Your wardrobe. Your AI. Your snail.
A self-hosted wardrobe app with weather-aware outfit suggestions, AI integration via MCP, wear tracking, favourites, a nail polish collection, and a sassy snail who names your outfits. Free. Open source. No subscription fees for your own data.
See how it worksYou have a wardrobe full of clothes you love. You wear the same five things. Sound familiar? The Shimmer Strip surfaces combinations you'd never think of, tracks where everything lives, and lets your AI pick outfits based on the actual weather and your actual wardrobe.
Today's weather and tomorrow's forecast. No more guessing if you need a jacket. Plan tomorrow's outfit tonight.
Connect any AI via MCP. Ask "what should I wear tomorrow?" and get a real answer based on your real wardrobe and real weather.
Hit Surprise Me. The snail picks your outfit. The snail names your outfit. The snail has opinions. Trust the shell.
Unexpected colour combinations. Bold choices. Chaos energy. For days when you want to be surprised by your own wardrobe.
Items in the wash are excluded from suggestions. No more "that's in the laundry" disappointment.
Tag where each item lives. Toggle locations off when they're inaccessible. The app only suggests what you can actually reach.
Save a photo of yourself in each outfit. Build a visual lookbook over time. See how you actually look, not just the flat lay.
Having a low-energy day? Toggle comfort mode to prioritise cosy, soft, easy-wear items. Customise the name and icon — call it whatever fits you.
Floating preview, category filters, gentle completeness hints. Build outfits like a stylist laying clothes on a bed. Duplicate detection stops you saving the same combination twice.
Mark what you're wearing with a single tap. Outfit glows gold. Wear counts track automatically. Your AI sees it instantly.
Star your favourite items, outfits, and nail polishes. Filter by favourites anywhere. Your AI knows what you love most.
A collection manager for things you rotate weekly. Built for nail polish — browse by colour family, toggle which is active — but works for anything.
Packing for a trip? Smart prompts help you remember what you need. Checklist mode for packing day. Never forget flip-flops again.
We looked at every wardrobe app on the market. Here's what we found.
| Feature | Shimmer Strip | Mainstream Apps | Other Open Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Integration | ✦ Open MCP — connect Claude, GPT, Gemini, or any LLM. You choose the engine. | Proprietary black-box AI. No choice. No control. | None, or basic local image tagging. |
| Weather Awareness | ✦ Today + tomorrow's forecast. Personal temperature offset. Humidity adjustment. Your AI knows YOU run hot. | Basic weather suggestions. No personal calibration. | Manual tagging only. |
| Outfit Selection | ✦ AI picks outfits with reasoning. Snail's Pick for surprise. Chaos Mode for bold. Duplicates prevented. | Basic "Dress Me" randomiser button. | Static outfit building only. |
| Accessory Matching | ✦ Weekly Picks system — nail polish, watches, bags, anything. AI coordinates your outfit with what's already on your nails. | Clothes, shoes, and basic accessories only. No cross-category logic. | No cross-category matching. |
| Storage Locations | ✦ Tag where items live. Toggle locations off when inaccessible. AI only suggests what you can actually reach. | Season filtering at most. No location awareness. | No location logic. |
| Wear Tracking | ✦ "Wearing Today" button. Wear counts. Last worn dates. AI avoids repeats and surfaces neglected items. | Some track wears. None feed data back to AI selection. | Basic or none. |
| Laundry Awareness | ✦ Items in the wash are excluded from suggestions. No more "that's in the laundry" disappointment. | Rare. Most ignore laundry state entirely. | Not available. |
| Customisation | ✦ Single config file. Your name, your colours, your mascot, your categories. It's YOUR app. | Their brand. Their colours. Their rules. In-app settings only. | Environment variables and Docker configs. |
| Data Ownership | ✦ Self-hosted. Your photos stay on your device. Your data is yours. Always. | Your wardrobe photos on their servers. Their terms. | Self-hosted — data is yours. |
| Price | ✦ Free. Open source. Forever. | $5–15/month. Many cap free tiers at 100 items. | Free. |
No commercial wardrobe app understands "anchor items" that aren't clothing. Shimmer Strip lets your AI see your nail polish, your watch, your bag — and build the week's outfits around what you're already wearing. Incredibly practical. Nobody else does this.
Other apps filter by season. Shimmer Strip knows your striped jumper is in the attic, your partner's wardrobe is inaccessible at night, and your winter coat is in storage. AI only suggests what you can actually reach, right now.
Most wardrobe apps gained popularity by being free, then limited users to 100 items. Shimmer Strip is open source, self-hosted, and free forever. Your wardrobe shouldn't have a paywall.
Connect your AI assistant via MCP. It checks the weather, browses your wardrobe, sees what you're wearing, knows your nail polish, picks an outfit, and explains why. Eight tools, filtered queries, token-efficient at scale. This is what it actually looks like:
Hit Surprise Me and the snail picks your outfit. It also names it. Here are some real snail-generated outfit names from actual use:
Your AI, your friends, your chaos snail — everyone can pick outfits and tag their name. Filter saved outfits by who picked them.
"I don't have nothing to wear. I have everything to wear. That was the problem. This app stopped me wearing the same five things and started showing me the other two thousand."
— Tracy, Milton Keynes, inaugural user and reluctant owner of 56 pairs of shoes
The snail is waiting. Your forgotten clothes are waiting. Your AI is ready to pick.