Let’s get ‘Dressed’! A review & GIVEAWAY that will decode your wardrobe & make you love getting ‘Dressed’!{CLOSED}

Nothing is better than feeling Dressed! It’s “pour yourself a drink, put on some red lipstick and pull yourself together” kind of dressed. That quote is Liz Taylor and that woman knew how to get dressed! I started sewing so I could create a wardrobe that made me feel Dressed and this last Me Made May is testament to the way I created my style and a wardrobe to match. Those of you my age will remember that moment where Alicia Silverstone is flipping through a computerized closet in the movie Clueless. I’ve wanted that computerized closet since that moment! A few months back I was thinking that surely someone had made an app like that and someone did! An enterprising, vintage fashion loving, marine biologist in Perth! Her name is Kara her app is called Dressed! She got together with her app designing husband and they made Dressed. I downloaded the app on the spot and never looked back! You can see the app becoming an outfit reality below in this fabulously twirly pic of Kara an her photobombing dog Willie…

Dressed is certainly fun, I mean it’s a virtual version of your wardrobe and you can play with it anywhere. But I have to point out that it solves some very real problems. Did you know that the average woman spends 90 mintues a week working out what to wear? That’s three whole days a year or 5 months over the course of your working life! No, really! A massive 54 per cent of women even lay their clothes out the night before to prevent a last-minute panic in the morning – which has led to almost a quarter being late for work! Those stats are scary! And with Dressed, they are a thing of the past because you can not only plan outfits but save them and the date you last wore them. Genius! Even when it’s time for a closet clear out, Dressed can tell you what hasn’t been worn in ages. And if you are a sewing nerd, you can use the app templates to figure out pattern placement. You can tell that Kara is a fashionista because she thought of everything!

After finding the app, I was on Instagram and was taken by the OOTD (outfit of the day) posts by a user called Dressed App. For some reason it took maybe two weeks to put two and two together and find Kara, the woman behind the Dressed App! For weeks I drooled over Kara’s gorgeous outfits feeling a mixture of envy, kinship and a fair bit of you go girl! Like how amazeballs is the dress above? I was aching to write to Kara and suggest we work together but I always feel weird doing that, like a crazy internet stalker but eventually I did email her a super short email. And of course, Kara is lovely and approachable and she emailed me back (yay)! So we chatted and I told her about Mummy Asks amazing wardrobe but how Mum could never decide what went together. So Kara and I hatched a little plan….

Today I am posting a review and giveaway of the Dressed App here and Kara will be posting a DIY Whipped Cream Cherry Shoes tutorial I whipped up on her blog (pun intended). But that’s not all! We have interviewed each other, so stay tuned for an interview with Kara (or go visit her and see what she asked me). As I said, Kara is lovely and so she would like to give away her Dressed App to five of you lucky readers! How nice is that? Read through to the end for details!

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step….And so ours began with an iOS update and iTunes credit card update and then the Dressed App (buy it here)! We got to photographing, which was pretty easy because Kara has a great video on the best way to do it. I will freely admit that we didn’t mess around too much. We didn’t pad out shapes or arrange everything perfectly. If you have as many clothes as Mummy Ask has, getting through a few and having a play is where it’s at! I can see that perfectionists might want to make each garment look perfect but the quick snaps we took were more than enough to give Mum squeaks of joy! The background removal tool makes it really, really easy! The more garments we added, the more excited we became! And then we sat down to play – yay! Here are some of the combos we created:

Even though our pics weren’t 100% perfect, it’s still super amazing. I feel like the flaw in this sort of app is taking the pics and having them look realistic. I love that even if you don’t try hard, it still looks really good! I didn’t try hard on purpose because I wanted to give the app a real test. And if it didn’t work under real life conditions, well, I couldn’t recommend it. But it works so well, I’m super impressed and totally recommend it! The app automatically takes out the background for you. I swear that this is the only app I’ve used where that actually worked properly! But Dressed isn’t just a great way to plan an outfit, it has loads of features! It has tonnes of ways you can categorize a garment. You can check it out in this video too.

• By type – Like t shirt, blouse, cami, cardigan, kimono, shrug etc
• By brand – lots of faves but of course you can add your own
• By price – so you can put that cost per wear formula to good use
• By size – so you can find what fits right now
• By store – so you know where to look next time you’re shopping
• URL – so you can add a link (OMG I love this because I can link to blog posts about making the garment and/or sewing patterns)
• By colour – for matching fun
• By season – so good for packing
• By function – so you can find the right thing for a romantic evening or work tomorrow
• By purchase date – how long have I had that?
• And by date most recently worn – So you will never wear the same thing inadvertently and what a help when you are clearing out your closet!

You can even sort via these categories! It is so seriously cool! I am going to make this app part of my Me Made May pledge for 2016. I am going to pledge that I will carefully photograph each of my Me Mades into the app so that I can coordinate and sort to my hearts content. But the point of this review was to help Mummy Ask coordinate her huge and beautiful wardrobe using Dressed. I have to say Mum was thrilled! Here are her thoughts on the Dressed App:

I think that the negative is having to take the photos but there is also a positive to that negative. Having to pull out each item, inspect it, position it makes you really think about whether or not a garment deserves to be in your wardrobe. That was a big eye opener. And then I was surprised to find how easy it is to view through my things. I just look at my wardrobe and feel like there is nothing there or that nothing goes together. I knew Sarah wanted to challenge the app, so I added some things I wanted to wear and dared her to find matches. We also chose a few favourites. And then I was completely shocked! Only a few things were in the app and already we were making matches. Sarah put some things together and I was suddenly wondering why I didn’t think of that!

Basically I could see my dressing style & could see that’s who I am. I think it will help me be more consistent in my selection of clothes when I am buying or making. Also a big plus is that I could imagine other combinations and was dying to test them on the app. I am excited that I can add product shots from websites because I love a little online shop. I can make outfits before my goodies even arrive in the post.

As you can see, Mummy Ask is a big fan! Actually, I think It would be hard not be a fan of this app. I used it to decide on what to wear in the Whipped Cream Cherry Shoe tutorial over on Kara’s blog, The Dressed Aesthetic. Karas blog is awesome, I totally lose track of time there, so you have been warned! But you’ll have to go visit her to check the tutorial out but here’s a sneak peek:

Now that you have had a good look at the Dressed App, I know you’ll be super excited to meet Kara, so check back in for an interview with her over the next few days! Kara has an amazing vintage style and in the words of Iris Apfel, “When you don’t dress like anyone else, you don’t have to think like anyone else”. Too right! And the Dressed App makes it all too easy! If you would like to win a copy of the Dressed App, just fill in the form below…….

Entries open 9am ACST 12/8/2015 and close 1pm ACST 19/8/2015, for the official rules please see here.