my honest review of six polyvore alternatives

-- july 22nd, 2018, 1:00 PM
-- song of the day : entertainer - zayn // when you need me the most, i will turn you down
-- currently looking forward to : .... still my august vacation. and i might help my school paint posters for this year's homecoming on wednesday :0 we shall see.

hey friends! :^)

as i mentioned a long while ago, today i'm going to review some of the most similar websites to polyvore!! for each of them i’m going to go over some of the functionalities and features of each site: some things i liked about them, some things i found different or confusing about them, and a set i was able to make on them. that last thing is just so i can compare how similar i was able to make sets on these sites to the sets i made on polyvore.

some disclaimers: this should Not be taken as gospel or anything, i’m not trying to hate on ANY of these websites. none of these sites are gonna be Exactly like polyvore, and i get that. keep in mind that i’m mostly judging on how effective these sites were for a) filling up the polyvore-shaped hole in my heart (aka how similar it is to polyvore) and b) making sets, specifically my kinds of sets which are either magazine / collage-like fashion sets, art sets, or simple fashion sets. for most of these, i tested the platform by trying to make a simple fashion set.

contender 1: trendMe (website)

cool things - 

  • similar purposes!! it allows both art and fashion sets.
  • the clipper is pretty cool. i used it for a few things and it seems to work quite well! a lot more settings than polyvore, actually. like… look at this stuff. ooooh my gosh. (it's not a browser extension like polyvore's was though)
  • pretty much all of their functions are similar to polyvore’s, but there are a lottt more different cropping tools!! and even options to increase the brightness, apply different filters, etc. i think there’s even an option to change the colors of an item… i just found that pretty cool haha. you can find most of these color changing things under the top tab “colors” in the create interface.
  • i found it cool that i can actually control who follows me on the site since you must send friend requests to be someone’s “friend” on trendme (much like facebook). this is unlike polyvore, where the only way to prevent some shady person from following you would be to block them.
  • there’s a message function and the good ol’ style advice page that polyvore just had to take from their site smh!! you can actually talk to people on it which is nice, if you can find the right community. and people on there seem quite nice and pretty active, i got a lot of positive comments on my first set very quickly.

things to consider -

  • the set shape is…. weird. they’re not the typical square shaped ones polyvore had, they’re vertical-rectangular shaped. that was pretty hard to adjust myself to. i don’t think i ended up using up the entire space at all in my sample set, i still kept it a square. :p
  • it was quite difficult to find clothes that fit my aesthetic or style. it’s mostly high fashion stuff or really outdated stuff so……. yeah i’m not sure if it has as wide as a selection of items as polyvore did. like, you could have literally any style in the world and you could easily find it on polyvore, and it just isn’t like that on trendme. perhaps i just needed to look harder but yeah, it was very difficult to search for good items. perhaps that’s where the clipper comes in.
  • the default option for resizing stuff doesn’t lock in the proportions so you could accidentally make an item in your set suuuper wide or suuuper long but there is an option to stop that. still annoyed me though tbqh. and it was kind of unnecessary.
  • not really a concern of mine but… what the hell is the “fashion game?” i kept seeing it on the login page and i had nooo idea what that meant. couldn’t find an inkling of what it might mean on the homepage either once i logged in. or maybe i’m just not observant enough. idk :/
"play the fashion game" ????????
a peek at what the creator looks like

OVERALL: it’s like an ancient version of polyvore i guess. it gives me that sort of outdated feel, like it was probably made a long time ago as polyvore’s competitor. but tbh? it was not really for me. especially because of the rectangular shaped sets… i’d rather keep mine square. but that’s just me. it might do the job for you though. the clipper was nice. 5/10 score.

note all the extra space since sets on this site are not square shaped, they give you a rectangular-shaped space.

contender 2: iqon.jp (website)

cool things -


  • pretty easy and simple to make sets! not much lag at all.
note: google chrome translated this entire page for me, this is all originally in japanese. also note how the translator is calling sets “cordes” lol. sorry about the pink screen tint.
  • the clothing items are really cute. big selection of beauty & accessory items as well. they have different categories for clothes actually -- there are separate categories for swimwear and “home wear” which i guess is actually lounge wear??
  • you can like items and sets, as well as comment on sets and follow other accounts (called “stylists”).
  • fashion advice forums like trendme, and also articles!!!! it isn’t all just about making sets, it’s generally a site just centered around fashion. i don’t think you can write your own articles though.
what the article page looks like
a look at one of the articles (in original japanese text)
  • it’s got a mobile app!!!!! i haven’t tried it though, since they don’t have an english version.

things to consider -

  • as i mentioned earlier, the entire site is in japanese. this makes it pretty difficult to navigate if you don’t know any, i was only able to navigate the site through translating the pages with google chrome’s translator.
  • to make sets, i had to scroll alll the way down to the site’s navigation footer and in the last column, select “to make” (the 3rd link down). they did not make their create set button very visible at all.
  • no art and expression as far as i remember… don’t quote me on that though. they do have text pictures, frames, people, backgrounds, and other photo effects to use in your sets under “deco material.” 
  • pro-tip: it can be pretty hard to find home decor items (if you make home sets) in the creator bc using the translator,, it isn’t labelled “home” or anything like that. if you’re looking for some to use, they’re under the “sundries” category. im guessing my translator translated it wrong lol. but here is where it is in the creator…
second to last thing in the second row. it’s got stationary and other interior decor!!
  • you can’t DM people.
  • you can't crop things yourself. they automatically crop clothes for you by removing the background.
OVERALL: i liked this site’s easy-to-use set creator, as soon as i knew what each button did it was very much like making a set on polyvore. i think that the language barrier won’t be a problem if you a) know japanese or b) have translate like i did, but if you’re neither of those things, this probably isn’t the site for you. this is probably good for people who mostly used polyvore for making fashion sets / shopping / putting together outfits, but not so much for people who used it for different purposes. 6/10 score.


contender 3: SmartCloset (ios app)

cool things -

  • it’s similar to polyvore in the sense that you can put together outfits and there is a community of people that you can view and like sets from, as well as follow. 
  • in addition to posting sets, you can also post pictures of your own outfits,,, as in clothes you wear and take pictures of. if you like that sort of thing, you might enjoy this app! i didn’t really use polyvore to actually put together outfits for myself to wear but the inspiration might be nice. :)
  • easy crop functions ??? there’s a way to literally just tap the background away. or you can just manually crop it out like you would on polyvore.

things to consider -

  • no direct messaging function.
  • no comment function.
  • you can’t make art sets nor home sets.
  • you can’t save drafts.
  • REALLY hard to make sets in general honestly, whenever i tried to resize something my stubby fingers kept accidentally moving other items around. :/
  • you can’t crop while making your sets. you can only use the crop function when you add something to your “closet.”
look at me struggling lol. this is me cropping something (using the tap to remove background tool) and adding it to my "closet", then trying to make a set.

OVERALL: personally… i didn’t like it as a polyvore substitute. i probably couldn't make a set that looked anything like the ones i had on polyvore without approx. 10000 hours of struggling and work. i don’t think i’ll be using it much. 2/10 score.
view of profile
making this set took way longer than it was supposed to… :/


contender 4: shoplook.io (website)

cool things -

  • they’ve been specifically trying to add features that polyvore had such as text in sets, commenting on sets, following others, and DMing others. 
  • very accommodating to polyvore users in general. you can upload your old polyvore sets and even find your other polyvore friends based on who you followed! 
  • speaking of uploading polyvore sets… they even upload your drafts. the public can’t see it obviously but they are definitely available to you to access! which i thought was pretty cool.
see? all my sets and drafts are here :’) nice one, shoplook.
  • really really cool site design like. woww. check this shit out.
BEAUTIFUL. so enticing and engaging! 
  • you can clip items by either image url or an extension for chrome browsers. i’ve clipped a few things through image urls and it went pretty smoothly! i haven’t tried the extension yet but i can imagine it works well too.
  • their set editor is v v v nice. fairly well-organized, has different categories of clothes (both women & mens wear), accessories, and images similar to what polyvore had.
  • their staff is awesome. seriously. this was actually one of the first polyvore alternatives i checked out because i saw on twitter that they were literally trying to give ex-polyvore members a new home and i found that so sweet! they’re always taking suggestions for improving their site and i get the impression that they actually listen to their audience, something polyvore’s staff was notorious for… not doing, lol. but honestly i think their willingness to welcome polyvore users so openly is the best thing about shoplook!
  • like iqon.jp they recently put out an ios app! i haven't tried it yet though. if anyone has, let me know your thoughts on it in the comments. 👀

things to consider -

  • some buffering problems. but since it’s a relatively new site (like most others in this masterpost) and there’s probably hundreds of ex-polyvore users coming to this site all the time, it’s understandable. 
  • you can see the descriptions of each of your polyvore sets but i guess mine were too long since i couldn’t scroll to see the entirety of my last polyvore set, where i talked about my 3rd day of spring break.
  • like trendme, there isn’t a large variation of clothing styles to find items from, but they’re always, always adding more. the clipper makes it easier to expand selection as well since you can add your own things.
  • as far as i’m concerned, there's no way to make any groups or contests. shoplook does hold contests of their own but individual users cannot make any like they would as a moderator in a group on polyvore.
OVERALL: not exactly the same as polyvore but i’m really thankful for the effort the shoplook staff is going through to welcome polyvore users! they really get their community involved with the site and are always looking for new suggestions. although it’s still fairly limited, it’s very good for putting together quick outfits. the clipper especially makes it easier to just upload any items you want and make sets with them if you can’t find anything you need on the site. 8/10 score.

contender 5: fashmates (website and ios app)

cool things -

  • extreeeeemely similar create interface to polyvore. like, almost everything was in the exact same spot, the only thing that's appears really different is the font & symbols. and the button to add text is in the browse section instead of embellishments.
similar on the app as well!!!
  • you can import your polyvore sets here too!! it's taking a loooong time (i uploaded mine onto the site weeks ago) but a ton of my sets have been uploaded, mostly the earlier ones though. but i only know this because people started to like and comment on those sets :p
  • and i See that they’ve been importing my collections too, when i tried to access collections in the create interface, which is pretty cool! they haven’t finished uploading yet though so i couldn’t use any items :/

  • the community seems nice, people have been liking and commenting a looot on my sets -- particularly the ones i imported from poly. so at least people are active and will see your sets!!
  • they also have an ios app! it isn’t as efficient as the desktop website when it comes to making sets though, as you will see.

things to consider -

  • what bugged me quite a bit were the annoying alert pop-ups when you like someone else’s set. it was a bit of a hassle having to keep closing it after you like a set.
  • there’s no actual filtering within categories when making sets, although you can search for certain things. for instance, you can directly search for coats in the outerwear category but you can’t filter the outerwear category for it in a drop down list like on polyvore, if that makes sense.
  • i got SO excited when i saw the colors category in fashmates since None of the other sites have any color blocks that you can resize into any proportion you want and make more transparent or opaque like on polyvore,,,..... but it turns out that they’re not actually color blocks. they’re just.. pictures.
as seen here… some of these aren’t even plain colors and you can’t make them translucent or anything like on polyvore. to add a color block, i had to crop out the shape i wanted from the picture i chose.
  • same thing for the “music” category… it doesn’t add music to your sets like polyvore did a longgg time ago, the music category is just a bunch of pictures of music symbols. that was quite the disappointment for me lol
  • the selection of items on there mostly consists of high fashion clothing, it’s hard to find items you might enjoy if you have any other style. although, i think they're like shoplook in the sense that the admins are constantly adding more items to its database.
    • not exactly a bad thing but i noticed a lot of the clothing items were the same as the items i saw in smartcloset… like, the same exact database lmao. or is that just me? i didn’t try recreating the set i did in smartcloset though. 
  • one of the things that i struggled with the most was the cropping feature. whenever i manually cropped something a weird blank space would appear with the item (if that makes sense)??? here’s a visual representation:
before i cropped it

after i cropped it
  • i also tried making a set on the app. whenever i cropped something, the item appeared to widen out of proportion like this --
it was tough to make a set on the app in general, really.

OVERALL: it was alright overall. it was a little more difficult trying to make a set though since there weren’t much good items that i could make sets from and i had some weird issues with cropping and all. although it does advertise itself as a polyvore alternative and i could import some of my sets, the technical issues just got to me :/ not sure if i’ll use it as much as urstyle or shoplook. 6/10 score.
made on desktop site
made on mobile

contender 6: urstyle (website)

good things -

  • the community forum is the BEST. people are always posting resources, advice, and help, amongst other things on it. i’ve also seen people create groups in the contest forum similar to the ones on polyvore! people are just so nice here in general. always willing to help someone out.
  • the set creator is very veery similar to polyvore now!! it’s got pretty much everything, including clothes (both women & mens wear), home items, beauty items, text and magazine articles. aaand as of recent, you can access your collections there as well!!!
  • wider selection of crop tools than polyvore -- there’s even an oval crop tool so if you ever want to crop out something in a circle… your prayers have been answered :-) they were the first site i’ve seen implement this option!! (shoplook has it too)
  • so. many. good. items. oh my gosh. and very easily accessible as well thanks to the community forum, there’s a whole thread of people linking to collections / items that they’ve clipped somewhere. you can basically find whatever you want if you know where to look.
  • as you can probably imply from the last point, there are also clippers -- one using image urls and one as a browser extension (for chrome and firefox, that is. i think they’re also developing an extension for safari as well !!)
  • they’re making an ios app soon!!
  • like shoplook, you can upload your sets from polyvore if you have the zip file of data from that awfully diabolical excuse of a fashion retail site ssense. most people have found that it worked and it uploaded all their sets, but some people,,,, had issues with it, which is what i’ll go over in more depth next.

things to consider -

  • as stated earlier the polyvore set importer did have some issues,, or at least for me there was. i tried doing it riiight after i downloaded my data from ssense (so basically immediately after urstyle launched the feature) and while they did upload a ton of sets to my profile… not all of them were there. it seemed like they stopped uploading after my 550th set, when i had about 611 sets to upload in total. it’s been four months since then and i’m still waiting for those remaining 71 sets lol. it may have been because i tried uploading them when the site was still pretty slow with all the activity from its users and i guess the system just sort of glitched on me… im too scared to try re-uploading them though so. ugh. not to mention that i’ve seen some people that didn’t get their sets to show up at all :/
    • tldr; whether or not this feature works likely depends on the activity of the site, i’m sure if you upload them now that most ex-polyvorians have settled it will be a lot easier to get all your sets on your account.
  • i can’t really see any of the sets the people i follow make on my feed unless i go to their profiles.
  • i don’t get notifications when people comment on sets for some reason?? i always have to check the sets myself for any.
OVERALL: loooooove this site so much. they’re doing an exceptional job of making improvements as quickly as possible, it took polyvore literally 11 years to get to the level it was and urstyle is pretty much doing that in the span of a few months. again, it’s not exactly the same as polyvore (and none of these sites are) yet but it is super efficient and with only a little practice i was able to make sets almost identical to the kinds i had on polyvore. simple but effective site layout, fairly easy to navigate. urstyle is definitely my new home! 9/10 score.
this was the only site i was able to make a full-on collage set on!!! this is one of my most recent ones.

there you go! those are all the sites / apps i’ve looked at that could be alternatives to polyvore. keep in mind that i started writing this a few months ago so some of the features and issues i've covered here may be subject to change, or just disappear all together. i'm pretty sure i probably missed out on a lot more, but i just didn't have the time to navigate around each site for so long to observe that much! i have an account on all six of these sites / apps if you want to follow me, but the one i’ll probably be using the most is urstyle. there’s probably some that i haven’t visited and included but if you want me to check out a certain polyvore alternative that isn’t on here, let me know! i put so much effort into this mega-review, it might be the longest blog post on this site so far ahahahha. but i hope it helped at least someone out there. comment the site you like the most below if you read all the way to the end!


(i still miss polyvore though)
x ainsley

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