Flip, Once a $1B Fashion-Video Startup, Shuts Down
Flip, the California-based shopping app once touted as a TikTok-meets-Amazon for fashion and beauty, has abruptly shut down less than two years after hitting a $1.05 billion valuation. Despite attracting 16.5 million users, 5 billion video views, and generating $375 million in brand sales while paying $13.4 million to creators, the company couldn’t sustain its discount-heavy model. Its website, social accounts, and app have all been pulled, leaving only a farewell message for users and creators.
Why it matters: Flip’s collapse is a cautionary tale for fashion and retail tech: viral growth and big funding rounds don’t guarantee a sustainable business. As social commerce heats up, the shutdown underscores how hard it is to balance customer acquisition costs, creator payouts, and retail margins.
Stephen Council
MySize Acquires ShoeSize.Me to Unite Apparel and Footwear Sizing
MySize has acquired European SaaS firm ShoeSize.Me, adding its AI-powered footwear sizing technology to the Naiz Fit platform and creating what it calls the first unified apparel-and-footwear fit solution. ShoeSize.Me, which works with 20+ retailers including Alshaya Group, is expected to surpass €0.5M in SaaS revenue in 2025 and brings a rich dataset of 92M shopping experiences and 1.2M shoe models. By combining Naiz Fit’s apparel expertise with ShoeAI’s footwear accuracy, MySize aims to reduce returns, improve margins, and scale cross-selling opportunities across Europe and the Middle East, while advancing its roll-up strategy to consolidate fashion tech around sizing.
Why it matters: Sizing remains one of fashion e-commerce’s most costly pain points, driving high return rates and customer frustration. By consolidating apparel and footwear fit under one AI platform, MySize is betting it can offer retailers a single, data-rich solution that cuts waste, improves loyalty, and positions the company as a consolidator in the fragmented fashion tech landscape.
My Size Inc.
Google’s Nano Banana AI Sparks Vintage Saree Trend on Instagram
A new viral trend on Instagram is transforming everyday photos into Bollywood-style posters, with users deploying Google’s Gemini Nano Banana AI and ChatGPT prompts to create retro saree edits. The tool’s ability to generate chiffon-clad, grainy, 90s-inspired looks has turned feeds into a swirl of fashion nostalgia and cinematic drama, blending AI novelty with cultural throwback aesthetics.
Why it matters: Beyond being a viral fad, this trend shows how commodity AI tools can instantly reshape visual culture and fashion inspiration. For brands, it signals both an opportunity to tap into nostalgia-driven storytelling and a warning that consumer aesthetics may be shaped less by designers and more by everyday users experimenting with AI.
TOI Tech Desk