|
-
-
- |
By BRITTANY ROUSH
YOUTH CORRESPONDENT
Kevin McCormick, a 22-year-old New Jersey native, was lacking in the fashion department.
He was the classic male: He cared nothing about what he wore and would buy only one or two articles of clothing every couple of months; he was still wearing clothes from when he was 14.
But, as he found himself entering the business world, he came to the realization that dressing well was important for success.
"I graduated from college, and I have a job now, and I need to dress well for work," McCormick said. "I've starting dating now; I have more time for that stuff. I mean, a lot of my friends have the same situation. So, I decided to do something a little differently from them."
His approach was different, indeed.
McCormick created dresskevin.com, a Web site dedicated entirely to people picking out his outfits for each day.
"I needed to redo my whole wardrobe, basically. I just listed everything that I owned [to] find out what I had, what I should keep, what matches, because honestly I can't match things for the life of me. Every day, I chose between one and two outfits voted on throughout the day," he said.
"For example, if I go to work during the morning, that's one outfit, and another outfit at night. Sometimes, I have them vote on what I should wear out on a date or out to dinner. I'm at about 220 different combinations."
McCormick has designed dresskevin.com so that you can vote on the shirt, pants, socks, shoes and accessories separately.
In the shirt category alone, there are 85 items to pick from, ranging from an "I (Heart) NJ" shirt to button-down Express shirts, and he adds new items weekly.
He receives between 5,000 and 10,000 votes every day, and after press coverage that number jumps to about 40,000.
"I take whatever the majority outfit is," he said. "They pick everything: They pick the shoes, the socks, the tops, the bottoms, any accessories, the shoes, the belt--that kind of stuff."
A major motivation for the site was McCormick's entrance into the business world. He works at a small computer company in Hoboken, N.J., where he and the secretary are the only men in the office.
"How ironic is that?" he asked.
The rest of the workers are middle-aged women who are some of McCormick's regular voters.
"I'll walk in, and this one woman, Linda, will say, 'Oh, look what they picked out for you today.'"
For about three months, though, McCormick was able to keep dresskevin.com a secret. Whenever he sported a weird outfit, or an inappropriate outfit (like shorts and a T-shirt), he would hide during the day so no one would see him.
Though McCormick lists in the accessories area of the site many weird items, such as huge yellow earphones, golf shoes and argyle socks, only once or twice has a completely bizarre outfit been voted.
And he wore the outfits each time.
"I really do wear what they vote on," he said.
One particularly memorable event occurred when, early in the site's existence, McCormick was due to go on a date with one of his close friends.
A large group of people decided to vote him into one of his wackiest outfits. His date arrived to find McCormick dressed in argyle socks, golf shoes, a Hawaiian shirt, jeans and the big yellow headset.
"I looked like a clown," he said. "She didn't want to be seen with me."
He calls these times "red-letter occasions." Normally, the voters are "mindful about not picking the same clothes [over and over again]," and for the most part he believes that it will "always get a positive result--there are only so many sadistic people out there."
McCormick has garnered the attention of many different people with dresskevin.com. As a single, attractive young man, he's had his fair share of girls vying for his attention.
But it's not just young women who are trying to win his heart.
"I've never been hit on by so many men before," he said. "I feel like I've stepped into the shoes of a girl [and found that] gay men are very forward."
And if it's not gay men, or underage girls, it's older women.
"They say I remind them of their sons or husbands," McCormick said, "and that's just creepy."
In August, McCormick will celebrate the one-year anniversary of dresskevin.com. And in just the eight months since it went up, he has received national coverage from both CNN and CBS, and has been featured by many local radio stations and newspapers.
On top of that, he is now receiving clothing and accessories from multiple companies.
Just a few weeks ago, Fossil sent him a sample of its new clothing line. Payless Shoes, a flip-flop company and a headwear outfit also supply McCormick with clothing, not to mention the numerous T-shirts he receives from other sites on the Net.
Unfortunately for him, his closet bar isn't doing too well under the weight of his success, and he'll soon have to revamp his wardrobe.
Dresskevin.com has become a major, unexpected success for McCormick, and he's extremely grateful to all the regulars, and even the passer-by voters. The site has made for an "unbelievable experience," he said.
His newest brainchild is mydrobe.com, a Web site where you, too, can post your outfits and have others pick them out for you.
BRITTANY ROUSH is a senior
