Social networks already document our every meal, purchase, encounter and idle thought so why not our daily wardrobe choices too? That’s the thinking behind WhatImWear.in, a new fashion app for Apple, Blackberry and Android devices launching tonight in Toronto.
“I wanted to create an easy way to engage fashion followers and a platform to see how they’re styling their pieces,” says Aime designer Monica Mei Chiu who collaborated with partners Jamie Alexander and Chris Lancaster on the project through Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone incubator. The program lets users create an online catalogue of looks, tag them by designer and retailer, write a 140-character description of the inspiration behind the outfit and share the shots via Twitter and Facebook.
Outfit blogging isn’t anything new of course. There are too many to count sites where people have personalized the street style phenomenon by setting up a tripod every morning and documenting their own duds. WhatImWear.in takes it to the micro level.
To illustrate the concept, tonight’s industry debut will feature photos of two of Toronto’s most stylish, Holt Renfrew buyer Natalie Lecomte and IWantIGot’s Anita Clarke.
“I love how they take risks in fashion,” says Chiu who is working with the duo to demonstrate how the app can showcase changes in a user’s sense of style. “As members take more snaps of their outfits, they can look back and see how they’ve evolved,” she says.
With an idea like this, there’s always a risk that the concept will be hijacked by Internet trolls whose anonymous, catty critiques turn it into a sartorial HotorNot.com.
“It’s very important to us that individuals can easily express themselves without the feeling of intimidation,” says Chiu. “There are no faves, no stars, no favourites, no hypes, no comments and no fist pumps.”
The beta version of WhatImWear.in will be available to the public for free download on August 25.
