Daydream Launches Public Beta, Ushering In A New Era Of AI-Powered Fashion Shopping

A new chapter in online fashion retail begins with the public beta launch of Daydream, the world’s first AI-powered, chat-based shopping platform built specifically for fashion. Designed to deliver a personalized, conversational experience, Daydream is transforming how consumers discover and shop for clothing, blending innovative natural language processing and multimodal AI with a deep understanding of style and user intent.

Founded and led by e-commerce veteran Julie Bornstein, Daydream introduces a “chat-to-shop” interface that feels less like browsing and more like interacting with a trusted personal stylist. The platform allows users to search for products using everyday language, refine results based on preferences, and even upload images for visual context. With over 2 million products from more than 8,000 fashion brands, Daydream aims to make fashion shopping seamless, intuitive and genuinely enjoyable.

“Online shopping today is overwhelming and inefficient,” said Bornstein, CEO and founder of Daydream. “Search engines don’t understand the nuances of personal style. By combining large language models with domain-specific fashion knowledge, we’re building the shopping experience of the future. Daydream helps users find exactly what they want, in their own words.”

At launch, Daydream offers a curated catalog across women’s and men’s fashion, featuring a mix of established brands, emerging designers and cult favourites. The platform includes more than 200 retail and brand partners, with launch names such as Net-A-Porter, Alo Yoga, Khaite, Nike, Uniqlo, LoveShackFancy, MyTheresa, and Mejuri. Chief Brands Officer Lisa Yamner Green leads Daydream’s partnership strategy, integrating full brand catalogues into the platform.

Powered by a sophisticated AI engine developed under Chief Technology Officer Maria Belousova, Daydream blends models from OpenAI, Google Gemini, and proprietary sources. The system includes specialized components with fashion-specific expertise from fabric and fit to silhouette and shopper behaviour enabling a truly dynamic and responsive interface.

“We built Daydream’s AI engine specifically for fashion,” said Belousova. “It understands context, personal preferences, and the intricacies of style, allowing for fluid, meaningful conversations that feel natural.”

Central to the experience is the Style Passport, a dynamic profile unique to each user that evolves over time. It captures data such as size, fit preferences, budget, style signals and brand affinity. As users interact with the platform searching, saving items, or asking questions, Daydream tailors results in real-time, making personalization scalable and highly accurate. Two users can ask the same query but receive entirely different results based on their individual Style Passports.

Users are directed to brand or retailer sites to complete purchases. Merchant participation is free, with revenue generated through commissions on sales. Notably, Daydream prioritizes relevance and user experience over paid placements, ensuring recommendations are meaningful and personalized.

The company is backed by a team of seasoned leaders from Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Pinterest, Stitch Fix, and Farfetch. Alongside Bornstein and Green, co-founders include Dan Cary, Chief Product Officer, and Richard Kim, Chief Strategy Officer.

Daydream raised US$ 50 million in seed funding in 2024 from leading investors including Forerunner Ventures, Index Ventures, True Ventures, and Google Ventures. Supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, founder of Kode With Klossy, is also an investor. Notably, Forerunner and True Ventures were early backers of Bornstein’s previous startup, THE YES, which was acquired by Pinterest in 2022.

As e-commerce continues to evolve, Daydream is positioning itself as a transformational force in digital fashion discovery aiming to become the go-to destination for personalized, AI-driven shopping experiences.