Vastra

You don't need a new wardrobe, just a new way to see yours. Vastra is the Clueless closet come to life: AI outfits from clothes you own, tried on you with YouCam.

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Inspiration

Remember Cher Horowitz's digital wardrobe in Clueless? The one where she could see all her clothes, mix and match outfits, and find the perfect look without even opening her wardrobe?

We both grew up wishing we had that. Vastra is us finally building it, together.

What it does

Vastra is an AI wardrobe and personal stylist. You photograph the clothes you already own, and Vastra:

  • Builds a digital closet with clean, background-removed pieces
  • Styles outfits for your day based on your plans, your personal style and the weather
  • Lets you mix and match pieces yourself, Snap-style, and see them on your own photo
  • Lets you virtually try garments on with YouCam AI
  • Recreates a look from any inspiration photo using the closest pieces in your closet
  • Saves the outfits you love so you can wear them again

Sometimes you don't need a new wardrobe. You just need to see the one you already have differently.

How we built it

  1. The app: Flutter for web and mobile, Firebase for auth, Firestore, Storage and Cloud Functions, and Vercel for hosting.
  2. The styling brain: Gemini 2.5 Flash. It tags every piece you add, picks your outfits for Today, and matches closet pieces when you recreate a look.
  3. The magic on screen: YouCam. We use cloth-v4 for virtual try-on and SOD for background removal, so every garment looks like it belongs in the same closet. We also optimise images with sharp so cutouts stay small and load fast on the web.

We planned, designed and tested every feature side by side. We'd split the build, swap reviews, and try everything on each other's phones before calling it done.

Challenges we ran into

  • Making it feel instant on the web. First loads were slow until we tightened caching, compressed cutouts into WebP thumbnails, and stopped refetching looks that hadn't changed.
  • Blocked networks. Some networks blocked cloudfunctions.net, so we added a fallback to the direct Cloud Run hosts. Without it, the app would just hang.
  • The small stuff. Camera zoom on web, bottom sheets hiding under the nav bar, chip labels getting clipped. Tiny things, but they make or break a demo.
  • Finding time. We both work full-time, and Vin is also doing a full-time PhD. Between jobs, research and life, finding time to build Vastra together was honestly the hardest part. Most of it happened late at night and over weekends.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We shipped a full product, not a single-feature demo. Closet, Today, Dress up, Try on, Looks and Recreate all work end to end on a real demo account.

We've already shared an early version with 9+ people, including three flight attendants we met on a flight two days ago. Every one of them wanted the app and is waiting for the public release.

What we learned

Every little detail matters :) Removing backgrounds and serving small WebP cutouts was a small task on paper, but once it was in, the whole app suddenly felt so much better.

And the biggest lesson: it's not about the idea or the technology. It's all about the users and their problems.

What's next for Vastra

  • App Store and Play Store: submit native iOS and Android apps for review. The prize money would cover our Apple and Google developer accounts.
  • Smarter daily styling: better weather and calendar context, so "what should I wear today?" gets sharper.
  • Community: share looks with friends, and maybe build a small community closet.
  • Shopping: marketplace integration, with an affiliate model as our long-term revenue stream to keep Vastra sustainable.

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