Technology and Fashion: Can They Really Work Together?

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Hey Introverts! I know I don’t normally post on Tuesdays, but I am bringing you a special post today. Something that you may not know about me is that I am big on technology. I call gadgets toys and boy do I love to play. It keeps me young, haha. Well I got the Amazon Echo Look before the holidays and I have been waiting to try it out. It took a moment to find a good spot for it because most of the shelves in my office area were too low or too high so I settled on one in the bedroom next to a window with enough light. The idea that a device could help me figure out what to wear was laughable to me because fashion is so subjective.

What one person thinks works another person may not agree so how can a computer system determine that. Well this led me to the idea of Take Two Tuesdays. As I begin to make more and more clothes I try to incorporate them into my wardrobe and I like to experiment to see how pieces fit into my closet so…

I thought why not see if Amazon’s device thinks that my handmade clothes can work with store bought ones. Before I get into how I do that let me fill you in on how Echo Look works and each week I’ll share a little bit more so I don’t overwhelm you.

When you open the app for the device you can go to the camera on the bottom and it will preview what it sees in front of it. To take the picture you can press the trigger button on the screen or you can say, “Alexa take a photo”. The system gears up and takes an image. There is a flash on the camera so if there isn’t enough light you’re okay because it will still capture a decent image of you. Don’t expect a professionally shot image, but you’ll at least get a blurred background out of it. I still suggest using daylight to get even flattering light and using the device’s light as fill light. (I know I know my nerd is showing, lol).

After you take the photo, the system puts the look into the “Looks” section. From there you can take multiple photos. If you aren’t happy with how an image turned out you can delete it by clicking on the image. When you have the images you want then you go to the “Style Check” section and create a comparison. Select the two images that you want to test out click next to check it out.

The system usually takes a few minutes to process the information and then it gets back to you with the percentages. It rates the looks based on everything from shape, size, details, styling and trend. Here’s a screenshot with a more detailed explanation of what each one means to the system when it is determining your best look.

At least they give the perimeters on how it is judging your look. There were three looks that I wanted to try, but I didn’t want to start with something too complicated so I kept everything the same except the outerwear. The dress is one that I made (I’ll have details of that up on the blog tomorrow). I started with the vests to try and rule one out. Check out the results below to see how my Echo Look did:

They couldn’t give me specifics as to why the white one was better, it appears there was a system error when uploading the results. I’ll keep you posted if this happens again. It may have been because I was asking it to take too many images at once and the system couldn’t keep up. I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

According to the Echo Look, the denim jacket with the skirt was a better combination of pieces and the shape of the outfit worked better.

The denim won again because it said the colors matched better and the pieces look better together.

I’d have to say that I agree with their observation on this one. The denim jacket gives me more shape and the two vest hide it. What do you think did Amazon’s Echo Look get it right or was this just a lucky first attempt?

Until next time…