at all costs.
We welcome you to become a TC man and avoid your shopping trips.
http://trunkclu...php?application
Note:
Polo shirts != quirky
okay, you got me there. Bad example. I usually don’t where polo shirts, actually, but I feel like I should.
Where are the polo shirts? At the store.
Ha, this was one of my “it would be cool if someone..” business ideas. In my version, a newly registered user would be presented with a wide variety of clothing and basically rate the look, hot or not style, to build a profile of preferences. After receiving the items, the buyer again would rate the individual items, and the system would collect data for the centralized recommendation engine. Every X clients would be assigned to a personal stylist/shopper, who would act as another input into the recommendation engine. Based on one’s personal preferences, the stylist’s preferences, and what other clients keep and higly rate, a personal profile would be built – imagine Trunk Club + Netflix’s recommendation engine.
Just to make sure I understand this correctly… They created a fashion site that caters to the part of the market that makes up 1 percent of the dollars spent in fashion (men) and ignored the part that represents 99% of all all dollars spent (women)?
No. They’re going after the dollars that are not currently being spent on clothes by men without women to shop for them.
I agree David. I hate to shop! I would gladly pay for an online personal shopper and I think lots of other busy women (or just lazy like me) would too. I would also love a second opinion on clothing too – without having to bug my friends.
Yeah, I found the male only side of this limiting from a business plan point of view. Why stop with men?
Interesting idea, however I would never pay that much for clothing!! The most I will pay for a dress shirt is $25 and for pants $30-40. @victortrac I like your idea!
“Most men hate to shop”
Idiotic subjective statement.
Yeah, what is it with the need some men have to associate their lack of shopping with the desires of a majority? If you flip it around, you get “men who hate to shop fear that they aren’t normal.”
It is a fact. How many of you men out there like to shop? (Only answer if you are a real man).
I am a man and I hate to shop.
I dig on shopping. Which I view as a chance to get the most for the least. Which is why I said no way to a “normally priced” shirt that costs $179.
How is this business related to tech? What the web video?
Anyway, perhaps the reason the first investor bailed is because this business doesn’t seem scalable. If its based on people’s consulting without any automation, how is she going to scale it?
Very impressed by Joanna o Van Vleck. It takes guts to change business model in adversity, and make little resources and weakness your strength.
Instead of paying a girl to give you fashion advice, how about you make some new lady friends who will help you out for free.
Our TC Experts expert advice is free. There is no membership fee to join and no ongoing fees.
Yeh, TC believes that since the readers are techies, the idea of a virtual shopping advice is cool. It’s not cool at all. It’s even more dorky than the clothes you’d buy on your own.
My advice to those who love the concept – Get a girlfriend, wife, sister, or mom to help you pick clothes, and try to get out more, in general.
PS. Gramer and spellingz doz mattur.
I’ve tried that w/ many girlfriends. One was a professional at dressing people for movies. She gave me amazing tips and chose amazing clothes for me. Others—regardless of how confident they were—have been much less helpful. I’d hope that trunkclub would do a better job than the vast majority of random girlfriends.
Sounds like a great idea — until 4chan hear about it. Then it’ll go to hell.
well, consider the man power/time cost per customer… if the ‘potential’ customer spend an hour discussing with her and end up buying nothing and which it keeps happening the whole time. Then how could this business sustain itself?
i really wonder which ’smart’ angel invest in this…it’s not like every people gonna drop you a buck when they connect to this ’skype shop’ experience…
and i seriously don’t think the ‘professional’ personal shopper can make a strong point of her suggestion by seeing her customer thru that little low res. visual of their head…
nice try doing this marketing article
This could work if the range of styles and choice were good enough. I would hate to use the service and get recommendation after recommendation of pieces from the same 4 or 5 fashion labels. Not only will the flexibility of the service and advice be really limited, but chances are the price tags on these items will also be more than what most guys think is acceptable to spend on clothing.
The idea is a good one and I wish them success, but the business model doesn’t seem to be sustainable as presented here.
It appears that consumers will pay very high prices for items that they can obtain much cheaper elsewhere (as much as 200%), and yes, it may be a trade-off in the time and resources aspect, but with the current economic situation, this seems to be the wrong time for this type of model.
So many other burdens are being placed upon consumers nowadays that people are cutting back as much as possible. Paying twice the retail price for a garment just may not work in this climate and a business like this, which should flourish, may suffer as a result.
My recommendation would be to change the business model and bring on-board the garment manufacturers / designers. Rather than the consumer footing the whole bill, at significant markup, the industry as a whole could provide a certain reward or incentive program to this company for the revenue they generate from purchases and the customer could then realize a modest, say 10 to 15% markup. Another point of assistance is to maybe strike deals with the distributors or stores in the industry to obtain the items at wholesale or close to wholesale and that will also bring down the cost passed on to the consumer. These, together or individually, may bring more consumers into the game and perhaps keep a company like this afloat during such uncertain economic times.
At least IMHO.
John M.
Actually, our members do not pay 200% more for their clothing. We buy directly from vendors at wholesale prices and extend to our members at traditional retail prices. You will not pay more buying from us. We can provide clothing at any price point that you communicate to us. We absolutely work within your budget! We are not a discount service, but you will not pay more than retail. We save you money, by giving you time!
Really? That’s good to know, so do you only recommend the $50 t-shirts and $180 woven shirts after you’ve first sized me up as a vain moron?
Umm…’traditional retail prices’ is at least 300% mark up from the wholesale price and at least 500% mark up from the manufacturing price…
and i am sure this business model’s cost per customer is higher than most online retail, so they must charge more…
They just need to beat physical retail margins. Earlier thread comparisons to buying plain tees off eBay are faulty (and demonstrative of pervasive male fashion ignorance
.
I love the concept, I like shopping – but I can’t help wonder how much better my “look” would be if I had a professional putting it together.
Our believe, the confidence of an expert is always helpful!
huh?
Sounds cool for guys that cannot figure out what is fashionable and what works for them. For those of us with our own sense of style, we can get by on our own.
Finally, a site that allows Tech Crunch readers an opportunity to speak to a girl.
After you buy a few thousand dollars worth of stuff, maybe you’ll get the courage to ask her out.
I’m a girl and I’d be happy if I never had to set foot in a clothing store again. Do you have anything for me or is this just for guys?
There are many of us women who would LOVE a service like this. I can’t think of anything I hate more than shopping for clothes.
just wondering about the shipping and handling involved in this kind of business.
John,
One of the HOT features — shipping is FREE!
Wow just like Zappos! HOT!
i guess nothing comes free… the ‘extra’ charges just embedded into the product itself, so it appears ‘free’…
nice try
@utsuri You’re ridiculous. Everything you’ve ever bought at a physical retailer had the shipping “embedded into the product itself”. Same goes for every other “free shipping” model you’ve seen in your life. Congrats on finally arriving at this unremarkable conclusion.
Sorry Israel, but you obviously don’t understand the fundamental difference between ecommerce and traditional retail. The shipping cost embedded in the inventory of a brick and mortar store is a fraction of what it costs an etailer to ship each individual order to customers. Physical stores don’t order one polo shirt at a time; they place bulk orders that spread shipping costs over their entire inventory. The freight for any one item is negligible. When you go into Old Navy and buy one T-shirt, you don’t pay the cost of packaging and shipping that one item somewhere. The fact that TrunkClub boasts that it has no minimum order requirements with manufacturers means that it likely maintains no inventory at all, which is not unusual for an e-tailer. Operations like this one forward their orders to the manufacturer or another distributor who then “drop ships” the items to the customer. Since multiple manufacturers or distributors may be involved in a single order, there may also be multiple shipping bills on that order. And in this model the shipping costs must be further increased to cover the potential cost of return shipments. On small retail purchases, shoppers can often offset the increased shipping costs of ecommerce because they can avoid paying sales tax. However, more online sellers are collecting tax all the time (e.g. Dell), and the states are going to keep pushing to make all of them do it. Someday, the tax collectors will win.
I like the T shirt,but I have no money.
oh,My god.
I don’t like clothes shopping either, but this doesn’t seem like it would save much time – could help with style improvement though.
This looks very cool! Maybe if I signed up my work outfit wouldn’t be boxers and a t-shirt with a mustard stain?
..nahh, I’d still get a “trunk” with socks, boxers and a t-shirt…just no mustard.
Joanna, I admire your creativity and spirit for never giving up. That’s great how you recreated your business model after your angel investor backed out. An inspiration for many of us entrepreneurs! Great story and look forward to seeing my friends use this one
Come on you wussified dudes. Go shop for yourself. I hate to shop for clothes but letting a woman do it for me just ain’t gonna happen. I’m a man and can select my own wardrobe. Besides… all you have to go is run in, grab some stuff you like and split. If later you find you bought the wrong size or don’t like it… take it back. Big freaking deal. Now grow up and be a man, men.
Excellent idea—-but it wont scale. See Bluefly.com
I think this is a great idea but I’d like to add that the perv in me wants to try it because it’s fun video chatting with attractive yet critical women over skype.
ADAM,
Enroll today!!!
YOU’LL LOVE TRUNK CLUB!
men in New York would use this very much, great idea.
John,
We have several clients that live in NYC and also in the outskirts. Don’t miss out on the Trunk Club experience.
~Thea
John,
We have several clients that live in NYC and also in the outskirts. Don’t miss out on the Trunk Club experience.
~Thea
One suggestion: the owner should file a patent for this business model.
Free-rider concern: what if a customer just uses the service to find clothes and buys them cheap in local store?
My girlfriend does this for me.
it’s really not that hard….
imho this business model would collapse within 18 months. i think you would actually end up spending more time and efforts shoping this way. plus its not instant as you have to wait for the stuff to be fedexed. and finally at the end of the day someone does need to shell out money for the shiping(two way mind you) just incase customer ends up buying nothing. i would not put my money on this business model
I agree. This is monumentally stupid idea, together with a shameless crazy plugging by that clueless “Thea” chick.
18 months? Raj, you are a generous dude. I will takes less time for this bunch to burn through the little money they got from confused investors.
forgot to add: even if u end up buying few in the box it would be such a ain in the arse to ship the remaing stuff back (even though its free). sounds more pain than physical shopping or web shopping the amazon way – browse-choose-pay-get it delivered-use
So does no-one want to talk about what seems to be a GLARING issue here???
THIS IS WHAT A “STYLIST” PICKED FOR YOU?
OK, let’s just agree that you are someone that likes the idea of 1. having a personal stylist (they are quite nice having when they do their job well) and 2. are not into spending a lot of time with said personal stylist either in fitting rooms or stores.
The fact that these pieces are what the “personal stylist” (i’ll explain the quotes in a bit) picked is appalling! There is nothing on this list that doesn’t look like it didn’t come out of Loehmann’s or any other discount store. The plaid Hugo Boss shirt? Give me a break! Two polo shirts? OK, maybe you like polos, but I’m sure a stylist worth their pay could offer you some alternatives that didn’t look so lame. In the end, you’re effectively paying a stylist to make you fashion forward to some degree and looking like you came out of a middle-America outlet mall just isn’t fashion forward (and by fashion forward I do not mean “affected”).
So they claim you are not paying any more to have a “stylist”? Actually, perhaps the reason why they are able to purchase without minimums – as I just alluded to – is that these are all outlet bound items anyway. Nothing here on this list looks in season. And what designers would allow anyone, let alone a new company, come in and buy off their current season’s selections at no minimums and/or commitments? So I would say that you ARE paying for the stylist! Mavi bootcut jeans? Really? How much can you find this exact article for in just about any outlet mall in the country? Do the math… that’s what you are paying for a “stylist”.
Which brings me to those pesky quotes. Why do they have so many “stylists” that have little to zero background in actually styling others (and generally speaking, live in rural America – sorry Bend, OR)? Again, I don’t mind paying for a stylist – which is what you are doing with this service – but maybe if they had more than a couple experienced stylists that knew a thing or two about what is current and how it could be translated to their clients, they could be more successful (though I would love to see their designer lists which is suspiciously nowhere to be found — can they really get me the McQueen ties I want? Paul Smith suits? or the Steven Allen shirts I tend to live in? Hell, forget McQueen… what can they get me that doesn’t look like it’s from a ghetto outlet mall!)
To be fair, this is all based on one stylist’s sampling, but looking at the site it just seems that there are some blaring oversights for a company selling fashion and style (and don’t get me started on the grammar, spelling, and overall cheesy (and cheap) aesthetic of the whole thing)!
too bad… good idea in the hands of people that know what they are doing (in fashion terms, not just business models)…
totally agree… looks like she just threw some darts at a Banana Republic and then tried to find even more overpriced versions of whatever she hit.
What I hate about the modern clothes shopping experience, and which is really a problem with this site too, is that all the sales people are young women. Yes, this is a bad thing! How many women would feel comfortable with a spotty young lad going around their fiddly parts and telling them what to wear (unless he was certifiably gay)? Nope, I just don’t trust them.
Bring back the old geezers who have been tailoring men’s garments since before I was wearing anything. The guys you’re not afraid to show a bit of extra belly to. They’re the people you know you can trust. After all, they eat their own dog food (= they’re guys too, and thus dress in the clothes they sell).
Amen to the old geezers! Although they only exist in Italy now.
I don’t care who or what a stylist is – as long as they do their job well!
FAILURE in the making. This is way too complicated.
Or, you could shop together online for free at http://www.browseology.com
Wow, does this company only hire hot middle age women or what?