Anyone with even a passing interest in style has felt it: you glimpse a garment on a celebrity, influencer or TV personality and, in an instant, decide you have to own it.
But tracking down the exact piece — or a closely similar option that won’t make you cringe at the price tag — can be tricky and eat up a lot of time.
So what’s a busy, aspiring fashion lover supposed to do?
Enter an app that promises to lend a hand.
Kim Kardashian’s New Fashion App Is… Intriguing
Kim Kardashian West serves as an advisor for a newly released Apple and Android app called ScreenShop, which lets you upload screenshots of outfits to get matched with similar clothing options. You can sort results by likeness, price or brand to discover a version of the celebrity’s ensemble that suits your budget and tastes.
The app is free to use, and partner retailers share revenue with the platform.
“I’ve never seen an app where you can screenshot something and within seconds bring up a whole digital fashion store to be able to pick out from all range prices and sizes of similar things to what you’re wearing,” Kardashian West told BuzzFeed News.
The promise of finding affordable takes on celebrity styles grabbed my attention. With a catalog of 10 million items from roughly 460 stores, it sounds foolproof — right?
Not exactly. At least, not yet.
My First ScreenShop Trial: Far From Instagram-Perfect
My initial attempts involved uploading screenshots from Instagram: an outfit by a favored indie designer and a photo of a yoga instructor in an on-point pair of leggings.
ScreenShop struggled with both, surfacing mostly tank tops instead of workout tights and failing to return anything resembling the blouse from my indie designer pick.
I tried a different angle and uploaded a shot of Taylor Swift in a pale-blue romper from the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. ScreenShop did produce several rompers, but none carried the red carpet flair I’d hoped to replicate.
Next up was Rihanna at the 2015 Met Gala, where she wore an ornate, fur-trimmed gown. I expected to see yellow ball gowns in the results, but instead the app returned a slew of slinky slip dresses that would have looked odd on me at a nightclub.
Maybe I pushed the test too far.
I uploaded an Instagram photo of three news anchors standing together, hoping ScreenShop would identify at least one of their dresses. The app zeroed in on a black dress with vertical dotted lines that flared into a broad hem of white dots.
Initially it showed rows of horizontally striped dresses, but as I scrolled there appeared one dress fairly similar to one of the anchors’ outfits. The hem differed, though the overall shape matched. I called that a win: the dupe came from NY Collection at Macy’s for a reasonable $60.
Lisa: 4, ScreenShop: 1.
What Happened When I Used My Own Photos
Then the experiment derailed entirely.
I know where most of my clothes came from and what I paid for them, so I began uploading pictures of myself and odd screenshots from my camera roll.
I uploaded a photo of my best friend in an Old Navy sundress, a random screenshot of a mesh hoodie used to keep mosquitos away (#FloridaProblems), my high-school graduation portrait, a casual work outfit, an ’80s party costume, a leather-jacket selfie taken in an office elevator and even my boss’s dog dressed as a lumberjack.
ScreenShop gave it its best shot.
It couldn’t find my friend’s sundress exactly, though it suggested a handful of alternatives ranging from $10.99 (Forever 21) to $1,495 (Dolce & Gabbana). A gray sleeveless button-up sparked green long-sleeved shirt suggestions. My leather jacket image brought up numerous leather jackets, but none in the two-tone style I’d worn. A selfie of me in a gray tee with a pink bandanna around my neck returned maroon men’s V-neck tees. For the ’80s party photo, the app suggested bracelets that lined up with the crease on my wrist.
The dog, however, yielded lots of winter beanies to pick from.
Bottom line: ScreenShop feels like a shiny, glamorous unicorn poised to help selective shoppers, but its matching algorithm isn’t flawless yet. If you enjoy browsing the ShopStyle app, keep using it. If you curate looks on Pinterest, continue pinning. But don’t expect ScreenShop to revolutionize your shopping routine quite yet.
Riley Martin is a senior writer and producer at Savinly.
