After nearly a month spent traversing the muddied New York snow day in and day out, I have adopted fantasizing about warm-weather vacations as a full-time job. Tabs showcasing hotels from South Beach to South Africa litter my desktop, their idyllic photo galleries far more appealing than the bleak reality that sits outside my window. Trading bomb cyclones for balmy beach breezes sits high on my to-do list.
This is Vogue, and we’d be remiss to speak of tropical getaways without touching on holiday wardrobes. To paraphrase Emily Henry, on vacation, you can wear whatever you want. That slinky little top that feels a touch too daring for everyday life? Throw it in the suitcase. Those flared trousers fit for a late-night Donna and the Dynamos reenactment? Don’t even think about leaving them behind. If you’re anything like me, you’ll pack both, forget all of your socks, and still end up wearing the same suit and cover-up each day.
Thankfully, for those of us with whimsical inclinations, limited overhead space, and forgetful tendencies, there’s an app—or a few dozen—for that. The fashion tech industry, which has grown alongside the broader consumer AI boom, is now crowded with platforms promising to help users shop, organize, and style their wardrobes with ease. Ahead of several long-awaited escapes abroad this spring and summer, I set out to master packing once and for all with the help of fashion tech.
Discovery
Before the panicky visions of overweight luggage and broken zippers set in, vacationers and work trip goers alike have the distinct pleasure of deciding what to pack. Sometimes, the proper ingredients can be found at home. Other times, travelers must turn to the wild west of online shopping to find swoon-worthy pieces.
Daydream, an AI-backed natural language shopping engine, has seen a 10% spike in travel-related searches in the last month. While the frigid temperatures plaguing our nation might have something to do with the increase in beach adjacent queries, Daydream’s co-founder, Lisa Yamner (née Green), believes this shift was a long time coming. “Travel shopping offers us the opportunity to do what we’re best at, which is to help our users find things with context,” she says. “You can go to any retailer and find some level of edit around the vacation shop, but it’s a generalized vacation. With Daydream, you can be quite specific about where you’re going and what you’re planning on doing.”
My query for “Fun pieces for an upcoming trip to Mexico City in early April” yielded surprisingly precise results. Fringed tops, cutout leather jackets, and sharply tailored trousers in unexpected textures far exceeded my expectations. Both Yamner and her co-founder have extensive experience in the fashion industry, which she believes is central to the platform’s ability to navigate such nuance. While generic AI agents can grasp that a trip to Mexico City might call for colorful or avant-garde clothing, Daydream goes a step further, translating that context into product recommendations tailored to the specifics of a destination, as well as the shopper’s personal style and price point. The platform also features landing pages organized around common travel themes, including ski and beach, which customers can use as a jumping-off point.
Sourcing
Alternatively, if you’re working with a healthy budget and a hyper-specific vision, working with a sourcer can help you fulfill even your most far-fetched fashion dream. Perhaps you’ve been pining over the infamous Stella McCartney for Chloe 2001 horse pants for an upcoming trip to Argentina, the polo capital of the world. Or maybe you’ve been eyeing the viral but sold-out Carelli Dolly jacket for a week in the snowy Alps. Rather than setting a Google alert and praying said item(s) pop up in your size, you can check out Sourced By, an all-in-one platform designed to streamline every aspect of the fashion sourcing process.