The Chapar is a new and welcome concept for male shopping, offering an alternative to high street hell and internet trawling too.
Their statistics have shown that the majority of their clientele don’t want, or don’t have the time to shop and always want their partner’s guidance. Proving their point, knowing that I wouldn’t be a fair judge, I called on a couple of females to help me check out the services and take some dodgy photos on a phone.
Like the ASOS of your dreams, The Chapar couriers out and back again (for free) great quality clothing, selected by a stylist, to fit your tastes and measurements. You simply fill in your details on their website and somewhere in cyberspace a stylist assembles your personalised ‘trunk.’
The online part is simple – filling in what you normally wear, what ‘look’ you already have and your measurements. We thought there could be a little more scope and detail here – I’m told skin tone is important for choosing clothes and many men would probably benefit from a box that says: “I have absolutely no idea/look/style” – though I suppose if you don’t tick any boxes at all, they might get that idea.
I thought I was slightly stuck with the three looks offered: ‘Varsity & Preppy’, ‘Urban & Fitted’ and ‘Supercasual’ – so went for the preppy one and the clothes that came more than fitted the bill – I could have easily slotted into any American high school movie (see one dodgy photo). In hindsight, I might be more of an ‘Urban & Fitted’ person but I think I shied away from that choice because the word ‘urban’ made me think the trunk might come packed with break dancing get up.
When the box of clothes arrived, everything was beautifully packaged in tissue and a pleasure to rummage through – the whole thing really felt quite like Christmas. A note from the stylist even gave some outfit ideas. Everyone agreed that the clothes were great quality and on the whole very nice – although there was one very expensive T-shirt that looked and felt a bit cheap… but then, there’s always one terrible item of clothing at Christmas, and, of course, you can send this one back without any guilt.
The Chapar is a premium service so comes with a price tag that reflects that. It is currently stocked with 25 brands that you wouldn’t find easily in any one shop on the high street. It’s still advisable to keep a couple of female friends handy to tell you what to keep and what to return, but with free and easy shipping, no obligation to keep items you dont want and a readily available stylist, it really does take the sting out of clothes shopping.
