MyCloset

Summary

It’s half past seven in the morning, somewhere in Oregon: the alarm clock goes off, you get up, have a coffee, and wobble back in to your bedroom, the most important question of the day flickering across your brain: what shall I wear today?

A classic style for the office, something comfortable if you’re going shopping, and an elegant ensemble for your restaurant date in the evening…

Every situation calls for an appropriate outfit. But at 7:30 in the morning, when you’re still feeling groggy and stressed out about being late, you really can’t summon up the creativity you need in order to plan that far ahead. If only there were a machine out there that, with just the push of a button, could tell you what to wear… that would eradicate at least one of your daily morning worries.

So that this fantasy becomes a reality, Android developers have come up with “MyCloset”.

(This test review was written by Paulina Gegenheimer, a young high school student)
 

With “MyCloset”, you can document your entire wardrobe (even your ancient sweats hidden away in the far regions of your closet); you can photograph all your clothes, organize them, and combine them in any way you please.

Under “Item Registration” you can categorize a picture you’ve taken of an item of clothing or accessory according to what type of garment it is (e.g. pants or a top), what color it is, and in how many ways you can wear it (e.g. if it can be worn in both summer and winter).

Once you’ve finished registering everything your closet has to offer you can view, delete and re-arrange everything under “Item Management”.

But that’s not really what “MyCloset” is all about. These are just the preliminary steps you need to take in order to deal with your fashion-related morning indecisiveness. Once that’s done, you can start coordinating outfits for every day under “Log & Coordinate”. That way, all you have to do is switch your “MyCloset” app on a daily basis, enter the date, and see a photo documentation of the day’s combination of clothes.

“MyCloset” is very nicely designed. It’s quite simple but very detailed. Controls are easy to use and it’s also easy to figure out how to use them.

Whenever you have a few minutes to kill (on the subway, during your lunch break) all you need to do is browse through your virtual closet, select a date and start combining items listed under “Tops, Bottoms, Outer, Shoes, Accessories and Others” using the “Coordinate” button. After pressing “OK” you’ll have saved your outfit for the date you selected.

One of the big advantages when using “MyCloset” is that you revisit items you had completely forgotten about, the ones lurking in the nether regions of your wardrobe. So long as you’ve taken a picture of them and included them in your inventory, you may start wearing them again much more frequently.

I was satisfied with the app’s speed, but it really bothered me that error reports kept popping up, so I wasn’t particularly impressed with the app’s stability. I had to shut it down on several occasions.

This app can be downloaded for free from the Android Market.