Alexa Tells Me What To Wear

I call myself a fashion and lifestyle blogger but sometimes it feels like that’s just out of habit. I’m terrible at posting outfit photos and I don’t really do the roundups like I used to. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in what I wear, but I don’t feel confident enough to post it online to ask for guidance (rather I will only post if I have over thought the outfit or if it’s my Stitch Fix box reviews)

Alex bought me the Amazon Echo Look a while ago but I have only just gotten round to setting it up. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s a little device which has a camera and Alexa built into it. On its own, it’s nothing special, but combined with the special app, it’s a surprisingly interesting item to have.

I have it set up in a spare room (the idea of having a networked camera in the bedroom creeped us out a little!) so I just walk in and say “Alexa, take my picture”. The device bleeps 3 times and turns the four lights surrounding the camera on, then takes my picture. You can also record little videos to show how an outfit moves, but I haven’t done that yet.

The app pretty much instantly tells me my daily look is available, and from there, I can ask the system to compare two different outfits. I’m not actually sure whether this is computer generated or whether there’s just a team of people deciding which outfit looks best, but the response is quick, and you get some feedback as to why that outfit was chosen to be the better option.

Later on in the day (once it has time to analyse the outfit items I guess?), the app gives another notification and this time shows you other items you could buy to go with the jumper or skirt or whatever you’re wearing.

The Echo Look still has all the same abilities as your normal Alexa devices, so I can use it to turn on the lights in the den, or turn on the heating. The sound quality isn’t amazing, so I probably wouldn’t use it to play music, but I am an Apple Music person so I would just use my phone for that.

Another feature in the app that I like is that I can use the camera on my mobile phone to take a daily look picture. This is really useful when you’re trying on clothes but want a second opinion on which item looks better. I can also make notes on each photo (whether I own the items or not) to describe the brands, so this could be really useful if I wanted to look back at things I’ve tried on in the past to buy them.

There are a few things that I would like to see from future versions of the app though…

The Clueless Wardrobe

Remember that scene in Clueless where Cher goes to her computer and gets it to generate the perfect outfit for her? I want that in this app. I know it has the ability to pick out the specific items that I’m wearing, so I’d like it to be able to make suggestions from my own wardrobe. It could be really interesting to find new combinations to wear!

Sizing

Something that I’m actually surprised isn’t built in to this app is the ability to tell it how tall you are and how much you weigh. The style comparison function does tell you whether something flatters your shape better, so it obviously can understand that side of things, but it would be useful to be able to tell the app my measurements (perhaps even things like waist size in inches and bra size) so the recommendations would be more useful. I haven’t really looked at the items that the app has been suggesting for me, but it would be so frustrating if the items don’t come in my size.

Accessorising

At the moment, the app only seems to pay attention to the clothing items I wear (although sometimes does say “this shoe choice does work better”) but it would be useful if it could suggest whether an outfit would work well with a scarf or a certain colour bag or maybe even jewellery suggestions. (And hey, it’s more things that Amazon could sell you!)

Overall, I really like the idea of the Echo Look, and will keep using it, but it feels like just the beginning of what it really could be doing.