Tinder for Your Closet?

I've been in a happy relationship since the Dark Ages when OkCupid was the hottest form of online dating around, so I have no use for Tinder. But Tinder for pretty clothes? Now that's a phenomenon I'd willingly partake in. And now I can, with Kwoller, a shopping app that allows you to swipe left or right on different fashion items.

The idea behind Kwoller is delightfully simple: you rate women's fashion on a yes or no basis. Like Tinder, you swipe right if you'd buy the item on the screen, and left if you wouldn't. Unlike Tinder, the handbags and blouses you're into won't send you gross, creepy messages. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Once you've amassed a few "yes" items, the app will save your preferences in a personalized shopping guide. According to TechCrunch,

If you swipe right an item is added to your ‘love list’ and the Kwoller koala mascot (selected because koalas are famously choosy about what they consume) will also keep its beady eye on the item’s price-tag — sending a push notification of any price drops so you can swoop in and snag that bargain.

Eventually, Kwoller will begin to understand your tastes and show you a higher percentage of items you'll actually want to purchase. The app takes the functions of several popular social media platforms — Tinder with the "swipe right" technology, Pinterest and Tumblr for saving images — and combines them for what seems like a pretty sweet shopping experience. Kwoller also directs you to where you can buy the products, so you won't have to search on your own. Horray for another way to avoid going into actual stores and having actual human contact!

Co-creator Brian Louko, who founded the app with Tim Bernel at NYC's Disrupt Hackathon in May, told TechCrunch

We think mobile shopping now just sucks. Every company tries to make it more and more complex, with a search functionality, filters, QR codes, this idea of covering the ‘story’ around the shopping experience. But we go on the mindset of atomisation or ‘sipification’, which you’ve kind of seen with how YouTube has transferred to Vine, blogging and Twitter, and then most recently online dating into Tinder. So simple is better on the mobile phone.

The simplicity of Kwoller is exactly what makes the app sound so intriguing to me. Gone are days of the convoluted wishlists compiled on different websites. Kwoller allows you to really consolidate your online shopping experience, at least for women's apparel. Count me in!