Tea at Trianon: An App for Clothing

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

An App for Clothing

From Entrepreneur:

When Mada first launched, it did so with a bug. Its product feeds weren’t updating fast enough, so sometimes customers would order something and then discover it was out of stock. “In that moment, I would reach out to them myself and be like, ‘I'm so sorry, this is out of stock, but here are 10 more options that we think you'll love,’” Semarjian says.
She was stunned by the results. These customers turned into some of Mada’s biggest fans. It made her realize the power of personally connecting with her audience. It also gave her an idea to launch a kind of “style concierge” — someone whom customers could reach out to with any style-related question. She figured she’d develop it sometime in the future.
Then her new competitor arrived, and Semarjian decided it was time to launch the style concierge now. She wanted another way to differentiate herself, and to lock in long-term relationships with her customers. So instead of offering a style concierge as a premium service, she made it available to everyone who uses the app. All someone has to do is send an email and they’ll get a personal response.
The program launched over the summer, and Semarjian says the reaction was immediate. Users became even more engaged with the app and used it longer. And they asked questions she never expected, which gave her even more insight into her users. “One emailed in and was like, ‘I wear the same thing over and over again, and I'm bored but I'm kind of nervous to try something new. Any tips?’” she says. (Read more.)