The Dress Code: The Good and Bad of Google's Boutiques.com

Welcome to the Dress Code, where we celebrate, critique, commend and (on occasion) condemn fashion trends, shows, designers, boutiques, events and everything in between. From the couturiers and costumers to the retail clothiers and quirky DIY crafters, fashion--good and bad--is everywhere. The Dress Code is where we wear our hearts on our sleeves and write about it all.

On Wednesday, Google launched Boutiques.com, the world’s most comprehensive apparel shopping e-commerce site and online fashion resource ever, and? It’s kind of awesome.

Here’s how it works: As a database of hundreds of virtual “boutiques” (and consider the term “boutique” to suggest not retailer, but an online profile or “look book”) of designers, retailers, bloggers, celebrities and even individual profiles, you can shop and browse in a multitude of ways. You can review current trends, search by style themes (“romantic”, “rocker”, “classic” etc), search for specific products , designers, retailers or study the fashions of iconic fashion-plate celebrities all in a relatively clear and user friendly way.

The Good: Where other apparel e-commerce sites recycle token fashion jargon, Boutiques.com top trends features aren't predictable and cliché. We found “Nordic Knits”, “Modern Military” and “Clogs” (really?) as suggested trend topics that were surprising and insightful.

For individuals seeking a style makeover and even useful for small-scale designers looking for inspiration and to develop their own collections, search “Style Genre” or click “celebrity” for an accurate assortment (based on algorithms, according to the New York Times) of “Loves” and “hates”, brand suggestions, color palates, silhouettes, celebrity references and do’s and don’ts . Follow, comment and critique—Boutique.com kind of works in the way that Facebook allows users to subscribe to ideas, groups and more.

Looking for something really specific? Their search field enables accurate, targeted and refined search results. Also awesome.

The Bad: At the time of writing this post, there are only 12 blogger “boutiques” and 33 celebrity, 57 designer and 28 retailer profiles listed; seemingly a tad scarce. Boutiques.com is clearly user-driven, and will succeed based only on its ability to build upon itself, expand and gain momentum by users, and it will. Yet, it’s slightly odd that in searching through various retailer “boutiques” that other designers who do not necessarily sell in that store appear in the retailer’s “Favorites” or “Inspired by” such retailer. Sure, it’s great to see other designers who are similar to what we’re searching for, but then does it not defeat the purpose of clicking on the designer “boutique” in the first place? What’s the point, then? We’d like to see the retailer’s products displayed a bit clearer, and we’re looking forward to seeing a gazillion more (actual) boutiques and users utilizing this resource to maximize its awesomeness.

Overall, the Dress Code looks forward to using Boutiques.com as a productive tool for researching trends, designers, other bloggers and connecting with the fashion community at-large.