Tuesday 14 August 2012

Stylebook


I thought I'd do things a little differently today and review my favourite iPhone app. I downloaded it last year, and have loved it ever since!

Sometimes it's easy to forget about items that are hiding in the back of the wardrobe, and its even easier to get stuck in a rut, wearing the same outfits and sticking with what is 'safe'.
This app helps you catalogue your entire wardrobe from tops, to shoes, to accessories etc. That way you can see what you have, and create as many looks as you want with the items in you wardrobe. So you can see what works, what doesn't, and come up with new looks you probably wouldn't have thought of before - all without having to turf everything out of your wardrobe or make a mess - which, lets face it, a lot of us do!

It's also handy to have on your phone while you're out shopping and trying to decide on new items, as you can see your entire wardrobe and can buy things that actually go with what you already own, rather than buying things that don't go with anything, or (something I've done far too many times) accidentally bought different versions of the same thing!

I thought I'd take you through the ins and outs of the app so you can see why it's my favourite:

Organising Your Wardrobe

In the 'Closet' section you'll find all of your items, which you can organise however you want. I have categories for Tops, Dresses, Bottoms, Outerwear, Accessories etc. Within each of these categories you can add subcategories. So within my Shoes category, I have Flats, Boots, Heels etc. Above you can see all of my high heels (my shoe collection has been a bit neglected).

Adding New Items

To add items to your 'Closet', you need a photo of each item. The easiest way to do this is to try and find a photo of your clothes online, as these are photographed with a plain white background and have great lighting, and are so much easier to edit. 
However, if you can't find the item online, you'll need to take the photo's yourself. It works best if you have a plain white background, and try to take it in a well lit room (natural lighting is best). You can edit the background away within the app, but if the item is a bit of a fiddly shape I prefer to edit it on my laptop first using photoshop (there are free programs out there that are similar).

Creating Outfits

Once you've added your items to the app, you can start creating looks with them. Above are a few examples of looks I've made with my clothes, and you can arrange them into categories to help make it easier to decide on a look. For example if I can't decide what to wear on a night out, I'll just look at the outfits I've made in the 'Evening' section.

Inspiration

You can also use this app to collect images that inspire you, so if you see photos of inspiring looks that you love, you just save the photo in the 'Inspiration' section, and then when you're out shopping you can use it to help you find the types of clothes you need to recreate the look for yourself. 

I use this section a lot, and use it to inspire my makeup and hair styles too.

Planning Your Looks

The calendar section is handy to plan what outfits to wear in advance, so you don't have to stress about what to wear, and you can see at a glance what looks you have planned. It also helps that you can see what you've been wearing so don't accidentally keep wearing the same outfit.

Packing

As you can see I haven't really used this section, but here you can plan what items you want to take with you on holiday, or for a weekend away. If I ever DO go away this year, I'll definitely be using this as I have a habit of packing far to much, and not getting much wear out of it, or still feeling like I have nothing to wear because none of it goes together!

Style Stats

I really like this section of the app. It tells you what your most and least worn items/looks are. So if your wardrobe is getting a bit crowded, you can look here and see what you've never worn (and most likely never will wear) then you can decide whether you even really need it. Though you may also find you've just not worn them because nothing you own goes with it, so it could help you see what kind of items you do actually need in your wardrobe.

Final Verdict

I haven't got around to putting my whole wardrobe on here yet, and some of the photos that are on here I want to retake, but I'm planning on finishing it before the end of summer so I can finally start making outfits with my entire wardrobe.

This app cost £2.49, and there is a men's version of this app too.
It does seem a lot for an app, but there are no more add ons to purchase, and I really do think it's worth it for all the features. I definitely haven't regretted buying it.
-I've downloaded a 'free' app like this before, but it wasn't as good, and you could only add 5 items on there. If you wanted to add more you had to pay, which I thought was really misleading, and the end cost would have worked out so much more than this app for less features. I thought that was ridiculous, so I just deleted it.

This app, however, I'm seriously impressed with. The only downside to this app is that it's not available on android yet, only iPhone. But they are bringing out an iPad friendly version soon.
If you do have an iPhone and need inspiration when it comes to outfits, then I highly recommend this to you!

Have you tried this app before? What did you think?


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18 comments:

  1. I love the idea of this ! x

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  2. I saw one like this called My Fashion Assistant and it cost half

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  3. Albertine Brandon14 August 2012 at 23:59

    love this app! Wish I had an iphone so I could use it

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  4. This looks like such a fun & super useful app, I'll have to get it! xo

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  5. Ooh I've just got myself an iPhone 4 so I may have to get this app too! :)
    x

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  6. I had a look at that one this morning. It didn't look too bad, and it's available for android users too which is good!
    On the iphone market though it's £1 cheaper (half the price on android). It doesn't seem to have as many features as Stylebook, & personally I prefer the layout of it to My Fashion Assistant. But it's definitely a good alternative for android users, thanks for the tip :) xx

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  7. Same! I've been wanting an app like this since I bought my first iPhone. This is definitely the best put together app of this kind out there xx

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  8. I know, it's such a shame its not on android yet! Someone pointed out though there's a similar app for half the price on android called My Fashion Assistant which might be worth looking into xx

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  9. I definitely recommend it, I love it! Just need to get round to photographing the rest of my clothes - something I'm sure you'll be great at though! :) xx

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  10. Ah really? This is my favourite app (aside from twitter & instagram), so I'd really recommend it :) (I really don't recommend iwear though, you'll get ripped off) xx

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  11. Cool app, cannot wait to try it!

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  12. Hope you like it! :) xx

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  13. Wow, I want them to release it on Android fast. It seems amazing, so jealous you have it! I love how it chooses outfits for you, ever since I've watched Clueless when Cher does it on her computer? I wanted something like this, I've always been 'safe' with my outfits.


    Just Smile.

    xo

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  14. The Cookie Button24 August 2012 at 22:05

    Wow, this is awesome and VERY handy :) Just wish I had an iPhone! x

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  15. I know, it's such a shame it's only on iphone at the moment. Hopefully they'll put it on the android market soon though, it definitely comes in handy, especially when trying to decide what to pack for trips, I'm usually hopeless! xx

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  16. It doesn't put the outfits together for you, you build them yourself - but that would be an amazing feature if it could put together an outfit for you for when you're feeling a bit uninspired, that's such an awesome idea! xx

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  17. wow I didn't know this app existed! when I'm out shopping I always find it really hard to explain to the salesperson the colour, shape and what the clothing I want to match looks like! That should come handy! I hope there is one for smartphones as well!

    Beautyfulladdict.blogspot.gr

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@ Beauty Not Just Skin Deep.