Many years ago, I was hit with the perfect storm of circumstances which culminated in one of the most stressful time periods of my life. In an effort to distract myself, I went through a phase of fairly heavy "retail therapy" and discovered Modcloth. Wow! I instantly fell in love with everything about the site: the neat rows of adorably attired mannequins, the overall quirky and offbeat vibe, the fierce mutual loyalty between Modcloth itself and it's "community." And so many fun, unique facets to explore - Be The Buyer and design-a-dress competitions, the Style Gallery, New Arrivals (daily! Same time, 9/noon!). I spent hours between classes, pouring over the pages.
It's terribly sad how far Modcloth has strayed from it's roots and the site I cherished dearly. In my estimation the change occurred well before the much-maligned buyout (which didn't bother me, business is business). The inventory shift towards more mainstream styles which tracking more with current trends is the biggest problem, for me. The new arrivals have slowed to a trickle and are completely uninspired. Really, pieces you could pick up almost anywhere, at any fast fashion store. The site overall has lost all of it's original charm and feels plainly generic, a word I'd have never used to describe Modcloth before.
And, I know many customers prefer to have models displaying the clothing but I miss the mannequins. Honestly so many reviewers back in the day submitted photos and/or included their own measurements there wasn't a need (item reviews aren't as prevalent now I've noticed). I'm also still annoyed to have lost all my original reviews/purchase history from over the years which could once be accessed on the app, but that's another story.
Not that any of this will bring back the site I knew and loved, but there has been no suitable replacement to fulfil my shopping desires in the way Modcloth once did (silly though that is). Modcloth was a stand-out shop, wholly original and loyal to its core customer base and now. It's not. There's nothing that Modcloth today brings to the table that other sites don't as well (off the top of my head, Unique Vintage is very similar, as is Top Vintage, based in Europe). I don't know what the rationale was behind overhauling the website back in February 2017 (and what a mess that was! Some issues still were never fully resolved), but in my mind it served to not enhance and embrace Modcloth's specialness but rather to confirm the shift towards mainstream banality. And here we are. In 2019 I have made ZERO orders, despite multiple 40% or 50% sitewide coupons I've received. I would have killed for that discount 5 years ago!
It's probably too late now. But Modcloth could possibly revive their declining business IF they were courageous enough to take a good hard look at their roots, and pinpoint what made the shop thrive for the better part of a decade.
Hi, there. Thank you for reaching out with your honest feedback. I'm sorry to hear that you haven't found items you've loved recently. Please rest assured that we take your words 100% to heart, and will share them with the appropriate teams.