The exciting thing about spring is obviously the warmer weather, which means you can finally shed some layers and brighten up your color palettes. Our last newsletter with the 3 outfits and 3 budgets got great feedback, so we’re keeping it going seasonally with another one for this spring.
Of note, some of these item prices are listed full price, and others are listed on sale. So prices might fluctuate a bit depending on when you view the item.
I’ve tried a few different smartphone apps that claim to help you shop and/or dress better. MyLo is the latest in this group and has the goal of helping you choose outfits for any occasion, as well as help you identify items that might be missing in your wardrobe. Most apps/services I’ve tried more focus on telling you how and to shop instead of focusing on what you already have. But how do I know what to buy if I don’t know how to work with what I already have? This is a great approach.
What’s better is they make it stupid easy to purchase items that you might want/need but don’t have already. We will touch more on that later.
The initial setup is pretty smooth. MyLo walks you through what the app does and gets you started on selecting through a generic list of clothing items, to then choose what you own. So far so good.
Once that’s complete, MyLo builds out x-number of outfits based on the items you selected, then you’re off to the races. You’re dropped onto a screen showing your first outfit. If there is a particular item (like shoes) that you’re not feeling in that suggested outfit, you can cycle through and change it up.
Two features that make MyLo more effective are the ability to sync your location (for weather related outfits) and selecting which occasion you need an outfit for. And the occasion part is great in that you are not just choosing work/party/etc, you get to dig one layer deeper to select what kind of work day: casual, formal, presentation day, or interview. Narrowing down on the occasion, as well as weather, is a very nice touch that can make a huge difference in an outfit.
Each morning you get up and open MyLo, you will have a new outfit waiting for you. Tapping on the image gives you the details of the outfit. If you’re the type that wants one less decision to make in the morning, you will enjoy this app. And if it selects outfits that you really like, you can favorite them to view later.
Remember when you chose all the wardrobe items that you own during setup? Well the shopping section is geared towards the things you didn’t select. I really love this section because choosing an item there, I’m presented with a few different brands at different price points. I’m given just the right amount of options to not make it s tough decision should I want to make a purchase.
Last thing of note in the shopping section, when you’re viewing an item, it tells you the height of the model wearing the item and what size shirt he’s wearing. That is so extremely useful and I wish every single website that sold men’s clothes did the same.
Just be sure to add in your body type measurements so MyLo can tailor the shopping section to brands that fit your body type. I can’t yet verify how accurate this is, but it’s a nice start.
As mentioned earlier, this app seems perfect for the person that doesn’t want to think about what to wear in the morning. MyLo does a good job of saying “here, wear this”. It’s also for the person that has, and wants to keep, a fairly minimal wardrobe. The items and shopping selection are very much geared towards a simple wardrobe, which makes choosing outfits much better. So if you need a little help with getting dressed, this is for you.
As I’m poking through the app, a few ideas came to mind about what’s missing. The biggest thing for me, based on my wardrobe, is that it’s too simplistic. I do not have a minimal wardrobe, and though I wouldn’t need it, I’d love to be able to input my own actual items into an app like this to have it select outfits. I have lots of patterned/textured shirts (outside of gingham), so I’d like an app like this to address more of the actual clothes I have instead of a generic list.
Another thing that Mylo could benefit from is color coordinating. I’ve heard from many friends and colleagues that they have challenges with putting together color palettes. And this seems like a big part of a daily outfit decision.
I also think it would be great, but only a nice to have, is to take pictures of my own outfits to store/favorite for later viewing. I someone do this on my own and post them to Instagram, but it’s far from an organized system like this app could provide.
Lastly, while this would be a little tricky, I’d like to know the “why”. In other words, why is this a good outfit that Mylo is suggesting.
Overall, I think Mylo is a pretty cool app and addresses what I’ve seen most other apps fail at… “what to wear that’s already in my closet”. While I don’t think this app is for me long term, at least in it’s current state, I will give it a try for a bit to see how it does. I personally enjoy the challenge of figuring out what I’m going to wear and putting outfits together. But I also understand that most men don’t operate like that.
It’s worth a try though. So if you’re an iPhone owner, download it for free and see how it works for you.
Photo by @subraytan on Flickr
We thought it would be a fun exercise to choose a few different price points and challenge ourselves to put together outfits at each of those budgets. And these are our results. It’s worth nothing that some of these items we chose are full price, while others can be had on sale. But we hope this serves as inspiration on what you can do with different price points.