Do guys in Berlin seem a little better-dressed than this time last year? That may be overstating it, but curated shopping service Modomoto – which takes the pain out of clothes shopping for men by removing the actual shopping – is celebrating its first birthday on Friday having helped dress 10,000 guys over the past 12 months.
Despite facing increasing competition in what is a growing market, the Kreuzberg startup is doing well enough that it is having to move into a much bigger space in January to keep up with demand.
Once customers have filled out a questionnaire, a team of 15 fashion experts picks out around ten items of high quality casual wear and sends them out in the post. You keep (and pay for) what you want, and simply send the rest back. It could well mean no more wasted Saturdays spent traipsing around the shops, or fashion disasters resulting from buying the first thing you see.
Motomodo is expanding quickly, having launched in Austria earlier this month, and CEO and founder Corinna Powalla said: “Our service has been taken up very well, something demonstrated by the positive results after only one year in business.” The startup also points to the fact that many new customers are being recruited through word of mouth as a good sign.
And for women who feel left out, don’t worry – the recently launched Gutscheinshop (Gift Shop) allows you to dress your fellas from head to do rather than having to rely on their sense (or lack) of style.
There is a sense in Berlin that fashion will be making more headlines in 2013, as the worlds of technology and art continue to get mixed up together. UPcload, which enables users to buy clothes online that actually fit, is already an unfolding success story, and Modomoto faces direct competition from the likes of Paul Secret, a similar Berlin-based startup founded by two ex-Rocket employees.
With prices at about the same level as in the shops – the company takes the cut that the retailer usually would – expect increasing numbers of fashion conscious men to make the switch.
The Modomoto team