The fashion and tech worlds often collide in interesting ways, and so far fashion startups have been booming. Giants of this space like Gilt have learned how to turn the lure of exclusivity into a successful company, but since the space is still young, there’s much more innovation to come.
The newly launched and invite only Frank & Oak has taken an interesting hybrid approach, merging an exclusive collection of men’s fashion with a subscription service. Every month, the startup releases a new collection.
You can check out the new collection online and shop manually, or you can sign up for the Hunt Club, in which Frank & Oak suggests a few styles based on your own preferences. Select 1 to 4 items that strike your fancy and receive them at home to try on. Then you can ship what ever you don’t want back free of charge.
It’s an intense combination of concepts that relies on busy guys that are searching to be fashionable. Luckily, the selection is always surprisingly affordable, with each item at or below $50. Also, the idea of curating collections into monthly issues is hard to resist once you see it for yourself (pictured below).
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TNW spoke with CEO Ethan Song on the startup’s goals:
We want each of our monthly collections to reflect the actual lifestyles of our clients – We call our designers “curators” because they blend their own creative direction with the mood and feeling of the moment. Its a very collaborative process and our clients play an important role in the direction of our products.
I think Gilt has a completely different business model than us. We are able to offer premium products at an accessible price because we work directly with our manufacturers and clients. We’re therefore able to shave off a lot of the costs and put all of the value in the final product itself. We work on a monthly model to make the product highly relevant at all times to our clients.
Frank & Oak is invite only but they’re currently letting in users that sign up via the link below. Check it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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