Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Clued into Fashion with Qloo

Recommendation engine Qloo emerged earlier this month from private beta to launch a mobile application that helps consumers discover new things based upon their entire spectrum of tastes. Leveraging a proprietary and patent-pending cross-domain recommender engine, Qloo takes clues from a person's current interests to provide personalized discovery across eight cultural categories: music, film, TV, dining, nightlife, fashion, books and travel. Qloo breaks the mold of single-track recommendation engines that only consider one aspect of a person's interests. 
"While single-track recommendation engines can suggest films based on your movie ratings, or music based on the songs you've thumbed up or down; Qloo gets to know the whole you, which is something we've found really matters when suggesting something new to do," said Alex Elias, CEO of Qloo. "By understanding who you are culturally, Qloo helps you spend less time deciding and more time doing."
Qloo's exclusive approach caught on quickly with tastemakers and celebrities, earning fans including Cedric the Entertainer and Danny Masterson. They were part of a group of 25,000+ tastemakers who contributed more than a million inputs into Qloo's private-beta, setting the foundation for the public launch of the Qloo app. Cedric and Masterson have since made investments in the company and have been joined by other entertainment and tech investors in a $3 million Seed funding round that was also announced today.
The Qloo app dives deep into each of the eight verticals, offering context-specific recommendations and suggestions for any occasion or mood. For example, within the dining category, users can find suggestions for "date night," "brunch spots," or "out with friends," all based on their taste. Within books, members can discover personalized suggestions for topics such as "biographies," "books for the coffee table," or "fun reads." Each Qloo recommendation is unique to a user's complete taste-profile, and the app grows smarter with each cultural insight the user adds.
Core features of the Qloo mobile app include:
  • Get Qloos - Users can discover new personalized recommendations based on their current taste across eight categories. Swiping new qloos right or left to give them a thumbs up or down trains the app to give better suggestions. Every suggestion on Qloo features comprehensive details so users have everything they need in one place. Using the Qloo app, members can instantly play songs, watch movie trailers, buy books, look at menus, make reservations, order delivery and much more. 
  • Give Qloos - Users can quickly and easily create a gallery of their favorite things -- top five favorite movies, restaurants, books and more, and based upon all of this information, Qloo delivers novel, personalized recommendations.
  • Discover People - Users can find people on Qloo who share their taste in music, film, food and beyond, opening up an entire universe of new recommendations and galleries that they are likely to love. Qloo automatically suggests like-minded TasteBuds based on the user's entire spectrum of tastes. Users can follow their favorite tastemakers to keep their finger on their pulse of new Qloos.
Qloo plans to release an Android application by the end of the year, followed by a tablet version. Although users from across the globe can use Qloo, people in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London will be able to leverage hyper-local recommendations right away. More cities will be added on an ongoing basis.
The Qloo iPhone app is available now to download for free on the Apple App Store.

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Monday, November 18, 2013

Product Development of Clothing

Clothing production is not as exciting as attending fashion week or visiting a fashion designers new brand launch party.  However, the manufacturing process is clearly very important to the apparel industry.  Here at the Blog About Fashion, we like to discuss fashion trends, celebrity spotting, etc., but we also like to on occasion report on important aspects that are behind the scenes in our industry.  Today I wanted to briefly discuss a few important components of the garment production process.

  1. Pattern Making
  2. Pattern Grading
  3. Marker Making

pattern in sewing and fashion design is the paper or cardboard template from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric before cutting out and assembling (these are often referenced as paper patterns).  The creating of the patterns are typically made by a professional pattern maker.

Pattern grading is an essential part of pattern making. Grading rules determine how patterns increase or decrease to create different sizes.  Fabric type also influences the pattern grading standards. 

After the pattern maker develops the first patterns, samples are usually made in one size.  If the sample meets expectations and the clothing companies determines the garment is viable for production, they will then move to the pattern grading step in the product development process.

Patterns initially are made in only one size. In order to produce clothing that fits various body types and sizes, the pattern pieces must be increased or decreased geometrically to create a complete range of sizes. The process of re-sizing the initial pattern is called "grading."  For example, the sample size 10 patterns must be made larger to accommodate sizes 12, 14 and 16 and smaller for sizes 8 and 6.

When the manufacturing company is ready to manufacture the style, all of the sizes of each given pattern piece are arranged into a marker, usually by computer. The marker is then laid on top of the layers of fabric and cut.

Learn more about grading clothing and apparel marker making from the fashion directory website.
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    Wednesday, November 13, 2013

    Alba, SJP or Dobrev: Who Wore It Better?

    Check out these celebrities loving their 15IFifteen Jeans! But who wore them best?


    In our opinion, Jessica Alba, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Nina Debrov all looked fantastic.  What is your opinion?

    Thank you for reading our fashion blog. If you have enjoyed this post or have questions about the article, please post your comments or questions in the comment area below.

    Monday, November 11, 2013

    Selena Gomez wore ban.do in Vegas

    Selena Gomez wore ban.do during the Las Vegas leg of her Stars Dance Tour. The sultry songstress accessorized her luscious locks with ban.do's Crystal Overload Head Wrap and later instagrammed a selfie wearing the same style, exclaiming "Its Vegas. Sparkle Time"




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    Acne Fashion

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