For some women, online shopping does not compare to the real-life experience of visiting a store — mostly because it contains the risk of ordering something that might not fit. Heidi Zak and Dave Spector, cofounders of a new app ThirdLove, are looking to change that.
The iPhone app focuses on one of the more intimate shopping experiences for a woman: buying a bra. After beta testing, the free app officially launched Thursday.
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The team at ThirdLove aims to offer an experience that rivals standard e-commerce websites but also brick-and-mortar establishments. The app uses computer vision (which analyzes real-world objects much like the human eye does) to measure a woman virtually through iPhone photographs. It detects specific physical components and produces data, such as the measurements needed for a custom-fit bra.
In this case, once a shopper takes the necessary photographs, she can customize a bra of her choice, which she receives in the mail later inside a silky drawstring pouch wrapped in blue tissue paper.
We visited ThirdLove's office to see how tech and fashion came together within the app.
The company designed not only the app but also the lingerie, and the design for both happened almost simultaneously — Zak and Spector hired fashion designer Ra'el Cohen first and then acquired a head of computer vision. Zak and Spector are aware of the issue of privacy, an obvious concern as more women are finding photos of themselves leaked on the Internet.
"[Photo-processing is] done natively [and] we use 128-bit encryption," said Spector. "We take privacy very, very seriously."
"The photos that people are taking, they're not naked — to be very clear," he continued. "They’re just wearing a tight-fitting shirt."

The company keeps the photos on file but only for "customer services purposes." Customer service pulls up the photos when a customer complains to see what went wrong in the measuring process and create a more accurate product.
Through the app, shoppers receive detailed instructions about how to take photos of themselves from an audio and video tutorial. A voice explains how to stand and what to wear: When you get into the correct position, you press the volume button and freeze as the app takes the photo, one from the front and one from the side. At times, the directions can get difficult to see — such as when you put the phone near your navel for a photo — but, for the most part, the process is fast and easy.
"Our computer vision technology acts as a virtual measuring tape, so it's simply from those photos [that] we gather her measurements. From there we’re able to place her in her correct size," said Zak. "Everything about the shopping experience on the mobile phone becomes personalized for her, because when she completes the sizing process, what she sees is a store that’s just for her .... in essence we want to bring a personal shopper to every woman through a smartphone ."
As Spector went on to explain, the computer vision technology uses the iPhone as a point of reference. After taking the necessary photos, a shopper drags guidelines to certain parts of her bust to further aid the computer vision. The resulting sizes don't correspond with traditional bra measurements; the company decided that traditional methods did not effectively reflect women's bodies.
"Over the last many months, in working with women during our beta and having our focus groups, and really fine tuning our sizing, we saw that almost 60% of the women who were coming in were falling in these half sizes that we've developed," said Cohen.

Cohen keeps an eye on fashion magazines and the latest trends, not only in lingerie but in other fashion products. In the office, she maintains a trend board to develop future collections and a 'What's Now' board to keep an eye on what women are buying in the apparel world. A classic arcade game sits next to a full-size fashion dummy, mirroring the merging of the tech and fashion worlds within the app.
But the designs would not be able to offer a better fit without the help of modern technology, especially that of the mobile phone.
"There are these very sophisticated centers on a mobile phone that, for the most part, are not being utilized by companies," said Spector. "Most companies have simply been web first and then have adapted their website to a mobile handset. Where we are very, very different, and the reason why we’re mobile first, is we actually utilize a lot of the technologies that are based on mobile."
I tried the app and ordered a lace balconet bra which looks as fashionable in the photo as in real life. (In my experience, online shopping also comes with the risk of buying something that might not look so great in person.) The bra that arrived fit just right — no uncomfortable straps, awkwardly sized cups or painful underwire. It looks elegant and feels comfortable, something difficult to find during an average bra shopping trip. I didn't need to leave the house to find it and I can shop for additional bras, since the app saved my measurements.
ThirdLove currently offers three bra styles, and shoppers can customize the color of the straps, other small details and add matching underwear. The bras range from $45 to $70.
ThirdLove plans to launch a web version of the app in the future and is currently working on an Android app.
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Images: ThirdLove, Mashable