One last post

[lesliepear]

DARE TO WEAR
With a few clicks of the mouse, you can dress Kevin
Thursday, March 30, 2006
By BONNIE FRIEDMAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
HOBOKEN - Kevin McCormick gets more fashion advice than Madonna, Beyoncé and Paris Hilton put together.

A 2005 graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology, the clean-cut, 22-year-old city resident has become the hottest thing since belly-button baring jeans with the success of his Web site dresskevin.com.

On any given day, roughly 10,000 visitors flock to the site to pick from roughly 2,000 pants, shirts, shoes, socks and accessories - items, they believe, McCormick should wear the following day.

Once all the votes are tallied, McCormick dresses in the outfit chosen for him. Pictures of all his clothes are on the site and he picks out the most popular items each day.

Viewers are then invited to weigh in on the winning threads.

The site - which attracted 40,000 visitors on its busiest day - has turned McCormick into a star. He has appeared twice on CNN, as well as "Good Morning America" and "The Early Show," to name just a few - and he has collected major swag, including $750 in Fossil clothing.

On Tuesday evening, McCormick greeted a Jersey Journal reporter wearing the white-and-yellow striped polo shirt and black jeans his fans picked out - an outfit that didn't go over well the following day.

Pushing aside a pile of bills that have been mounting ever since he became a media darling, McCormick reflected on his whirlwind journey.

"I'm not in it to be rich or famous," he said. "It just started as a practical joke."

McCormick dreamed up the idea for the Web site after his then-girlfriend bought him the book: "How to Satisfy Your Woman Every Time: The Straight Guy's Guide to Housework and Grooming."

The book was such an invaluable resource for the somewhat shy kid that he decided to make major changes in his life.

He tossed the contents of his sock drawer, joined a gym and started eating better - but there was one area that still left him clueless: Fashion.

"I never buy anything," he said. "All my clothes were gifts from my parents."

Using his Stevens smarts, McCormick made a spreadsheet and a mock-up of a Web site concept, but the idea sat shelved while he finished college. Then one day last summer, while sitting around drinking beers with the guys, the idea for the Web site was reborn.

When it debuted in August, only four or five items appeared on the site - which averaged roughly five viewers per day, but traffic picked up after several prominent Web sites recommended logging on.

Amazingly, McCormick said voters rarely lead him astray.

"It's the theory of the masses," he said. "When you get enough people together, they are going to do the right thing."

McCormick now spends six hours per day downloading pictures and answering mail. He's so busy that he has to put in weekends at his day job as an operations manager for a wealth management firm.

"What dresskevin.com taught me is that there is a lot of interest in posting clothes and people commenting on it," said McCormick. "Girls love it."