Interview: "Go Try It On" CEO Marissa Evans Dishes About Fashion And Tech

Go Try It On is a personal style network that's a great collision of fashion, style and social networking. Go Try It On Founder and CEO Marissa Evans dishes about the site, fashion & technology, her fashion influences and where she envisions the site's progression in five years.

A great site for the fashionable and stylistas of the future, Go Try It On enables users to also create their own style network of stylish friends and industry stylists to gain immediate real-time replies regarding their uploaded wardrobe and makeup photos.

Bio

Marissa Evans, Founder and CEO

Attended Cornell University then earned her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Previously ran another tech/fashion start-up company, A Shirt Thing.

Go Try It On launched in March 2010 and they are now in association with Sephora and The GAP.

Go Try It On's 3.0 iPhone app has garnered more than 250,000 users.

How Did The Site Come About?

We offer honest advice on your outfit before you go out. The whole idea behind it was to help girls get real-time feedback on what they're wearing and what they are thinking about wearing. And of course, what they are thinking about buying. The idea came to me over the years, getting ready with my girlfriends, it was always a matter of "which one looks better?" and we would hold up a bunch of different things. And my response was always "Well go try it on!" I had been working in the digital ad agency world and had been specifically working on mobile projects for iPhones etc. for different big brands. And ultimately I saw this cool opportunity to basically build out a product that harnessed the power of fashion and tech to bring the two worlds together.

Can users on the website rate the photos of other site user? Can they "like" style photos?

The way it works is that you upload a photo of yourself, you tell us where you are going; a date, work event or night out, and you also tell what brand you're wearing. Then you share! You can share with the crowd or you can build you're own personal stylist network. You can grab your friends from Facebook and your most stylish friends. We have a section called Featured Stylist which allows users to grab the most fashionable members of the community and they are professionals from L.A. that really have an amazing sense of style.

Involvement of Sephora & The GAP...

Users can ask the advice of brands on the site; the GAP and Sephora. You can actually communicate with them one-on-one and if you want to get style advice from them, you can do that as well.

You went to Harvard Business School but it seems like you always had a hand in fashion, could you tell us about your fashion influences and what you draw inspiration from?

I definitely always had a personal interest in fashion and certainly love being inspired by the classics. There's an amazing place in my heart for art, fashion and street style.

The go-to's are Jackie Kennedy and the classic look of Audrey Hepburn. I think as I've gotten older those icons play more of a role in my fashion dictionary. I love The Satorialist and other street style blogs that set up the trends for the rest of the world. I say it's funny because there is influences that I think can make up someone's fashion, like a mood board but in your head. How you think about style and getting ready.

The community that we built on Go Try It On has a global influence and its about 30% international and that's an incredible way for me to continue to be inspired by women around the world. There's women from Paris, London, Berlin, Brazil and all those different styles and tastes are an amazing way of getting inspired when it comes to fashion.

Marissa's Go Try It On Profile

What are you looking forward to in regards to Fashion Week that's approaching?

I'm looking forward to seeing how all the brands mainly utilize technology in their displays. I heard about some incredible things that some of the brands are doing so we're excited to see how tech and fashion meet this year.

Where do you see the site taking off to in 5 years?

We are really building the fitting room of the future. What if fitting rooms were more like the Genius Bar at Apple? This idea that its digital and it's something that you can connect with people that you care about when it comes to fashion. You can get advice, product suggestions and basically you'd have this digital queue of items you should buy and its very personalized. It will take the "try-on" experience to the next level!