Purely Fashion is Purely Genius

Hey Chicago! This is Lauren, Billy Dec‘s intern, here to tell you about the biggest news in fashion. The best part is, it’s all happening here in Chicago.

It all started with a pair of red shoes. What if a business could take a simple pair of mass produced shoes and turn that into knowledge, into a way to track a customer’s desires? These are the questions that Jeremiah Green, CEO and founder of Purely Fashion asked on a shopping trip he took on Michigan Avenue. Jeremiah noticed a huge problem in retail, which is that once a customer leaves a store empty handed, the retailer loses all the data on that person.  What if that could be changed? Enter Purely Fashion.

Jeremiah never thought his career would lead him into the fashion world, but fashion has always been a huge part of his life. “ I always really liked fashion growing up. My mom was a buyer at Gimbels in New York. She is an artist. I owe it all to her.” Apart from growing up around fashion, Jeremiah saw that there were a lot of problems in the industry, and he saw these problems as opportunities. The two problems the industry faces are understanding what fashion is in the moment and then having a conversation with the people making that fashion. “I have never been in a business that had such a fanatical fan base. For me it’s a pleasure. I was always into guy’s fashion. I like how women look, but I’m not going to wear a dress! “

CEO/ Founder Jeremiah Green (center) with Helen Berkun of Glossed and Found

Purely Fashion is truly a game-changer for the fashion world. This app, created for the iPhone and sold in the iTunes store, is not only good news for the fashion obsessed, but also for the designers who create the styles that fashionistas crave. What started as a cool way to follow your favorite designers and discover new ones, is now turning into the next big thing in retail. Simply log in with Facebook and choose your favorites from a list of over 150 designers including iconic names like Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen.  You can then view photos straight from the runway collections of those designers.  The exciting second component to the app will allow users to purchase any of the items they see within the app, before anyone else. This is made possible by the exclusive partnerships Purely Fashion will have with the designers whose collections are featured.

Sampling of designs that can be found in Purely Fashion

Purely Fashion not only works to deliver unique designs to fashion lovers, but also seeks to be a “champion of the designer.” Many designers, contrary to popular belief, struggle financially and have difficulties finding investors. Purely will pay the designers they work with almost immediately in order to help fund their production. Most retailers don’t operate this way. In fact, it is common for retailers to go months without paying a dime to the designers who supply them with the clothes they sell in store. Purely wants to change this, and Jeremiah believes that designers will in turn, be eager to help them by giving Purely users exclusive access to collections before anyone else.

Even though consumers are beginning to share all their favorite products and brands on social media, fashion marketers still haven’t figured out how to best use this information. One advantage to Purely is that it will keep track of items that the whole population “likes” within the app, which will allow those at Purely to quickly determine what is trendy. This will help designers as they begin to produce and fine tune their collections, since they will know what items are the biggest hits, before they are even released to the public. This will be a great help to designers in determining how much they want to produce. Extracting that kind of customer feedback from other social media sites and applications is a challenge, but Purely will be able to streamline it.

Most people would not consider Chicago to be a fashion capital. With LA on the West Coast and New York City on the East Coast, Chicago gets lost in the middle somewhere between the avante garde styles of NYC and the laid back cool looks of LA. However, the times they are a changing. In recent years there has been a rise in the fashion industry in Chicago, from Fashion’s Night Out, to the emergence of many talented designers and city dwellers’ growing interest in staying current. Jeremiah can easily tick off a list of designers in Chicago that are doing amazing things including Borris Powell, Anastasia Chatzka, and Samantha Sleeper.  “I see the millennial group in Chicago being way more engaged with fashion. Ten years ago it was nothing like this. When I mention local designers to people that know them, they get so excited. The winds of change are here. Women are way more sophisticated and informed, it is an interesting cultural change that we are in the middle of.

Purely Fashion featured by Crystal B Designs whose collections are part of the app

It is a change that Jeremiah is taking full advantage of. “ Right now we are at the precipice of a huge change in retail and fashion.  The power base is shifting with the growing influence of bloggers, and there’s a general trend and change in America that is moving towards less is more and higher quality.” Purely Fashion has made quite the splash since it’s release in April of this year, and the exciting in-app “buy” feature will be released later this month. What started with a pair of red shoes and an inquisitive mind has become a revolutionary new way to discover and enjoy designs made by some of the most talented designers in the world. Jeremiah sums it up well. “Purely Fashion is the only business of it’s kind and makes it easy for consumers to understand what cutting edge fashion is now and be able to buy it before you can get it anywhere else. We built the business in a way that helps both sides, the designers and the consumers. That’s why we are here. “

Purely Fashion can be downloaded in the iTunes store, and was chosen as a “New& Noteworthy” app by Apple.  Be sure to “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter so you can stay in the loop with exciting Purely updates.

Thanks!
Lauren Hurt