Some days you wake up and the Internet gods deliver just what you need. For me that may be in the form of Yuuze.com, a website that lets you upload photos of your wardrobe and gives you suggestions for different looks. Need business casual? Click here...  picnic, school, sports, wedding, all the answers to common outfit challenges are there at the end of your mouse pointer. 

Just a few weeks ago, I was wondering where I could go online to purchase complete outfits because, after decades of trying to craft my own “style,” I still wind up recycling the same boring outfits I find most comfortable. Not physically comfortable, mind you, but mentally comfortable, stuck in that dead zone between “I look fab!” and “I don’t look stupid.”

Yuuze saves you the expense of buying more clothes that you may or may not come to love, by letting you work with the clothes you already have. The site aims to be a social media wardrobe where outfits are custom built for you through its patented algorithm and suggestions from your Yuuze friends. 


Image via Shutterstock

"Everyone struggles, at one time or another, to decide what to wear, and we hope to ease that burden,” says concept creator Dhiraj Daway. “Part of the joy of fashion is the opportunity for social interaction. We want to give users the same feeling they get when discussing outfit choices with friends in an easy to use, fully customizable profile that lets them provide and receive advice with a simple click.” You can even share your clothes with friends using the option to list your clothing article for sharing or trade.

It sounds like a great concept, but the problem with Yuuze is that’s all it currently is – a concept. As Google (News - Alert) found out with Google+, the old “If you build it they will come” adage just doesn’t apply on the Internet; getting people to flock to your social media portal is 99 percent of the battle. The Yuuze website is well designed and fun, signup is simple and it even boasts mobile apps, yet as of today it has less than 500 users. Only a handful of people have created complete profiles and of those who have you don’t have the option to view the profile before adding them as a friend. How do I know if I want someone’s fashion advice without getting a look at them?

The other drawback is that Yuuze is relying on users uploading their personal clothing photos to flesh out its online wardrobe. You can actually drag and drop images from the internet or your computer but I know I don’t have time to take photos of my entire closet, nor do I want to track down my clothing on store websites. What I would be willing to do is click on “Target (News - Alert) > t-shirts” and select the nineteen different colors I own. If Yuuze could somehow integrate the option to choose clothing from common stores and catalogs into their profile setup they might entice more people to begin testing the service.

There’s little information available about the team behind Yuuze, so they may have great plans to do a social media crossover campaign. If so, this thing could catch fire like dry tinder. But without getting significant user involvement – and designing a simpler flow for creating personal profiles – Yuuze will be another empty Internet field of dreams.