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Shop with a Girl

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This just promotes a silly stereotype, like the old show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". I'm a guy who enjoys shopping for clothes (although I don't shop compulsively), and I know girls who don't.

Of course there are people who could use help with shopping, but why make it gender-specific?

This was my reaction to this as well. Just in terms of personal comfort, I personally would prefer a guy stylist as well.

I don't see why they need to limit themselves to just one gender for customers or providers. They have just cut their market in half before they even began selling anything.

Um, what? Is it only me, or does anyone else see the enormous inherent stereotyping in this as a bad thing?

People who actually like to go clothes shopping shouldn’t be made to feel like they should be categorized as “girls”, or vice versa, someone who finds clothes shopping to be uninteresting shouldn’t be made to feel like they ought to identify as a “guy”.

There’s nothing wrong with the concept, but the conflation with clothes shopper/non-shopper with “girl”/“guy” is bad.

No one is making you or anyone else to "feel" anything from this product. Frankly, as one of the stereotypical nerds out there, I'm interested in this product. I know I have no sense of style, pretty much and know there are some ladies out there who do.

> No one is making you or anyone else to "feel" anything from this product.

I don’t understand this argument. Of course a narrative which consistently calls clothes shoppers “girls” and non-shoppers “guys” is going to affect the way I feel about my identity.

Only if your identity is affected by every ad you read...have some backbone.

This is a cool thing, for those that need it. No more stereotyped than "I let my spouse buy my clothes because I have no sense of style". Its just a statement, true for some people. Its got nothing at all to do with anybody's identity.

Is “have some backbone” also your response when someone complains about phrases like “That’s so gay” or “You’re such a girl”? I hope not, since there’s a reason certain words and stereotypes are not socially acceptable.

Note: This has nothing to do with the actual service, and everything to do with the terrible stereotyping in the branding and sales narrative.

You can't be serious. So now the message is girls typically understand style, guys typically don't, and if you dislike that message then maybe you're just easily influenced by advertising. As a guy that loves fashion, the message is clearly "You're an exception to the rule" and the rule is a stereotype.

Have you actually looked at any advertising lately? Billboard? Magazine ad? TV commercial? This is the mildest tongue-in-cheek 'hire somebody with talent you lack' ad I can imagine.

You're being browbeaten by the gender police, don't bother arguing, its pointless.

It definitely made me cringe, especially compared with something like Trunk Club: https://www.trunkclub.com/. For lack of a better: something about this site--right down to the hero image--makes me feel dirty.

The copy alone seems like it's either written by (or perhaps for?) the stereotypical adolescent male. Selling it as more of a concierge service would really make it more mature.

That said, I'm a "Guy" who actually enjoys shopping for clothes and dressing like an adult, so take my thoughts with a pinch or two.

Hrm. Interesting concept. There is definitely a problem to be solved here -- I have no idea what to buy.

But I also hate shopping in person. I don't want to go to the mall or stores and wait in line or try on clothes.

I suspect that these two segments overlap significantly (those who need help, and those who hate shopping in person). That's why services like TrunkClub make so much sense - they pair you with a "style consultant" (who could be a guy or girl) and they mail you items. If you like them, great. If you don't, send them back.

I presume this is supposed to appeal to the "i dont have any female friends because i am a nerd" crowd. Speaking from personal experience, this ends around 18-19 years of age. Unfortunately - in my opinion - at that age, an "average" guy can barely afford clothes, let alone a personal-shopper-girl he needs to pay money to for the privilege. For older guys, they almost certainly have a friend or a buddy's sister or whatever.

So, if the younger age group is in fact the target, would the girl also be of similar age? Otherwise, i dont see how a 25 year old can shop well for a 17 year old.

What is the ultimte goal here? to make guys more appealing to the opposite sex? Why not take them to a salon instead? A nice haircut and an eye brow plucking would go a long way for many.

Better yet, why not organize group movie dates or similar instead?

PS: Serious thoughts above - really...

> Speaking from personal experience, this ends around 18-19 years of age.

Bad assumption.

Anecdotal, I know, but 18-19 is when most people go to college, and get to shed whatever labels they had in high school. It certainly happened that way with me and my college friends.

You mean going from a pretty gender balanced high school, to a department with a large majority of men? (we were talking about nerds here, and I am talking about things like CS departments, since this is HN.)

And also to a place where no one will judge you because you're a nerd. My CS classes where pretty gender-balanced, more so than my high school, and I can assure you that's not the problem.

I disagree. Older guys may have female friends, but I don't know any single friends (including myself when I was single) that ask female friends to go shopping with them - maybe they should, but they don't.

I think it's a pretty big thing to ask a non-girlfriend/non-date to go out on a day shopping with you just to help you out.

Maybe it's a stereotype, but it seems based on fact that a lot more girls enjoy shopping for clothes than guys do and have a better eye for guys' clothes than guys themselves.

Lot's of services with stylists (who are mostly women) picking for clothes for guys & sending them to you in a pack are popping up, like The Cloakroom: https://thecloakroom.nl/en/

The only difference with this is that the guy and girl go out shopping in a city together.

But I also find it curious that the idea draws so many strong reactions - positive & negative. I think the name has an impact.

Interested to hear more thoughts from people.

You're right on the reactions part - personally, i often find style suggestions from my gay friends (im straight) to be more valuable than from girls. Also curious as to why.

On higher end of scale, stores such as bloomingdales and neimanns (burgdorf for those in nyc) offer free personal shoppers.

I'm really curious that the two services I have seen mentioned here, Trunk Club & The Cloakroom, have such high prices.

In personal experience I spend more on clothes then most of my friends but I would never spend that amount of money on certain pieces of clothing.

The Cloakroom lists t-shirts as being €30-€90 ($38-$114) which seems outrageously high.

>this is supposed to appeal to the "i dont have any female friends because i am a nerd" crowd. Speaking from personal experience, this ends around 18-19 years of age.

Yeah I guess I transitioned from denial about it being due to my nerd status to "why don't I have any friends at all, am I really that horrible" around the age of 20.

Around 30 I just came to accept being alone, and having given up it matters very little what I wear.

Gaining female friends is a learn-able skill, sir.

Yes, and so is sending a space craft to mars. Was there a point to saying it is learn-able?

Lots of things are learn-able skills, different people will require different amounts of time to learn different skills. It is up to them to make rational decisions on whether its worth it for them to continue learning those skills.

At some point I realized making friends male or female was not a skill worth the unknown further amount of time it would take me to learn. I was not going to fall for a sunk cost fallacy, just because I had spent years trying to make friends and failing.

> eye brow plucking

Is this really a thing?

I do it, though I guess I only initially made it worse. I can't go back now, though, since now it is unruly as hell if I don't do something about it.

> I presume this is supposed to appeal to the "i dont have any female friends because i am a nerd" crowd.

And I suppose the purpose of this sentence is to shame them?

"Shop with a girl" has been a personal mantra of mine for about 10 years now, as it has become glaringly obvious that I can't be trusted to make good clothing decisions (as the fairer sex often reminds me).

That being said, I'm not sure how this will work as a service. How often does your average man go shopping for clothes, really? I could see personally using this service once, and a small percent of men would maybe use it once a year. And only men without girlfriends/girl friends/mothers/sisters/whatever would even consider this an option.

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. Good luck to ya :)

Well that escalated quickly. It is a bit of a tongue in cheek, very early-stage, idea and the name definitely divides opinion, but pretty surprised how strongly people feel about it. Despite all the public negative comments here about how unbelievably sexist it is, private feedback has been positive - from both sexes, and in fact more females are signing up on the site than males at the moment... what does this mean?

It could certainly mean that people both conform to, and are blind to, prevailing stereotypes. This, however, is not a good enough reason to perpetuate them.

Maybe confusing what people actually feel, with what they post on HN. Righteous indignation feels good, is easy to come up with, and gets upvoted quickly. But does it reflect sober reflection? Probably not.

based on the other comment, i see you're the submitter? I like the username - i guess thats the next show-nh we should expect? :)

I think the opinions given are very relevant - people just feel strongly about unnecessary stereotypes, most of which either disappear or become a fixable "skill" by adulthood. It would seem that advice given here is: focus on the more mature audience.

As an aside (based on your username and in my humble opinion), party-with-a-local/personal-guide-to-city is a much better idea - in fact, i recently got a related domain name in NYC.

Cheers. Party with a Local is already launched and is indeed the more serious startup http://partywithalocal.com

When I shop, I get the girl in the store to help me. No need to bring my own girl along! Sure, at first some try to simply sell you random stuff, but after trying a few shirts and asking for their advice, they will start to be honest.

Wow, this is pretty sexist. It's the equivalent as somebody building letamandrive.com because, you know, woman can't drive!?

It has been a long time (7 years? probably closer to 8) since I went shopping with a girl, but as I remember it, the reason why a male is invited to shop is two-fold:

* romantic interest

* feedback (more valuable the more stylish you are yourself)

In which case this tagline:

> girls - get paid to shop with guys and make them look good.

Seems a bit off.

UNEDITED EDIT

So I just read the about, and it looks like I misinterpreted this entirely. This line:

> Guys - go clothes shopping with a girl who has style and likes shopping with guys.

Is not equivalent to this:

> SOME GIRLS, those with a good sense of Style And fashion knowledge, KNOW WHAT clothes LOOK GOOD ON GUYs AND ENJOY going SHOPPING WITH THEM.

We respect you enough to deliberate solicit, and pay for, your help in choosing clothes to purchase, but we're still going to call you a girl. Maybe we think it's cute, maybe it's a belittling way to smother our inadequacies in this field. Who knows. The fact that we're deliberately seeking out "girls" and eliminating 50% of the world's population, many of whom know a great deal about buying clothes for men, is rather suggestive.

They say they do a "SCREENING AND BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR SAFETY" for the Shopper Girl. Will they do it for the shopper as well for her safety.

mmm Men only buy clothes when they need it, I mean if I needed a tie right now I would go to a store and buy many ties, nothing else. Of course there are many compulsive shopping males, but those are probably ok with shopping alone, I think the service would be better if it's sold as a makeover service. just my 2 cents

I know a few girls who would love a girl to shop with them.

Who is Annika and why should I trust her sense of style?

Good point, there could indeed be more background info on Annika and her knowledge and experience of (guys) fashion.

That picture of her neck at the top of the page is pretty creepy: http://www.shopwithagirl.com/shop-in-amsterdam-special.html

Has anyone seen Silicon Valley (the HBO series)

this is SO silicon valley

There's also the issue with personal styles. I could never feel comfortable pulling off the hardcore alpha male look with leather jackets, but if the girl thinks that it is good then I'll just be disagreeing with her on it for the whole time. Also unless these girls have experience with how difference clothes look on difference body types, I would not trust some random girl to pick out clothes for me.

Signup sites aren't enough to make a Show HN, so we've taken that out of the title. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

Apologies, missed that detail when posting.

My new website: by-a-car-with-a-bro

If you want to get a car a 'bro' would like, and you don't know how, then this could be a good idea!

pretending to take my joke seriously because you don't like it, cute.

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