By Angela Chan-Danisi,Contributor

Copyright forbes

Sandy Sholl, Founder & CEO of Zelig
© 2025 Walsh Photographic Design

When I first met Sandy Sholl during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she wasn’t discussing the next luxury trend or global retail expansion. She was talking about responsibility. After decades of success in fashion, most notably as co-founder of MadaLuxe Group, the largest distributor of luxury goods in North America, Sholl felt the industry owed something back. “The fashion industry has been very good to me financially,” she reflected, “but leaders in every industry have to do more to help the planet and people.”

Sholl explored new fashion tech projects with a focus on sustainability. She invested in Psykhe AI, a personalization platform for e-commerce that utilizes machine learning and psychology to customize product recommendations to each user’s personality profile. This AI shopping tool helps users select clothing based on their personality, offering more personalized and accurate suggestions for digital wardrobes that can reduce returns and waste. Through her exploration, Sholl realized that for fashion e-commerce to become more sustainable, a fundamental overhaul was necessary. The industry’s return rates were skyrocketing, damaging profits and increasing carbon footprints. Static images of products no longer matched consumer behaviors or expectations. To address this, Sholl aimed to develop an artificial intelligence technology that would help consumers build their wardrobes in real-time, while assisting retailers in reducing returns and staying profitable. Sholl’s idea resulted in the creation of Zelig.

The Birth of an AI Fashion Experience

Zelig is the world’s fastest mix-and-match virtual try-on platform, capable of generating thousands of outfit combinations—tops, bottoms, shoes, handbags, and layering pieces —in just seconds. “Zelig isn’t just a tech widget, and we’re not another chatbot or filter,” Sholl says. “Zelig is an AI fashion experience platform. It’s about changing how people build wardrobes, and how retailers think about selling fashion.”

At the core of Zelig is the interactive “Build a Look” feature, which allows shoppers to mix and match thousands of items in real-time and create their own personalized digital closets. Unlike apps that place clothes on a scanned body, Zelig accurately simulates how garments behave, how fabrics drape, how proportions change on tall versus petite frames, and how textures layer together. They do it fast, and speed is crucial for the online customer. As Sholl states, “every item changed on a look creates thousands of new pixels. That’s why outfitting is so hard—and combined with speed, it’s our biggest differentiator.”

The AI styling industry has become crowded, with companies like Doppl (backed by Google) providing consumer-facing try-ons. However, most of these tools produce uncanny results, such as warped waistlines, missing sleeves, or a lack of practical shopping features. Zelig, on the other hand, was created primarily for retailers and is the only actionable B2B platform that transforms shopping through real-time mix-and-match on model technology.

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Its technology emphasizes fidelity and function. Ten thousand points of body data ensure garments keep their intended fit. Its forthcoming features include a proprietary “design fit” that mimics length and drape, while patented “bunching technology” considers how fabric gathers at different heights. This focus on detail creates aspirational looks that honor fashion, not just computational rendering.

Dave Canfield, Head of Strategy and Operations, Zelig

Significantly, Zelig extends beyond individual items. “Nobody else is doing full outfits, layered outer garments, tops, bottoms, dresses, accessories, and shoes—in real time, at scale,” says Dave Canfield, Zelig’s Head of Strategy and Operations. “That’s why retailers see us not as an add-on, but as a critical element of the shopping journey.”

The company’s first major rollout, partnered with REVOLVE, a leading Gen Z-focused retailer, has been a success. Mike Karanikolas, Co-Founder and CEO, said, “At REVOLVE, we’re dedicated to reimagining how the next generation shops for fashion. Zelig’s AI-powered styling brings our vision to life, enabling customers to create complete looks with confidence and ease. This innovation underscores our commitment to building the most engaging digital platform in fashion, powered by technologies that will define the future of shopping.”

“REVOLVE has been an incredible resource in helping us build, create, and iterate on this technology. We could not have asked for a better partner,” says Sholl.

“At REVOLVE, we’re always looking to innovate at the intersection of fashion and technology. Zelig is the perfect partner for us-they don’t just bring cutting-edge tech, but a deep understanding of fashion and how customers want to experience it,” said Grace Hong, Chief Product Officer.

Zelig Build A Look

Zelig is enhancing product discovery and building customer loyalty, with initial results indicating a real benefit for retailers. Session duration and conversion rates were three times higher for Zelig users, and more importantly, they saw a double-digit reduction in returns.

“It was incredibly validating,” Sholl recalls. “Seeing those return reductions signified that we were making progress on one of fashion’s biggest sustainability issues.”

In August 2025, REVOLVE launched Zelig’s upgraded experience, marking a significant milestone for both companies. The new version is accessible from both product detail pages and a dedicated “Build a Look” product listing page. It emphasizes what the company calls “speed shopping,” allowing users to quickly browse thousands of items using occasion filters, all of which can be mixed in real time. There is also an enhanced closet that enables shoppers to save both looks and individual items. Future features include the integration of past purchases, on-model recommendations, the ability to create lists, and a vacation packing list.

“This completes the customer journey,” Canfield says. “Shoppers can now discover products, mix and match outfits, and receive real-time recommendations, all in one seamless flow. And through our proprietary recommendations algorithm, results are catered to individual preferences based on click-stream data, with plans to include purchase history soon.”

Beyond engagement, Zelig’s most significant potential may lie in its data analysis capabilities. The digital closet doesn’t just show what people purchase; it reveals how they style. Shoppers save outfits, remix items, and build wardrobes over time. That creates a new class of data Sholl calls “style intent.”

“Instead of showing someone who bought a white shirt seven more white shirts, we show them how to style that shirt with complementary items instantly on a model,” she says. “It’s not just data-driven, it’s taste-driven, brand-aligned, and runway-ready.” This taste-aware data can inform everything from email campaigns to assortment planning, providing retailers with insight into not only what sells, but also how their customers aspire to dress.

To make this possible, Sholl recruited human expertise where algorithms fall short. Celebrity stylists Jennifer Mazur (clients include Olivia Culpo and Alessandra Ambrosio), Nicole Allowitz (David Yarrow with Cindy Crawford and Daniela Braga; She was also head of wardrobe for Access Hollywood), and Janelle Miller (Anitta, Khloe Kardashian, Mandy Moore), and others were brought in to codify their Zelig’s rules. Through Zelig’s proprietary “outfit curation tool,” stylists assemble looks in real-time on a model, factoring in inventory, fabric behavior, and occasion. These human-curated looks are programmed into Zelig’s LLM engine, which generates thousands of variations overnight. “It’s AI with taste,” Sholl says. “Stylists provide the rules, and the model learns to apply them inclusively—across body shapes, hair colors, and skin tones.”

In a world where TikTok can launch a micro-trend in weeks, staying current is critical. Zelig’s approach blends social signals and retailer data with stylist reinforcement. “Stylists often know what celebrities will wear before the public does,” Sholl explains. “By feeding that into the model early, we avoid lagging behind trends and avoid just recycling yesterday’s big data.” This balance of quick signals grounded in stylistic principles ensures Zelig can present what’s current without disrupting the consistency of a look.

Zelig’s roadmap is expansive. The company is finalizing a redesigned mobile web experience that will feature AI-powered, occasion-based outfit recommendations, expanded outfit filtering for mobile, image upload capabilities, and personalized models. Sholl envisions in-store touchpoints, AI-assisted live shopping, and integrations with clienteling apps that let associates text complete looks directly to customers. And while the company raised $15 million in 2023 at a $100 million valuation, Sholl hints at possible acquisitions ahead. “If we see a complementary technology, especially around digital closets or influencer monetization, we’re open to M&A,” she says.

Unlike consumer-facing apps chasing affiliate commissions, Zelig sells directly to retailers. Its enterprise platform model ties pricing to ROI, with higher average order values, reduced returns, and greater outfit completion. “We don’t see ourselves as a subscription app,” Sholl emphasizes. “We’re a complete technology layer, one that pays for itself when retailers see the results.”

For Sholl, the commercial upside is inseparable from the sustainability mission that inspired Zelig in the first place. Returns remain one of retail’s dirtiest secrets: every unwanted item shipped back inflates carbon emissions, generates waste, and erodes profit.

“The ultimate win,” she says, “will be when we can say hand on heart that we reduced returns worldwide. That’s not just financial sustainability; that’s impact for the planet.”

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