What happens when fashion and personal style meets social media? You get Chictopia, a fashion destination website and social network for fashionistas. I recently met Helen Zhu, co-founder and CEO of Chictopia, while on the Geeks on a Plane tour in Asia, and her combination of style and substance struck me straight away. While on a late-night, post-club stroll home in Shanghai, we bonded over our shared passion for the start-up life.
Although Helen had always wanted to combine her talents and personal interests to launch a company, it was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2006 cover article that struck a nerve. Time Magazine’s 2006 person was You. Time applauded people’s creative contribution to changing the landscape of global media and social interaction through blogging, social networks and sites like YouTube and Wikipedia. 2006 was about the power of individual contribution in the new digital democracy.
Helen and her two co-founders launched Chictopia in April 2008 as a place for trendsetters and fashion devotees to connect and share their personal style with others. The site allows people to rate styles and encourages users to upload photos of themselves in their favorite outfits so that others with similar shapes and taste can learn from and be inspired by real people like themselves, rather than get ideas for fashion from what supermodels are wearing in magazines. Ranked as a top 4 style site by Nylon magazine, Chictopia is already profitable, thanks mostly to their focus on revenue and growth. Rather than start from scratch, Chictopia looked to sites like Facebook, Yelp, and Catster for inspiration when they started building the site.
Jump into the world of Chictopia – and while you’re there check out the newly launched fashion contest sponsored by Forever21, including a 10% off Forever21 promotion available exclusively to Chictopia members. Congratulations to Helen and her founding team for delivering a unique offering and inspiring us to follow our passions!
Leave a Reply