A growing number of customers are looking for personalized shopping experiences at lower prices and a curated selection specifically tailored to their individual needs. This has both traditional retailers and startups sitting up and taking note.

Harvard Business Review spoke with Katrina Lake, the founder of Stitch Fix, an online service that provides personal styling at affordable prices, about the principles that guide the company’s approach to mass customization.

George Zimmer, the founder of Men’s Wearhouse, has launched zTailors — an on-demand service that brings tailors to the customer’s door. He hopes that “by making tailors more accessible and affordable to consumers, more people will want to invest in well-fitted clothes, and stop thinking about clothes as short-term, expendable products.”

With the Chic Sketch app you can turn your favourite outfit into a customized colour sketch hand-drawn by fashion illustrator Emily Brickel.

New Balance is following in the footsteps of Nike and Adidas with the launch of a customizable collection of the 998 sneakers, which are now also available in women’s sizes.

Fab Links from Our Members

With all the talk recently about Summer shoes, Karie found this article on how to keep feet from sweating in shoes interesting. Antiperspirant and powder, sure, but cedar trees? Karie never would have thought of doing that one.

Laurinda reports that, at age 56, the iconic Barbie doll will finally be able to wear flat shoes.

Gardenchick found a great article on BuzzFeed about the challenges of bra fitting, which hit close to home for her.