Brayola

It appears that you use this site to input information about your existing bra collection, into a ‘secret drawer’. This includes adding bras by brand, model number and size. Bring naturally lazy, I selected the closest thing from the existing drop down list, but I’m sure the idea is that in this beta stage everyone dutifully inputs the full info so the Brayola site gathers more data! Sorry guys…

You can also select whether you like bras or not. Once all this information is in ‘your drawers’ then you can click on your personal shop and make a selection of the type of bra you are interested in, including bustiers, convertibles and sports bras. The site then offers you a selection of bras which presumably via the use of a clever algorithm closely matches the bras you have liked, in terms of size, style and fit. It gives you an easy clickable link if you want to buy the item and shows a clear price.

Having had another read over of the site, apparently it uses the existing profiles of other women on the site to make suggestions for you. And that’s it! Simple, eh? So what are my thoughts on it?

* This is a new concept and I haven’t seen anything similar to it before.

* It kind of acts like a minimal effort review site. Presumably if loads of women ‘dislike’ a specific bra, then it’s probably pretty uncomfortable, or poorly fitting – and then it’ll never get recommended. 

* They appear to use a good selection of reputable retailers – including Amazon, Bare Necessities and Victoria’s Secret.

* You can filter selections by various factors, like underwire, front closure and lace.

* They have a cute, new blog.

* At the moment, presumably because the site is in beta and quite new, you get LOADS of recommendations. I clicked demi cup after adding 4 bras to my drawer and got 156 recommendations! That’s more bras than I have to browse in any shop ever. So I’m not actually having any time saved.

* You do not appear to be able to filter selections by price or retailer at the moment. There are also no indications of whether the prices quoted include P&P or if any of them are sale prices, that I noticed.

* The site is very pink, the style very shabby chic. There’s nothing wrong with this necessarily, but I’m not a big shocking pink fan.

* Everything is in dollars at the moment and presumably only links to American retail sites. Which is weird, because M&S bras are on there!
* Saying you like or dislike a bra might be a bit simplistic. Is it a great design, but the straps are uncomfortable? Does it fit really well but the stitching is poor quality? There are lots of things that make a great bra…

Overall, I can see the point of this site and as it grows I can see opportunities for Brayola to partner up with their recommended retailers to offer special offers – but only on the basis that customers were still offered the best bra match for them, not offered the bras by the retailers who wanted to put the most into Brayola!! I’d be interested to see how this site developed, to see if people really started to find it a useful tool for buying the most comfortable and stylish bras for their size. Personally though, it just seems to be an additional tool that I will soon forget about. Perhaps more fool me, if I accidentally buy another poor quality or ill-fitting brassiere!

What do you think? Great new concept, or conceptually challenged?