Category

Interviews

Category

Aiming to take a new approach to fashion and social media, Yuri Moreira and Brian Mann created what they call “the love child between Instagram and Pinterest.”

What could be better than the top two leading social media apps you might ask? Well, as of earlier this fall, Swggr is the new social media app looking to cater to the fashion movers and shakers of cities like New York and L.A.

Visually appealing to the eye, Swggr is an interactive app where users can share items from their closets and be styled by peers for special events, create mood boards to showcase their inner stylist and/or collaborate with other fashion lovers by styling what they have in their closet.

Users are able to look at the collections of celebrity influencers such as Vanessa Simmons (“Run’s House”) and Dorothy Wang (“Rich Kids of Beverly Hills”).

Not only that, but users are able to look at the collections of celebrity influencers such as Vanessa Simmons (“Run’s House”) and Dorothy Wang (“Rich Kids of Beverly Hills”).

Unlike other apps where your creative work only earns you ‘likes’ and ‘comments’, on Swggr, putting effort into a mood board can also mean earning shopping rewards like gift cards and discount coupons for major U.S. department stores like Nordstrom and Macy’s.

For now, the L.A.-based company has only released the app via IOS, but an Android is planned in the next few months, as the company’s top executives Moreira and Mann work towards their ultimate goal: a complete fashion and social network takeover.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO CREATE SWGGR? Yuri Moreira: I noticed that a lot of men and women would ask each other what they’re wearing and where they got it, and we’re all influencers, we’re all brand ambassadors, we’re the reason why brands succeed. I wanted to create a place, which is a virtual online closet where [a person] would no longer have to tell someone to go to Nordstrom or Gucci to purchase a hat; instead they go to your online closet at Swggr [to see where you got it from].

We’re really trying to identify who the real stylists are and make this a tool.

HOW DOES YOUR APP DIFFER FROM ANYTHING THAT IS OUT THERE RIGHT NOW? Yuri Moreira: The two major differentials from us is how you can physically go into someone’s closet and help them style and create their look with items that they upload from their personal wardrobe and/or items from our boutique. And what we’re doing on top of that is we’re rewarding you for any and all of your engagement. All these platforms, Instagram, Pinterest, Polyvore, we’re all sharing and engaging, but we get nothing for it. So on Swggr all like points and commenter points – every time you upload a shirt for instance to your collection you tell us brand, category, colour, we’re rewarding you for that. When you invite friends and followers to download the app, we’re rewarding you for that. So we’re really trying to give back to our users.

HOW WOULD YOUR APP BE HELPING FUTURE FASHION INFLUENCERS CREATE A CAREER PATH IN THE INDUSRTY? Yuri Moreira: On our app everyone is a stylist. Anyone can go into anyone [else’s] closet – unless yours is private – to style and create a look. Every time you style and create a mood board and people like the mood board, you gain stylist cred. We’re really trying to identify who the real stylists are and make this a tool. Stylists today, style these photos and create these mood boards and send them through e-mail or texts and there isn’t a place where they can have a seamless conversation with their clients. Now they have them on a platform. Using our app as a tool to take photos, remove backgrounds, style and also create these mood boards, stylists can now share with their clients and months later go back into that same look and manipulate it into different pieces.