While people without clothes on dominate a great deal of traffic online, the same can be said about those with clothes--otherwise known as the world of fashion. StyleMob, a new social network for street fashion, is opening up its doors on Thursday. Aimed mostly at female users, the service is a social network about clothes and people who like to show off their outfits. Users can pick who has the most style, and submit their own outfits or fashion inventions for others to rate and comment on. There's also the virtual equivalent of a fashion police with groups of users called StyleCouncils who will pick apart an outfit and provide feedback--good and bad.
Consider it a mix between Hot-or-Not, and Del.icio.us--with a dash of Joan Rivers.
A great deal of the site revolves around the voting system, which lets users vote whether or not an outfit is good or bad on a scale of 1 to 4. Users are also able to bookmark clothing items they like and tag them for sorting. The highest ranked items show up on a daily wall of fame, and the occasional user will get picked by StyleMob's editors to be the daily MobStar, or person of interest.
Like any social network, users get to fill out all sorts of profile information, although StyleMob focuses on things like favorite designers, places to shop, and fashion tips. Each user also gets their own "Lookbook," which is essentially a photo gallery for clothes, both theirs, and those of friends. All of this is held together with a friend system, and a large set of forums where you can discuss all things fashion.
Will StyleMob float? I think so. There are already over 6,000 users who have been testing during the service's three-month private beta, and I'm sure that number will go up when the service opens up its doors. There are also plans to include contextual ads, and clothing store tie-ins. Facebook and MySpace command a great deal of time and traffic from this crowd. It's the strange addictive quality of browsing through other people's pictures that have made services like Flickr and Hot-or-Not so popular with people from many demographics. I'd expect to see a similar attraction to StyleMob.
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