Let's Get Information
ELLE|November 2017

Algorithms drive everything from our entertainment to the news that hits our feeds. So why not what we wear? Jason Wu takes a mathematical approach to his new collab with tech juggernaut Stitch Fix.

Naomi Rougeau
Let's Get Information

Standing in a sunny Tribeca photo studio, I can’t help but chuckle at the scene before me: Our photographer has rented an old-school projector—the kind your high school algebra teacher might have used to lull your class to sleep—and placed upon it a sheet of transparent cellulose, printed with digital code, to cast numbers, letters, and symbols over Jason Wu and model Josefien Rodermans. A striking visual, to be sure, but more than anything, it’s a charmingly antiquated way to look at data.

Those lines of code are the actual algorithms that fuel the collaboration between Wu’s sister line, Grey, and Stitch Fix, the wildly popular six-year-old subscription fashion service founded by former retail consultant Katrina Lake, which reported $730 million in revenue in 2016. In the same way that streaming services use data on customer preferences to shape their entertainment offerings—in fact, the company’s top data scientist was poached from Netflix—Wu drew from a pool of info on Stitch Fixers’ color and silhouette preferences to design a new mini-collection for the company. And just what did the Stitch Fix masses want from Mr. Wu? Everything from a floaty, floral, off-the-shoulder dress to a simple navy polka-dot camisole.

This story is from the November 2017 edition of ELLE.

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This story is from the November 2017 edition of ELLE.

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