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ST. LOUIS - The little black dress looks gorgeous on the hanger. The supermodel on the Web site can definitely pull it off with ease. Once it's on your body, however, it looks like you've lost all color and gained 15 pounds.
It happens all the time, said Louise J. Wannier, chief executive officer and founder of www.myShape.com.
"The designers make the patterns, and the clothes can be really great and attractive," Wannier says. "But it's not until you put them on that you can see if they work on your body."
Time-consuming dressing rooms present an over-crowded nightmare, and they are often flanked with screaming children.
Many fed-up women choose to buy all the options and try them on at home. That tactic means a lot of trips back to the store to return what doesn't work.
In contrast, online shopping seems convenient, but the guesswork of what size and style to order often lead to equally inconvenient returns and shipping hassles.
The idea to bridge the gap between women and clothes that fit their bodies and match their style came to Wannier when she was in design school.
The self-described "serial entrepreneur" launched myShape.com in February 2006. So far, roughly 300,000 women have signed up, with thousands more joining every day.
MyShape does online what a personal shopper would do in the store: picks the clothes that best suit each woman's taste and body. Best of all, the service is free.
The site offers each user a "personal shop" filled with clothing suggestions specifically for her. The shop has dresses, skirts, blouses, pants and more that match individuals' measurements, body shape, style and fit preferences.
The concept is not new to sites such as www.zafu.com. That site gathers style and body shape information to help women hunt and capture that elusive animal of the fashion wilderness: the perfect jean.
"We wanted to focus on the difficult products that are harder to fit," said Blair Newel, vice president of product development for zafu.com. "That's the service we can best provide."
Zafu's hipster site tries to establish each customer's style identity with pointed questions such as: Do you consider your style to be that of an "it girl," a "power broker" or a "mainstream mom"?
Site users also take fit quizzes for bras, jeans or pants. With a click, Zafu will offer each woman pages of jeans or bras that will fit her best and connects her directly to the place to get them. Finding the right fit on the first try is what makes these sites so helpful.
MyShape thoroughly questions users, getting to know them like a trusted best friend.
The site asks for exact measurements, with handy instruction windows that pop up to guide users through the online body chart. If you don't have a tape measure, there's one available via the site, or myShape will mail one to you.
Using their trademarked ShapeMatch, myShape factors in your measurements, proportions and fit preferences to determine which of their seven various body shapes each woman fits into.
For each body shape, myShape describes the details that will flatter the positives and hide the negatives, down to the types of fabric to wear and the type of cuffs to have on pants.
"It's not just your measurements; it's how the proportion of the clothing looks on your figure," Wannier says.
Once the fit is right, style is determined by having the users choose which photos of clothes they like best.
MyShape asks questions such as: Do you like to dress romantic or glamorous? What is your style risk level: safe, variable or daring?
But just because you have a specific taste doesn't mean myShape won't offer you the chance to spice things up outside of each shopper's typical fashion "uniform."
Both sites offer a price range for users to search in and have clothes suitable for just about any budget.
These personal shopping experiences ask lots of questions initially, but once users have their shape and style programmed in, they're fast and easy to navigate, users report.
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