This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 15, 2021 - February 21, 2021

Imagine spending hours skimming through fashion websites and still having no idea what to buy. And then, when you finally buy something and it arrives, it is not as flattering as you thought it would be. And now, with your ability to go out and try on new clothes severely impeded by the pandemic, buying clothes is so much more difficult.

Gwen Delhumeau understands. But unlike many others, this mother of two — who could barely find the time to shop for clothes for herself given her busy schedule — decided to do something about it, founding fashion tech start-up Ellegra, which provides online personal styling services.

“For many years, I didn’t like shopping or trying to figure out what the current fashion trend was,” she says. But she knew that it was more than a matter of being on-trend — looking good and well turned out would also help boost her confidence.

Delhumeau did not start the company on an impulse after a few shopping fails. Instead, she did her research and backed up her assumptions with statistics, the main one being that women spend more than 90 hours a year shopping for fashion items.

She launched Ellegra last June, smack in the middle of the pandemic, and her instinct (backed by research) has proved to be true. Her idea has caught on and more than 20,000 women have signed up for the service, she tells Digital Edge.

“Our end goal is to transform the shopping experience from three hours at the mall to a 20-minute personal styling experience online,” says Delhumeau.

Customers who want to avail themselves of this personal styling experience should go to the company’s website — ellegra.com.my — and fill up a style quiz form, which would indicate their preferences. The questions include what kind of outfits you like to wear, what kind of fit (tight, loose, fitted) you prefer, how you feel about polka dots and what colours you like.

According to Delhumeau, the quiz collects 50 data points of customers’ style, size and price preferences, and takes around 10 minutes to complete.

After a customer completes the form and pays a RM50 styling fee, stylists would handpick five items based on the information shared in the style quiz. The company would then deliver a style box with the handpicked items straight to the customer’s doorstep.

Upon receiving the style box, customers have three days to decide whether they want to keep the items or return them. This, Delhumeau says, gives them the freedom to pay only for what they want. And the RM50 styling fee can be used as credit to pay for any of the items they wish to keep.

This is a huge plus point, she points out, because she has frequently had to return items bought online because they did not fit properly. 

As of now, this service is only available in Peninsular Malaysia, where both deliveries and returns are free of charge.

Setting up Ellegra from scratch, Delhu­meau came up against many challenges, one of which was technology. The fashion tech start-up needed a proprietary technology platform. The aforementioned style quiz played a big part in this as the information gathered contributed to the company’s database, giving it some idea of the personal fashion preferences of the women who sign up for the online styling service.

Delhumeau is not new to the business of making recommendations. She used to work at video-on-demand service provider iflix, where her job was to incorporate data-backed recommendations, suggesting films to viewers based on their preferences and watching behaviour. She transposed this skill to Ellegra, developing tools that suggest the right clothes and accessories for the women who request its service.

“We focus on making the shopping experience more personalised and unique, as opposed to relying on externally-sourced intelligence,” she adds.

The Malaysia-based venture had needed to account for the racial diversity present in the country when developing the database, says Delhumeau. Considering the cultural differences, Ellegra prepares different sets of questions for different ethnicities, especially for women who wear hijabs. 

“The hijab is a fantastic accessory for women, and we have to make sure that we make the most of it when styling,” she says. 

In the personal styling business, finding the right talent is crucial, Delhumeau points out. As she only moved to Malaysia a few years ago, she needed input from local talent to provide the right questions to people, according to their demographic.

While those who have worked in the fashion industry in companies such as Zara or Fashion Valet are preferable, Delhumeau is also eager to train new blood in the industry. “We are proud to have built a team of personal stylists who are passionate about styling women in a way that works, in a way that helps them boost their confidence.”

But to work for Ellegra, it is not enough to know fashion. They also have to be comfortable with using data to inform their styling choices. “We were able to hire people who were open-minded and excited to participate in this tech opportunity,” says Delhumeau.

Although she likes the company’s current concept, Delhumeau wants to go further. Other than providing style boxes, she aims to improve the algorithm of its tech platform to provide more accurate recommendations to its customers. 

With better data-backed insights, she hopes to expand her services to also cater for men and children. And Delhumeau does not want to stop at new items — she wants to also provide rental and pre-loved items as these would cost less and fit some budgets better, especially for those who are cash-strapped.

Although she started off in Malaysia, she feels that this is a business idea that will travel well. Delhumeau has set her sights on Indonesia next, and after that, the rest of Southeast Asia.

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