Why you want it: Donde helps you find the perfect dress with just a few taps.
Tell me more: Every woman knows that finding the perfect dress can be an all-day affair. The one with the right neckline is always way too short, and everything you find at the ideal length is in the wrong color. Searching for what you want can involve dozens of stores filled with disappointment along the way.
Sure, you can hire a personal shopper to scope out your dream frock, but what if you could find it yourself on your phone in less than five minutes? That's the idea behind Donde, a kind of search engine for images, specifically for dresses. You tell the app what you're looking for, and it instantly scours the inventory of lots of merchants to find exactly what you want. Results are then displayed on your phone, and you can buy the perfect match and have it sent to your front door, no mall required.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
"It makes sense for us to use text to search for things that are made out of words, but when it comes to products, that needs to change," says Donde founder Liat Zakay.
Zakay decided to create Donde after a dress search of her own. While she knew exactly what she wanted, it was hard to convey things like color and neckline in a search box on Google.
"I went to different stores and websites, and spent a lot of time trying to find what I was looking for. When I tried to go to Google and eBay, I found a lot of unrelated stuff," says Zakay.
With Donde, instead of entering search terms, you answer a few quick questions about what you're looking for. You'll pick a color, neckline, sleeve, and length, and Donde will display dresses that meet your very specific criteria. If something like the neckline isn't important to you, no problem. You can skip the question and see a wider array of options at the end.
If you're not ready to buy right now, you can save dresses you find to your wish list on the site and come back to them later. Donde will even notify you if one of your faves goes on sale.
We gave it a try and were impressed with what we found. Results ranged from $50 steals to $600 splurges. You get a lot of choices based on your preferences, and most of them (in our case at least) were variations on what we were hoping to find. Some of the stores represented include Bloomingdale's, Anthropologie, H&M, Zara, and Saks Fifth Avenue.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Donde is currently focused on dresses, but Zakay says the company hopes to expand into other products as a well. The next stop is likely more clothing types — shirts, pants, bags and shoes — but she sees the technology ultimately being used for things like furniture as well.
Anything we didn't like?: While you can filter dresses by price, you can't filter them by size. So, a size two is going to see the same options as a size 12. That will inevitably lead to a bit of disappointment when you tap on something only to find it's too big or too small for you. We'd love to see Donde add a size filter into the mix as well at some point.
Where to get it: Donde is currently only available for iOS. You can get it for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch from the App Store now.