“For designers, it’s a challenge to see the price point diluted, but at the same time, it drives our industry. “It’s a real issue in our industry,” said Cornell University’s Tasha Lewis, an associate professor of fashion design management. But for many designer brands, this is just a factor of doing business. The ethics of effectively copying other designers’ work can get a bit murky, especially when the brand doesn’t shy away from intentionally mimicking designer looks and when Diet Prada has gained notoriety for calling out fashion’s copycats. “Today’s customers have preferences that are evolving at a real-time pace, and Choosy’s approach of producing only what they know consumers want is what will enable them to be more efficient as they scale.”Ĭhoosy still faces some of the struggles associated with traditional fast-fashion models. “Fast fashion has historically taken inspiration from runway shows or leading brands however, the industry has been suffering from billions of dollars of unsold inventory, which reflects a mismatch with what consumers want,” Kim said. The model has attracted a first round of investment from firms including New Enterprise Associates and Forerunner Ventures.Įurie Kim, a general partner at Forerunner, which has invested in Jet.com, Dollar Shave Club and Glossier, said she was intrigued by Choosy’s combination of real-time social inspiration, high-quality rapid manufacturing, accessible prices and the potential to minimize waste. “We were so naïve - we thought we could completely change the whole world, but we realized this is why other brands don’t do it.” Still, she said she’s happy to do this now, rather than making the change if the company was a $100 million business.Īnd in another nod to the generation that has created an art of “unboxing,” Zeng said the company spent two months working on the packaging, which is both “super Instagrammable” and reusable. She admitted the process of building an expanded size range into the model was “painful,” because of the complexities added to the design and manufacturing process. “When we first started the company, about half of our first employees were not fitting a typical straight size, so it just made sense to go to a size 20 for now,” Zeng said. In perhaps one of the only elements that is not streamlined, Choosy is offering sizes 0 through 20, which means that the company must design, create and photograph two versions of every look created. It already has more than 22,000 followers on Instagram. Then, Choosy will manufacture according to how many orders were placed and deliver clothing to customers within as little as a few days.ĭuring a test run based on a pair of Jonathan Simkhai pearl jeans like those worn by Gigi Hadid at Paris Fashion Week, the company reported selling out within a matter of hours. The initial collection, available Tuesday at noon eastern time, includes an iridescent jacket and pants set inspired by one of Beyonce’s On the Run II tour costumes for $89, a $59 white dress that is similar to a Spring 2018 Jacquemus look worn by Kim Kardashian, and a red $69 lace dress by Christopher Kane ( that he sells for $1,025 ) and a black $59 minidress by Versace, both worn by Rihanna.Ĭhoosy is banking on a limited “drop” model, which has proven successful for buzzy brands like Supreme and KKW Beauty, by creating a sense of urgency and scarcity.Įvery Tuesday and Friday at noon eastern, Choosy will release a small collection (starting with five pieces, but eventually more), which customers will be able to buy for a three-day period. In-house designers will select what to create based on data pulled from Instagram, using algorithms that comb trending celebrity posts with comments like “Where can I buy this?” and posts that customers have commented on with “#GetChoosy.” However, Choosy is looking to social media - rather than the runway - for inspiration. In the vein of existing fast-fashion brands, Choosy will offer clothes based on designer trends. “To test out a style, they have to blanket all the stores to see if it sells. “Traditional fast fashion is essentially blanketing - they look at everything that happens on the runway and release everything,” said Zeng, a former investment banker whose family business is in textile manufacturing in China. In March, H&M reported about $4.3 billion in unsold clothes, and it reportedly burns some of the products it can’t sell at a power plant. In this way, said co-founder and CEO Jessie Zeng, Choosy hopes to avoid the unsold garments that plague fast fashion brands.
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