Heather Somerville reports on consumer affairs, retail and technology for the Bay Area News Group. She lives in San Francisco, where she enjoys rock climbing, yoga and biking across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Strike a ‘Pose’ for this app
Nowhere is the old saying “imitation is the greatest form of flattery” so true as in matters of fashion.
Cue internal monologue: “He/she has great new pants. I want to look great. Must buy those pants.”
The free app Pose offers an instant stream of fashion ideas and suggestions from fashion lovers, designers, models and The Man Repeller (we’ll get to that last one later) to make it easier to look more like … well, like them.
But Pose can also help you look more like you, too. It’s a multi-featured, multi-platform style guide that combines the sleek look of Instagram’s photo-sharing interface with Pinterest’s sharing and “liking” experience. You also get Twitter-style streams to follow your favorite styles/stylists and a shopping feature that directs you to the retailer’s website to make a purchase.
The free iPad app was released last month during New York Fashion Week, a strategy that paid off with 250,000 new downloads. The latest surge of users suggests that Pose may have found a sweet spot catering to both the fashion illiterate and the fashionistas, and everyone in between
Pose now has more than 1 million users globally, creating a virtual community of international fashion swapping. One member’s Levi’s is another’s muumuu.
How it works: When first signing into Pose – through Facebook or with just an email – you take a short, somewhat generic quiz that is supposed to customize the app to your style. It asks: Are your outfits classy or edgy? Do you make a statement with big earrings or dark lipstick? Etcetera, etcetera. Pose suggests a list of people to follow, anyone from “an everyday school teacher in Minnesota to premiere designers,” said spokeswoman Jamie Rubin.
The camera feature allows users to upload pictures of themselves posing – hence the app name (no, it’s not short for poser). Each garment, pair of shoes and accessory in the photo can be tagged for category and brand.
Released in beta for mobile and web in 2011, Pose is the brainchild of venture capitalist Dustin Rosen and fashion writer turned entrepreneur Alisa Gould-Simon. They got some big names from the fashion world involved, including Rachel Zoe (celebrity stylist), the senior fashion director at Barney’s New York and, yes, The Man Repeller, the blog and celebrity identity belonging to high-profile fashion writer Leandra Medine.
Pose is one in a growing line of fashion apps crowding the market – Style Book and Cloth are among the other popular options. Pose, though, goes a step further than other competitors with its ecommerce feature, a recent upgrade that brings in a bit of revenue.
Only Pose-approved users have access to link the item to the retailer’s website; you’ve got to prove you have some fashion sense before you are bestowed with this privilege. These select users – about 100 or so – get to keep a portion of every sale they generate. So does Pose.
Rubin said the kickback is minimal (sometimes as small as 5%) and Pose is looking to other business models, such as retail sponsorships, to drive revenue.
Download here for Android and Apple.
Heather Somerville reports on consumer affairs, retail and technology for the Bay Area News Group. She lives in San Francisco, where she enjoys rock climbing, yoga and biking across the Golden Gate Bridge.
