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It’s a familiar feeling: looking at your full closet but feeling like you have nothing to wear. With summer at an end, there are lots of things to take into account when putting together an outfit: dress codes, your personal style preferences, your budget, and the weather.
Here to ease those troubles: Dress for the Day (DFTD). This fashion-tech website, the brainchild of 29-year-old Scarsdale native Shradha Mehta (left) and her friend Anisha Bhasin Mukherjee (right), 30, is a one-stop shop to solve all those outfit crises. “Around Labor Day weekend, we always had so many social events on the calendar, and the weather was changing. We kept asking each other for advice about what to wear and where to purchase things,” says Mukherjee. And like that, DFTD was born.
The website and smartphone app combine different factors—the weather, your personal style, and the occasion—and generate a number of “street style” looks tailored to your customizations. Users can then click on the looks they like and shop those—and similar—items through retail partners. (While retail partners include big names such as Macy’s, Target, and Bloomingdale’s, the co-founders also place an emphasis on scouting smaller designers with unique products.) Users can also upload their own photos to be featured in the collection of looks on the website.
The website has around 5,000 to 7,000 unique users each month, a number that Mehta and Mukherjee expect to rise once their men’s section debuts later this year. According to the co-founders, ever since they launched the site in 2013, they recognized the need for a men’s section. “Men are more private. They’re not sending selfies of themselves to their guy friends, so the tool is perfect for them. They can use it at their leisure in the privacy of their own homes, and it’s functional and quick,” Mukherjee says.
We downloaded the app to try it out—here’s what we think:
The Good: There are lots of options for customization, including dozens of occasions to choose from. The weather is based on GPS location tracking, so it’s reliable and up-to-date.
The Bad: Since the app navigates you to partner sites for shopping, there is no consistent sizing throughout brands. Additionally, there’s no customization option for budget, so, if you’re tight on cash, you might need to click through a few items before you find something at the right price.
