NYConvergence ORIGINAL
By: Gloria Sin

It was all about the business model at the Fashion 2.0 Startups Showcase this week, where five New York-based entrepreneurs got to strut their stuff before four venture capitalists and the fashion community inside W Hotel’s Audrey Lounge. The startups at this month’s meetup included:

• StyleHop: A social fashion game that generates unbiased wisdom-of-crowd consumer advice and industry analytics.
• ProperCloth: An online retailer of custom and made-to-measure dress shirts for men.
• Mona Lisa Style: A Web site that connects fashion designers with buyers.
• Pier Eleven*: Offers works of wearable art for retail with prices that fluctuate depending on demand.
• IStyle Media: iStyle is a Facebook app that tells your friends what brands you wear through photo tagging.

While VCs Owen Davis from NYC Seed, Mike Brown from Virgin Ventures, Bill Gilroy from Global Reach Capital and Michael Sheldon from Nexam Capital grilled the presenters on the viability of their companies, the hundred-strong audience also weighed in through Twitter (#fashion20). The twitterati were sold on the targeted market intelligence StyleHop would provide, and iStyle’s simplicity and sales and marketing potential for retailers, but were unconvinced that Pier Eleven’s demand-dependent pricing would encourage sales in this retail climate. Unsurprisingly, the all-male panel of VCs found ProperCloth’s business and presentation “amazing.”

Which of these startups would you invest in? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

*This site will be live on August 3; in the meantime, use the password “whoareyouwearing?” to access the site in closed beta.

Related:
> Fashion 2.0 & the consuMEr in the MEconomy (Darren Herman)