Do you ever see an item of clothing you really like but don’t know where to buy it from?
Many women also suffer the frustration of seeing the perfect outfit on the designer catwalks and on the pages of fashion magazines, but not being able to find an affordable equivalent.
New app Snap Fashion allows users to simply take a photo of clothes and the search engine generates matches and links to where it, or cheaper equivalents, can be bought.
"We shop with our eyes, so why not search with a photo?" asked Jenny Griffiths, founder and CEO of Snap Fashion.
There are only so many ways you can describe an item of clothing to a search engine like Google, which can be frustrating when trying to find something specific. But computer science graduate Jenny has solved the problem by allowing people to search by simply submitting a photo of their desired item.
"I’m a real believer that image search is the future. Sometimes taking a photo of something is so much easier than trying to describe aspects of the picture in words, especially with the rise of smartphones – we’re all carrying around cameras with us 24/7," said Griffiths.
Users can also search using images on web pages through the installable ‘Snap it’ button on their toolbar. The site contains information from 170 retailers, including Net-A-Porter, Liberty, Topshop and Urban Outfitters to find the most similar products. There’s a sales tracker too, which allows users add items they like into their wishlist and then alerts them when the item drops in price.
While it currently only caters to female shoppers, the fashion startup will launch a menswear function shortly. The app will soon be available to Android users and a tablet-friendly version is in the works too. With 130,000 users, it is certainly gaining traction among the fashion community.
"We’re the only visual search engine for fashion that breaks down results based on cut, colour and texture," explained Griffiths. "I know that sounds really techy, but basically this is great news because we let users hone in on the aspect of the clothing that they like the most – I’m personally a strong believer that in fashion it’s all about the cut!"
