Cincinnati, Ohio – From the country that brought you Armani and Valentino, the latest in cutting edge fashion technology Jaqard is born. Finally an iOS app which socializes style suggestions. Where users are able to get personalized recommendations on what to wear from multitudes of fashion smart people, with a direct link to the perfect item in an e-catalogue. Where budding and seasoned stylists can share their talent, get the credit and grow their own popularity.

Jaqard is the first app for asking and receiving fashion advice in a completely visual way. All you need do is take a photo, for example a new dress that you are not sure what you should wear with, ask a question, and the community will answer, suggesting a snazzy look built by fishing out clothes from a huge catalogue included within the app. We aggregate in a single platform the best brands and online retailers.]

The idea is to put at the public’s disposal a team of stylists ready to offer the best suggestions for one’s own needs. More personalized than a magazine, without the costs of a personal stylist which only celebrities can afford. All this, by harnessing the many lovers of fashion, who in turn, can put to the challenge their own skills and transform themselves into influential style gurus. Indeed, we will soon be introducing a series of rewards and incentives, creating popularity boards, distributing badges and offering prizes to the most appreciated ones.

Jaqard is uniquely positioned versus other social, retail or social curation sites. Unlike others who cover only parts of these features, Jaqard:

* Is linked (via all the current affiliate marketers) to multiple online catalogues, so that consumers can choose from the widest range of clothes and accessories
* Allows advice to be peer-to-peer so that everyone can enjoy being a stylist
* Allows users to upload their own real life images -making it a personal solution
* Makes all recommended items available to purchase directly and easily

How does the app work? What features does it have?
1. Use the app to take a photo of the item you wish to match and post it online.
2. Browse through online catalogues using key filters to find a match for someone else’s photo.
3. When you find the right item, select it to add to the photo board.
4. As you browse through people’s photos and suggested matching items, give a like to those suggestions you think were good.
5. If you like what was suggested, you can click through to purchase it online.
6. The users who get the most likes for their recommendations get rewarded.

The business model is three pronged, and sequenced over time:
* The first, already implemented, is via affiliation. Jaqard contains within the app, a mega catalogue, which aggregates, via our own software development, dozens of online retailers from all over the world. Without ever having to leave the app, one can browse simply and intuitively amongst thousands of items to then recommend to other members of the community or keep in an own wish list. Every item is connected to the page of the online retailer where one can purchase directly via the app – and soon also via the upcoming web site. In the event of purchases, we gain a commission on the sales.

* The second, arriving end 2014, will be the integrated offer of emerging brands, which are hard to find, and which will be present for limited times only. We do not intend to compete with online fashion outlets on past collections at reduced prices. We actually want to propose highly creative brands that are struggling to make it into the tough global fashion industry. We want to be a showcase for quality and creativity, within the style advice experience that is Jaqard.

* In 2015, when we hope the user base will have significantly increased, we aim to earn also as an interactive and unconventional marketing platform, for example launching contest and promotions tied to popularity and other engagement mechanisms for the community. Also in this case, we are studying an innovative solution that ties exclusivity and the “collector spirit” of Foursquare badges, with promotions, prizes and coupons. We also keep our eye on the iBeacon, which could become a bridge between physical and online retail outlets in the future. But at this time, we remain focused on e-commerce, because it can provide a good start and solid growth.

Where does the name “Jaqard” come from? “We thought of simplifying the name of Joseph-Marie Jacquard, the inventor of the mechanical loom for textiles, still used today to identify a certain type of weaving in creating textile designs.” explained Jennifer Catalano, marketing for E.M.S. Style. “That loom was the first programmable mechanical device in history and forerunner to computers. It seemed to us the perfect union between fashion and technology.”

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 6.0 or later
* 11.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Jaqard 1.4 is Free and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Lifestyle category.

Jaqard 1.4
Download from iTunes
Screenshot
Jaqard Logo
App Icon

The Jaqard team consists of Mauro Longone, (CEO), Stefano Peruzzi (iOS developer), Enrico Baccianini (entrepreneur), Marco Martini (designer) Jennifer Catalano (marketing) in partnerhsip with Bobos Digital Hub. The registered company is EMS style srl with base in Verona, Italy. Jaqard is born out of a previous startup called Style4Real. In spite of the efforts and participation in finals of national Italian competitions in 2012, among which Wind Business Factor, Intesa Sanpaolo Startup Initiative and Mind the Bridge, the community never took off as we had hoped. Analyzing the causes, it became clear that there were issues with the business model and the user engagement, which made us reconsider the whole project. After a few months, we decided to make a decisive pivot and start from scratch leveraging the experiences we had. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2014 E.M.S. Style srl. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.