‘Clueless’-inspired app Alta partners with brand Public School to integrate styling tools into websites | TechCrunch

A lot has changed for Jenny Wang, the founder who brings ‘Clueless’ fashion technology to life.

Last year, her company, Alta, raised $11 million in a round led by Menlo Ventures to let users create digital closets and try on their clothes with their own virtual avatars. It’s a technology that used to only be seen in movies, most notably in “Clueless,” in which Cher styles and plans her outfits using computer technology. Alta is similar to this, allowing users to plan and style outfits using the latest AI innovations.

A slew of big names participated in Atla’s round last year, including models Jasmine Tookes and Karlie Kloss, Anthropic’s VC arm Anthology Fund and Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss.

TechCrunch caught up with Wang at New York Fashion Week to talk how the company has been expanded since that round.

To start with, the product is officially in the app store; Time And Fashion calling it one of last year’s best innovations, Wang said more than 100 million outfits have been generated on the platform since its launch in 2023. It has partnerships with Poshmark and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and more partnerships will be announced soon.

“Alta’s own app also offers thousands of brands for users to shop,” Wang said.

Right now, the company is focused on building app and website integration experiences for brands, she said, where customers can try on a designer’s clothes using a personalized Alta avatar. This week the company unveiled its first integration partnership, in collaboration with the public schoola legendary brand from New York City.

“Shoppers can style looks from the new collection with their own Alta avatar,” said Wang.

She met the Public School team – Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne – through Poshmak’s founder, who is also an angel investor in both companies.

“Public school designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne were looking for an AI partner and a virtual trial avatar solution, and Dao-Yi herself is a user of the Alta app,” Wang said.

Public School actually went on hiatus for a few years, with this NYFW marking its big re-debut. When asked, the brand’s founders said they had rediscovered their voice and what they wanted to say.

“We have to think of technology today as a partner in the business,” Chow told TechCrunch, adding, “It’s not 2015 anymore,” so the team wants to take advantage of the latest technological developments. “We want to think about the way we use technology and AI,” he continued, “not as a design tool, but as a tool to extend our storytelling and a tool to communicate with consumers and let them experience the brand, even if they can’t do so in person.”

Wang said this is one of the first examples of a designer integrating personal avatar and styling technology into his own website. At the bottom of the Public School product page there is an icon with the text Style of Alta. Clicking on that will take the customer to Alta, where they can then style their avatars and test out what the public school clothes would look like if they were to make a purchase.

Users of Alta’s standalone app can also access Public School through Alta’s app. Wang said the plan is for Alta to integrate more experiences like this into other brands and websites, allowing Alta users to try on clothes on other websites, even outside the Alta app.

“Right now, a user would have to add a potential purchase to their Alta wishlist, then style outfits and try on their avatar, rather than being able to do that directly on the brand’s website.” (For every site except Public School, that is.) “The goal is to take their community on a new journey to engage and shop with the brand.”

Many major fashion brands, such as Zara and Balmain, have already experimented with digital avatars. Wang said what makes Alta different here, especially compared to Zara, is that Alta avatars can carry at least eight items in seconds, while Zara avatars can only carry four and often take about two minutes.

Overall, the demand for virtual avatars has increased. Wang still sees Alta as the “Cluless” technology it started with, and as a digital avatar company.

“The Alta consumer app is the ‘Clueless’ closet, while the Alta business experience allows shoppers to style pieces and try out the outfits on their pre-existing Alta avatar,” he said. Ultimately, Wang said she wants Alta to become the “personal identity layer for the future of consumer AI and shopping.”

To make agentic commerce really work, she said: “We need a data layer that understands the shopper’s style preferences, such as their wardrobe, previous purchases and their avatar, likeness and body, namely Alta.”