Move over, Miranda Priestly and make way Derek Zoolander: what started as a niche service is bounding into the broader market as Amazon’s Echo Look, focused on style and fashion features, is now available to everyone in the U.S. Formerly available only to fashionistas and invitation-only transactions with Amazon, the vogue-friendly smart speaker is on the general market for the same price of $200.
The speaker uses Alexa’s voice-activation features to help users look their best with a primary feature called a “lookbook” that catalogs existing outfits, makes suggestions for purchases, and shares fashion content with others. By simply commanding, “Alexa, take a photo,” or “Alexa, take a video,” users can capture full-length photos or 6-second videos via a built-in camera to remember and share.
The device and accompanying software also has a wide variety of other features to help yearning Carrie Bradshaws pick the perfect pair of Manolos to go with that dress. Users can keep track of what they’ve worn daily in the Echo look app, sort looks by color or into custom collections such as Favorites, Seasons, or Weather, or get inspired by fashion content from heavy hitters like Vogue and GQ.
A “Style Check” feature can also be used to get a second opinion about which outfit looks best. Naturally, this feature relies on machine learning algorithms but Amazon has seeded the process with input from human fashion experts. The process takes around a minute, with the Echo Look taking account of fit, color, styling, and current trends.
On the social front, Echo Look aficionados can tap into Community Voting to submit outfit polls to the Amazon Spark Community for a fashion-forward version of “Am I Hot or Not?” This service is surprisingly customizable, though, with the ability to pose specific questions like “Is this appropriate for a job interview?” or “Which is better for a fall wedding?” and see votes in real time.
The Echo Look made its grand debut at New York Fashion Week: The Shows in February, where Amazon used the device to photograph the backstage action at a Prabal Gurung catwalk showing. Designer and stylist Rachel Zoe also featured the device in a recent episode of Real Life with Rachel Zoe, using Alexa as her style assistant.
“Alexa is my new styling assistant. I wish I had Echo Look early on in my career as a stylist,” said Zoe, CEO of Rachel Zoe, Inc. “For anyone who needs a little help deciding what to wear, Style Check is a total game changer.”
Naturally, the Echo Look includes all the other features that Alexa users can use to complement their fashion-friendly lifestyle, from ordering coffee from Starbucks, checking on today’s weather to see if you need that yellow umbrella, managing to-do and shopping lists, or playing a little X to get you in the right mood. Couples, roommates and BFFs can also “share” one Echo Look while keeping their lookbooks separate.
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