Cyber-store

Community Cloth gives indie designers their own online boutique


Initially published in FFWD October 11, 2007 by Drew Anderson in Fashion



At 25, David Robert is young, but certainly not lazy. A web designer by trade, Robert has spent a good 480 hours of his own time over the last year or so designing a website intended for, well, designers — the clothing variety.

Community Cloth is a new Calgary-based website that, once complete, will host pages for independent fashion designers in the United States and Canada. It is intended as a place where those interested in obscure designers can find unique pieces and buy them in a stylish cyber-atmosphere, and where those same independent designers can find clients and boutiques.

The idea was hatched when Robert was helping his mother on a project for the children’s clothing store she used to operate in Kensington. “I was working on a few things for her and noticed all of the designers that were supplying her store didn’t have very good sites,” he says. But it’s not just the kid’s designers that are lacking an online style.

“Some designers have MySpace pages or Facebook pages and if they want to sell their clothes, they sell them on ebay. It’s the worst process and it’s ugly.”

Since coming to the realization that there was an opening in the market, it took two years before Robert began to put his ideas into motion. “I woke up one day and had an idea for the branding of the site and for me that just starts everything, a visual motivator.”

Designers will have the opportunity to set up their own page on the site, complete with pictures and logos, links and customer ratings. There will be a store that sells all wares featured on the site that will have a unique advantage over other online shopping venues. Robert and his two compatriots are working on something called a fitting tool which, once complete, will allow shoppers to profile their body on the site and go shopping for items by fit — one innovation designed to bypass the obvious issues associated with shopping on a screen rather than in person.

“We haven’t made a working concept, it’s just calculations and mock-ups, but essentially you would be able to create, without a tape measure, your body’s profile. Then what you can do, if you’re searching for a pair of jeans, because jeans are impossible to fit, you would be able to search for jeans that fit you instead of searching for jeans that are low-rise, 32, boot-cut,” he says.

A second concept that will be used to ensure a good shopping experience is sample material with stitching and button samples provided by each designer as a mark of their craftsmanship.

The first phase of the site will be up and running before the end of the month and will feature street fashion photos uploaded by guests on the site. There will be space for commentary on the styles either of individuals or designers clothing with the intent to create interest in the site and independent fashion. “What we’re launching this fall is basically editorial and user-contributed articles and user-contributed street fashion photos,” says Robert.

Currently the site has a stable of 30 interested designers, nine of which are from Calgary. The target, however, is 500 by the time the site is fully functional, something Robert thinks is doable. “Every time we get in touch with a designer, they’re excited about it because there’s nothing out there right now,” he says.

The site has already hosted one street fashion show on an underpass walkway downtown, and may be hosting a Plus-15 show in February if all goes according to plan. With a site dedicated to independent designers, the hope is that Calgary’s fashion scene will continue to expand. “Personally, I’m really concentrating on Calgary and trying to work with what’s around right now,” says Robert. “Calgary’s fashion scene is growing really fast.”