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| author = Suzanne Xie and Rich Tong
| author = Suzanne Xie and Rich Tong
| owner = [[Like.com]]
| owner = [[Like.com]]
| launch date = January 2008<ref>http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1009_entrepreneurs_eureka_moments/20.htm</ref>
| launch date = January 2008<ref>{{cite web |title=How 20 Business Ideas Were Hatched|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek|url=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1009_entrepreneurs_eureka_moments/20.htm}}</ref>
| current status = Online
| current status = Online
}}
}}
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==History==
==History==
The idea for the community originated in an [[University of Chicago|University of Chicago]] dorm room in September 2004, where Weardrobe co-founder Suzanne Xie kept track of everything she had in her closet via a [[Microsoft Excel|Microsoft Excel]] spreadsheet. In late 2007, she, along with friend and co-founder Rich Tong, noted that there was no application to organize clothing online and began discussing the possibility of developing such a forum.<ref>http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1009_entrepreneurs_eureka_moments/20.htm</ref> Their discussions spawned the basis for Weardrobe, and the site officially went online in January 2008.
The idea for the community originated in an [[University of Chicago|University of Chicago]] dorm room in September 2004, where Weardrobe co-founder Suzanne Xie kept track of everything she had in her closet via a [[Microsoft Excel|Microsoft Excel]] spreadsheet. In late 2007, she, along with friend and co-founder Rich Tong, noted that there was no application to organize clothing online and began discussing the possibility of developing such a forum. <ref>{{cite web |title=How 20 Business Ideas Were Hatched|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek|url=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/10/1009_entrepreneurs_eureka_moments/20.htm}}</ref> Their discussions spawned the basis for Weardrobe, and the site officially went online in January 2008.


In 2009, Weardrobe was named one of 20 winners of [[Facebook|Facebook]]'s fbFund Competition for startups and nonprofit companies. Weardrobe was invited to participate in [[Facebook|Facebook]]'s Summer Incubator Program in Palo Alto, California.<ref>http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/05/28/facebook-announces-19-2009-fbfund-winners/</ref> There, Xie and Tong worked on integrating [[Facebook Connect|Facebook Connect]] to the online fashion network so users could see who of their friends are on the site and include those friends' activity through [[Facebook|Facebook]] news feeds. <ref>http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/06/30/a-visit-to-fbfund-rev-weardrobe-and-networked-blogs-on-fashion-and-blogging/</ref>
In 2009, Weardrobe was named one of 20 winners of [[Facebook|Facebook]]'s fbFund Competition for startups and nonprofit companies. Weardrobe was invited to participate in Facebook's Summer Incubator Program in Palo Alto, California.<ref>{{cite web |title=Facebook Announces 2009 fbFund Winners|publisher=Inside Facebook|url=http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/05/28/facebook-announces-19-2009-fbfund-winners/}}</ref> There, Xie and Tong worked on integrating [[Facebook Connect|Facebook Connect]] to the online fashion network so users could see who of their friends are on the site and include those friends' activity through Facebook news feeds.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Visit to fbFund REV: Weardrobe and Networked Blogs on Fashion and Blogging|publisher=Inside Facebook|url=http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/06/30/a-visit-to-fbfund-rev-weardrobe-and-networked-blogs-on-fashion-and-blogging/}}</ref>


The founders also made a partnership with [[Urban Outfitters|Urban Outfitters]] whereby [[Urban Outfitters|Urban Outfitters]] sends clothing out to specific Weardrobe users. The Weardrobe community individuals then post images of the items styled to their preference and then send the clothing back to the company. <ref>http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?_DARGS=/urban/catalog/common/highlited_itemcount.jsp_A&_DAV=true&itemCount=60&navCount=7&navAction=poppushpush&popId=WOMENS&pushId=WOMENS_WHATSNEW&id=W_COLL_WEARDROBEGATEWAY&090608hp</ref>
The founders also made a partnership with [[Urban Outfitters|Urban Outfitters]] whereby the company sends clothing out to specific Weardrobe users. The Weardrobe community individuals then post images of the items styled to their preference and then send the clothing back to the company.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Way They Wore It|publisher=Urban Outfitters|url=http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?_DARGS=/urban/catalog/common/highlited_itemcount.jsp_A&_DAV=true&itemCount=60&navCount=7&navAction=poppushpush&popId=WOMENS&pushId=WOMENS_WHATSNEW&id=W_COLL_WEARDROBEGATEWAY&090608hp}}</ref>


On November 18, 2009, the community was acquired by [[Like.com]].<ref>http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/18/like-com-acquires-street-style-fashion-community-weardrobe/</ref> Accordingly, the site has undergone several changes, including the addition of search functionality that allows readers to find and purchase similar articles of clothing if they so desire.<ref>http://www.switched.com/2009/11/19/street-style-for-sale-like-com-and-weardrobe-sell-bloggers-loo/</ref> Subsequently, [[Like.com]] was acquired by [[Google]] on August 20th, 2010 for a rumored price of $100,000. <ref>http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/20/its-official-google-acquires-like-com/</ref> The reasoning is said to be for the strength of visual search within the database of [[Like.com]], which now supports Boutique.com. <ref>http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/17/google-boutiques/</ref>
On November 18, 2009, the community was acquired by [[Like.com]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Like.com Acquires Street Style Fashion Community Weardrobe|publisher=TechCrunch|url=http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/18/like-com-acquires-street-style-fashion-community-weardrobe/}}</ref> Accordingly, the site has undergone several changes, including the addition of search functionality that allows readers to find and purchase similar articles of clothing if they so desire.<ref>{{cite web |title=Street Style for Sale: Like.com and Weardrobe Sell Blogger's Looks|publisher=Switched|url=http://www.switched.com/2009/11/19/street-style-for-sale-like-com-and-weardrobe-sell-bloggers-loo/}}</ref> Subsequently, Like.com was acquired by [[Google]] on August 20th, 2010 for a rumored price of $100,000. <ref>{{cite web |title=It's Official: Google Acquires Like.com|publisher=TechCrunch|url=http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/20/its-official-google-acquires-like-com/}}</ref> The reasoning is said to be for the strength of visual search within the database of Like.com, which now supports Boutiques.com.<ref>{{cite web |title=Google Rocks Fashion, Personalized Shopping, And Like's Visual Search With Boutiques.com|publisher=TechCrunch|url=http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/17/google-boutiques/}}</ref>


==Features==
==Features==
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There are other sites with similar features and goals to Weardrobe. Weardrobe contributors are sometimes also contributors on Chictopia or [[Lookbook|Lookbook]] (another similar website similar to the ones already mentioned is Closet Couture <ref>http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/weardrobe/competitors</ref>).<ref>http://www.chictopia.com/photo/show/116980-so+not+me+pt+1-american-apparel-accessories-dirty-violet-from-urban-outfitters-shirt-americ</ref> While these sites are similar in nature the strength and difference of Weardrobe lies in the fact that it is reliant upon feedback from friends and not fashion magazines. Weardrobe is meant to be an open source of style. Chictopia and [[Lookbook|Lookbook]] (like Weardrobe) offer "the common fashionista" the ability to publicly post their looks to an online community of people interested in fashion. <ref>http://lookbook.nu/faq</ref> <ref>http://www.chictopia.com/about</ref> The sites also contain photo blogs and competitions for online contributors.<ref>http://lookbook.nu/faq</ref> <ref>http://www.chictopia.com/about</ref> <ref>http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/weardrobe-com-organize-and-share-your-wardrobe</ref>
There are other sites with similar features and goals to Weardrobe. Weardrobe contributors are sometimes also contributors on Chictopia or [[Lookbook|Lookbook]] (another similar website similar to the ones already mentioned is Closet Couture <ref>http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/weardrobe/competitors</ref>).<ref>http://www.chictopia.com/photo/show/116980-so+not+me+pt+1-american-apparel-accessories-dirty-violet-from-urban-outfitters-shirt-americ</ref> While these sites are similar in nature the strength and difference of Weardrobe lies in the fact that it is reliant upon feedback from friends and not fashion magazines. Weardrobe is meant to be an open source of style. Chictopia and [[Lookbook|Lookbook]] (like Weardrobe) offer "the common fashionista" the ability to publicly post their looks to an online community of people interested in fashion. <ref>http://lookbook.nu/faq</ref> <ref>http://www.chictopia.com/about</ref> The sites also contain photo blogs and competitions for online contributors.<ref>http://lookbook.nu/faq</ref> <ref>http://www.chictopia.com/about</ref> <ref>http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/weardrobe-com-organize-and-share-your-wardrobe</ref>

===Notable Members===
===Notable Members===


Revision as of 03:24, 4 October 2011

Weardrobe
Type of site
Street fashion community
Available inEnglish
OwnerLike.com
Created bySuzanne Xie and Rich Tong
URLhttp://www.weardrobe.com/

Weardrobe is an online street fashion community designed to encourage networking between both novice and established bloggers, as well as to allow members to share outfits and comment on others' photographs.

History

The idea for the community originated in an University of Chicago dorm room in September 2004, where Weardrobe co-founder Suzanne Xie kept track of everything she had in her closet via a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. In late 2007, she, along with friend and co-founder Rich Tong, noted that there was no application to organize clothing online and began discussing the possibility of developing such a forum. [2] Their discussions spawned the basis for Weardrobe, and the site officially went online in January 2008.

In 2009, Weardrobe was named one of 20 winners of Facebook's fbFund Competition for startups and nonprofit companies. Weardrobe was invited to participate in Facebook's Summer Incubator Program in Palo Alto, California.[3] There, Xie and Tong worked on integrating Facebook Connect to the online fashion network so users could see who of their friends are on the site and include those friends' activity through Facebook news feeds.[4]

The founders also made a partnership with Urban Outfitters whereby the company sends clothing out to specific Weardrobe users. The Weardrobe community individuals then post images of the items styled to their preference and then send the clothing back to the company.[5]

On November 18, 2009, the community was acquired by Like.com.[6] Accordingly, the site has undergone several changes, including the addition of search functionality that allows readers to find and purchase similar articles of clothing if they so desire.[7] Subsequently, Like.com was acquired by Google on August 20th, 2010 for a rumored price of $100,000. [8] The reasoning is said to be for the strength of visual search within the database of Like.com, which now supports Boutiques.com.[9]

Features

As a street fashion community, Weardrobe provides members with the opportunity to create their own user profiles and post photographs of themselves. Users also have the ability to comment on others' photographs and send messages to each other, increasing the site's networking functionality. Furthermore, members can create and view a virtual representation of their real-life closet by tagging clothing in the images that they upload to the site and translating those articles into color-coded items for organizational purposes.[10]

One of the site's most recently added features is an extension of Likesense (Like.com's visual search capabilities). It aesthetically identifies items in a given outfit photograph, culls similar ones from one of Like.com's 5000 suppliers, and then displays the results to the user with the option for them to purchase those articles. This allows people to easily buy replicas of clothing that they see and like in the site's photographs, even though the piece in the outfit might have originally been a vintage one-of-a-kind. Likesense first displays two items, and if one of the two is clicked, further variations on that piece of clothing are shown. Currently, it only runs this process on the front page, which displays daily featured looks; however, there are plans to expand so that the entire site will eventually be searchable with Like.com.[11]

Community

On occasion, the site sponsors contests in which members submit photographs of outfits based on given themes. Sometimes the competitions are in-house, such as "In the Trenches", where the member with the best look featuring a trench coat received $100 to Anthropologie.[12]

Other times, Weardrobe pairs up with other fashion-related sites such as Modcloth and Market Publique to offer different prizes for winning. Both Modcloth and Market Publique are online vintage American retailers. Weardrobe's collaboration with Modcloth, the Mod Honor Roll Contest, asked for members' favorite back-to-school inspired outfits; the prize for the top three submissions included a special Modcloth outfit that the bloggers then styled and modeled.[13] Modcloth also held another competition whereby they supplied the New York City Weardrobe community with a vintage black Modcloth dress (called the "Weardrobe Dress") and asked the community to come up with a way to style it. [14] The dress was a simple black garment, and contestants submitted photos of how they would style an outfit using this "Weardrobe Dress." [15] Their collaboration with Market Publique, Time After Time, asked for vintage-inspired outfit entries and the winner was flown into Brooklyn for a photo shoot session with Market Publique.[16] In its collaboration with other fashion focused sites, Weardrobe provides a platform where people interested in fashion come together and demonstrate their skill. It also provides an outlet for fashion-related sites to show off their clothing items to a specified online community niche that is interested in clothing and fashion.

In early September of 2009, Weardrobe sponsored a conference in New York City for 19 popular fashion bloggers - many of whom have been featured in Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, and Lucky Magazine, and whose sites collectively receive 5 million page views a month.[17] There, the bloggers participated in a DIY (Do It Yourself) exercise in customizing a pair of Solana Extreme Skinny Jeans,[18] which were voted the #1 Jean of the Summer by Seventeen Magazine for 2009.[19] The conference was meant to create a space for some of the fashion industry's most active style bloggers (including the minds behind the sites Style Rookie, Kansas Couture, Fashion Pirates, Calivintage, and Fashion is Poison) to collaborate and exchange ideas about fashion.[20]

There are other sites with similar features and goals to Weardrobe. Weardrobe contributors are sometimes also contributors on Chictopia or Lookbook (another similar website similar to the ones already mentioned is Closet Couture [21]).[22] While these sites are similar in nature the strength and difference of Weardrobe lies in the fact that it is reliant upon feedback from friends and not fashion magazines. Weardrobe is meant to be an open source of style. Chictopia and Lookbook (like Weardrobe) offer "the common fashionista" the ability to publicly post their looks to an online community of people interested in fashion. [23] [24] The sites also contain photo blogs and competitions for online contributors.[25] [26] [27]

Notable Members

Weardrobe has previously been known to hire staff from among their notable members, including Krystal Bick from This Time Tomorrow, who acted as the site's community manager,[28] and Jessica Quirk of the blog What I Wore, who served as community director and also did some creative work, including writing and illustrating weekly contest images.[29] Since the launch of her online blogging career, Quirk has also written a book entitled What I Wore: Four Seasons, One Closet, Endless Recipes for Personal Style, in which she answers frequently asked style questions, features several of her own favorite outfits and illustrations, and gives tips for organizing a closet.[30]

References

  1. ^ "How 20 Business Ideas Were Hatched". Bloomberg Businessweek.
  2. ^ "How 20 Business Ideas Were Hatched". Bloomberg Businessweek.
  3. ^ "Facebook Announces 2009 fbFund Winners". Inside Facebook.
  4. ^ "A Visit to fbFund REV: Weardrobe and Networked Blogs on Fashion and Blogging". Inside Facebook.
  5. ^ "The Way They Wore It". Urban Outfitters.
  6. ^ "Like.com Acquires Street Style Fashion Community Weardrobe". TechCrunch.
  7. ^ "Street Style for Sale: Like.com and Weardrobe Sell Blogger's Looks". Switched.
  8. ^ "It's Official: Google Acquires Like.com". TechCrunch.
  9. ^ "Google Rocks Fashion, Personalized Shopping, And Like's Visual Search With Boutiques.com". TechCrunch.
  10. ^ http://mashable.com/2008/04/30/weardrobe-out-to-be-the-shelfari-of-fashion/
  11. ^ http://www.switched.com/2009/11/19/street-style-for-sale-like-com-and-weardrobe-sell-bloggers-loo/
  12. ^ http://www.mystylepill.com/2010/06/my-outfit-in-the-trenches/
  13. ^ http://blog.modcloth.com/2010/09/10/the-style-mavens-on-our-mod-honor-roll/
  14. ^ http://www.keikolynn.com/2009/10/modcloth-weardrobe-dress.html
  15. ^ http://www.modcloth.com/Womens/Dresses/Solid/-Weardrobe-Dress
  16. ^ http://blog.marketpublique.com/content/lookbook-brooklyn-bayou-featuring-weardrobe-contest-winner-rachel-of-studio-swag
  17. ^ http://www.apparelnews.net/blog/383_fashion_bloggers_converge_for_inaugural_conference_in_nyc.html
  18. ^ http://community.psunserv.net/posts/2009/09/22/weardrobecom-features-diy-bullhead-denim
  19. ^ http://community.psunserv.net/posts/2009/08/12/voted-best-skinny-jean-seventeen-magazine-readers?page=1#http://images3.pacsun.com/is/image/pacsun/SeventeenMag_BullheadSolana?$09_comm_main$
  20. ^ http://www.apparelnews.net/blog/383_fashion_bloggers_converge_for_inaugural_conference_in_nyc.html
  21. ^ http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/weardrobe/competitors
  22. ^ http://www.chictopia.com/photo/show/116980-so+not+me+pt+1-american-apparel-accessories-dirty-violet-from-urban-outfitters-shirt-americ
  23. ^ http://lookbook.nu/faq
  24. ^ http://www.chictopia.com/about
  25. ^ http://lookbook.nu/faq
  26. ^ http://www.chictopia.com/about
  27. ^ http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/weardrobe-com-organize-and-share-your-wardrobe
  28. ^ http://stylenik.com/2011/01/18/google-fashion-once-an-oxymoron-now-a-truism/
  29. ^ http://www.maggieroseonline.com/2009/09/01/getting-to-know-you-jessica-schroeder-of-what-i-wore/
  30. ^ http://www.seattleite.com/cooking-up-style-with-jessica-quirk/
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