Size it up: Get the right fit with these shopping tools
June 16, 2014 by admin
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In the market for some new beachwear but want to skip the dressing room drama? Do you love shopping online, but hate the game of Russian Roulette you play when picking out a size?
These days, finding adorable outfits online is easier than ever before, but the process of choosing the perfect fit can be a frustrating exercise. But we’re living in the future, so don’t fall into the never-ending “will it fit?” trap: Smart shopping tech is here to save you with virtual dressing rooms and sizing apps.
1. True Fit
With a little bit of honesty, True Fit is all kinds of awesome at helping you pick out the ideal style to match your body type. Simply answer a few questions about your body and the True Fit database will crunch your data to tell you what styles are right for you.
Size is only half the battle, so True Fit not only helps you pick out the right size but also takes into account how each piece of clothing matches up with your body type. If True Fit’s crowdsourced data says the cute top you’re looking at just doesn’t work with your measurements, it’ll warn you and suggest something better, just like a trusty friend.
2. ThirdLove
Most people won’t see you in your undies — unless you’re having a particularly wild Spring Break — but just because they’re private doesn’t mean they can’t be luxurious and sexy. ThirdLove is all about amazing bras and panties, and the ThirdLove app is your perfectly personal measuring tool.
All you need is your smartphone, a mirror and a well-lit room for the app to work its measurement magic. Snap a couple of photos within the app and ThirdLove will match you up with the ideal selection of adorable unmentionables. You can browse, compare and order right from within the app, making it the ultimate in undie shopping convenience.
3. TrueCo
Site TrueCo also focuses on the clothes you wear under the clothes you wear. This company is so sure it will find the perfect-fitting skivvies for you that it lets you try — at home — before you actually buy.
Take a quick survey and honestly dish a little about your love-hate relationship with your lingerie. Based on your responses, TrueCo shows you what should fit. You pick out a few brands and sizes that look good to you, and the company picks out a few more. You plunk down a $45 refundable deposit, TrueCo mails you five different bras. You keep what you want, and send back the rest in a pre-paid mailer. Easy peasy.
4. Fits.me
We all dream of having a fitting room right in our own home, but until 3-D printers get to the point where we can snatch a piece of clothing out of thin air, Fits.me is as close as we’re going to get.
Using the site’s “Virtual Fitting Room,” you enter your measurements to create a digital version of your own body, and then play dress-up to your heart’s content. Pick out a virtual wardrobe from tons of high-fashion brands and see how different sizes will fit on you before using your credit card.
5. Zappos OOTD
If you’d rather let someone else pick out a look for you, Zappos is willing to do the work for free. The popular online clothing shop is using its Instagram skills to match people up with fantastic outfits from its massive collection of brands.
Simply post a body selfie on Instagram with the hashtag #NextOOTD, which stands for “Outfit of the Day,” and you’ll get a reply with a customized outfit picked out specifically for you. It’s the perfect way to discover styles you might never have considered, and since all the items Zappos suggests are available in its online shop, you’ll never have to worry about being disappointed by an empty shelf.
6. ItsMeSee
If you really want to take your digital shopping experience to a never-before-seen level, ItsMeSee might be right up your alley. The company aims to eliminate buyer’s remorse by giving you as many techy shopping tools as you can handle, from basic sizing assistance all the way to creating a virtual clone able to try on an endless number of outfits.
The most basic version of ItsMeSee shows you a generic mannequin to dress up with various items. Enter a few size measurements and your experience becomes a bit more catered, but that’s just the beginning. If you really want to go all-out, you can enter every measurement imaginable, snap a suite of selfies, and let the system build a 3-D version of you that acts as the ultimate fashion guinea pig. ItsMeSee is currently seeking funding, so you can get in on the ground floor.
With all these shopping tools at your disposal, your days of misfit attire will be a thing of the past. So, leave changing rooms in the past, and embrace the new digital age of dress up!
Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech contributor and host of USA TODAY’s digital video show TECH NOW. E-mail her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JenniferJolly.
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Exhibit Shows Lingerie’s Development
June 16, 2014 by admin
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New York — From a 1770 corset to a 2014 bra-and-panty set in lacy stretch silk, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology has put the focus on lingerie and ladies foundation garments in a new exhibition.
In about 70 pieces, “Exposed: A History of Lingerie” touches on the mechanics, marketing and cultural touchstones — hello Wonderbra! — that not only shape and adorn but also helped define culture around the globe.
The exhibition, which spans the 1760s to present day, opened June 3 and runs through Nov. 15. A companion book will be released by Yale University Press this summer.
The Corset’s Rise And Fall
The corset’s profile was first upped in the late Renaissance and remained popular in many forms through the early 20th century.
“It was a pretty essential element of fashionable dress for about 400 years,” said assistant curator Colleen Hill, who organized the exhibit.
The corset, which originated within aristocratic court culture and gradually spread throughout society, was all about a slender waist, she said. By the mid-18th century, the desired silhouette was an inverted cone, lifting the breasts with the help of stays crafted out of silk, whalebone or wood.
Decorative center busks were carved, painted and adorned with text or years. They were key in thrusting a woman’s posture upright to make the most of the shape the corset was intended to achieve, Hill said.
By the early 19th century, the corset still included a center busk but lacked all-around stays for a more softly structured fit that still encased the body and kept a woman’s posture erect.
“It was important for women to have this correct posture,” Hill said. “It was essential for fitting into your clothes, for decorum and for modesty.”
At the dawn of the 20th century, some corset makers continued to promote their wares as “healthy style,” but the designs remained “extremely restricting,” she said. Certain designs made a woman appear rigidly straight in front while resulting in a severely arched back.
By 1920, the corset had essentially become a girdle.
The Peignoir And Loungewear
One late 19th-century article discovered by Hill said American women wore loungewear with a corset underneath while doing morning household chores or preparing for their day.
The corset under a peignoir “is something French women did not do,” she said. “I thought that was very interesting because some of these garments were meant to essentially be a reprieve from these really constricting foundation garments like the corset.”
By the early 20th century, Hill said, loungewear served more functions. The tea gown developed from the peignoir or dressing gown and was worn during 5 o’clock tea.
“It was something that a woman could wear within her home but you would greet your guests at home for tea in this garment, so you still wanted something really fashionable, as luxurious as you could afford, but it was something that could be worn without a corset. We don’t see tea gowns today.”
Seduction And Eroticism
The British company Agent Provocateur, founded in 1994 by Joseph Corre, the son of Vivienne Westwood, and his now ex-wife, Serena Rees, represents a turning point in lingerie’s modern history, Hill said. They opened their first boutique in 1996.
“They were selling lingerie that was highly eroticized, things that were high end and beautifully made, so they’re classy yet they’re taking a cue from things like the old Frederick’s of Hollywood catalogs that are just really overtly erotic,” she said.
The evocative nature combined with high-end craftsmanship offered by Agent Provocateur led to a greater acceptance of eroticized undergarments and lingerie, Hill said. The company now operates boutiques around the world.
The Wonderbra
Pre-Wonderbra, women looking for some help in the bust department relied on “gay deceivers,” an early 20th-century euphemism for falsies that could be placed inside bras, Hill said.
“Even some corsets from the 19th century have these kind of falsies built into them, so the idea of augmenting your natural breast size in some way is very old and probably impossible to trace all the way back,” she said.
Enter the Wonderbra, with its plunge, padding and pushup via underwire. According to some reports, the name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1955 but came out of Canada in 1939 as developed by Moses Nadler, founder of a corset company. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the Wonderbra really took off, Hill said.
Sales were driven by a 1994 ad campaign that featured smiling model Eva Herzigova looking down at her breasts in a Wonderbra with the tagline: “Hello Boys.” The popularity of the ad, including billboards, sent sales skyrocketing. At one point demand exceeded supplies, Hill said.
“There’s an urban legend that when people saw these billboards on the street they would literally cause traffic accidents,” she said.