Creating an appealing social shopping experience is a challenge, and trying to do so with non geeky goods (read not gadgets) is even a bigger challenge. Sense of Fashion, a new Israeli startup is trying to do exactly that.

Luckily, it has a great team, including Daria Shualy, Yael Givon, and Yariv Habut, all are friends and experienced media and tech folks. I had a chance to chat with them a bit:

1. What’s sense of fashion?
Sense of Fashion is home to all indie fashion lovers: fashionistas, designers, fans, fashion students, street fashion bloggers, photographers, anyone who expresses themselves through fashion. It’s a real live place, where all these people can interact in a genuine way, influence, get inspired, sell and shop.

2. Who should go to this site?
Anybody who expresses themselves through fashion, or who wants to get inspired by people who do. Anybody looking to buy a unique fashion item, which no one else has, for a reasonable price and perhaps from a far away land. Anyone who’s looking for a platform to show off and sell their designs. Someone who’s experiencing a fashion emergency, and wants a real live feedback.

3. Is it another social network?
It has social features, but it is a lot more than that. What it does, really, is imitate the real live experience of the indie fashion world off-line, instead of the segregated (a site which is only meant for shopping, or sites just for show-offers etc.) experience most fashion web sites offer today.

4. What’s the difference between that and Ebay or Etsy?
The difference is huge. First and foremost, Sense of Fashion is ONLY about FASHION. You’re not selling a fabulous dress next to a lawn mower or a burp cloth set. Second, since it’s not only for designers, and lots of fashionistas are active users on the site, the designers get a real live clientèle base to interact with*. Third, you can upload an unlimited amount of fashion-photos for free, which enables designers, photographers, students and stylists to use it as an online portfolio, and by doing so, really bring together in one place all the various elements which compile the indie fashion scene. Oh, and of course, our sales commission is lower, we currently do not charge a listing fee, and there’s no expiration date on the photos.

5. How do you see the role of social web elements in your site as a part of your future success?
Well, our business model is based on commerce (sales commission) and the social interaction enhances commerce, just like it does in real life. You see what other people are wearing, and their on-photo tags or descriptions tell you where they got it. If it’s from a designer on the web site, and you buy it, that’s another sale. If it’s outside the site, it goes to a future part of the business plan which has to do with affiliates.

Good luck guys in changing the world of fashion!

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