High Fashion Meets High Tech: Personal Style Software Plugs Young Women in to the Fashion World; Sierra's Fashion Trip Represents First of its Kind in Personal Improvement Software

Business Wire, Sept 28, 1998

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1998--Breaking new ground in personal software, ModaCAD Inc. (Nasdaq/NM:MODA) announces Sierra Home's launch of Fashion Trip -- the first interactive style and fashion program for young women.

Fashion Trip includes clothes and accessories from more than 30 popular brands, personalized style tips from leading fashion editors and an innovative online component for the latest fashion updates, music videos and shopping options.

Young women embark on their personal fashion trip by entering a few details about themselves and their style preferences. By roaming through a 3-D virtual mall, Fashion Trip users will discover thousands of new articles of clothing from such prominent brands as Levi's, Nicole Miller, Diesel jeans, Steve Madden and more.

Each article of clothing is shown in stunning photo-realistic renderings which makes the experience just like being in a real mall. But unlike the limitations of a conventional mall, Fashion Trip users can mix and match pieces from different stores in their dressing room.

Browsing through clothes has never been easier or more fun; women simply drag-and-drop garments they like into their dressing room. Once inside the dressing room, users can experiment with and save countless new combinations and styles ranging from cutting-edge to classic. Young women can share their picks with a friend visually on screen while chatting via Internet phone or typed messages.

Fashion Trip offers thousands of new articles of clothing that are obtainable either online or through the retailers themselves for a revolutionary new shopping experience.

Experts in the fashion industry provide advice on what styles to embrace or avoid depending on the personal profile of the user. Teens receive advice on everything from fashion basics to seasonal colors through Fashion Trip's online magazine and exclusive articles written by editors at Seventeen Magazine.

For twenty-somethings, Fashion Trip offers columns written by the experts at top women's fashion magazines and interviews with the stylists who keep your favorite celebrities en vogue. Career-minded young women can benefit from valuable advice on how to create a signature image and professional look. Fashion Trip also provides dozens of links to other hot fashion and style Web sites with the click of a button.

New clothes and brands will be added to the program via the latest in behind-the-scenes "push" technology, keeping young women in step with the latest fashion trends. When Nicole Miller launches her spring wardrobe, Fashion Trip users will be among the first to know as entirely new clothes are updated to the collection.

Proactive notification will inform users of seasonal fashion debuts, new music and movie clips, and new clothes at their favorite virtual stores. Automatic updates occur behind the scenes when a user is connected to the Internet, emailing friends or surfing the Net.

Fashion Trip's fall debut currently boasts more than 30 popular brands including Levi's, Nicole Miller, GUESS Footwear, Esprit, Diesel, XOXO, Jessica McClintock, Wet Seal, Z. Cavaricci, Bongo, Jonathan Martin and many others. To provide the finishing touches, Fossil, Steve Madden, Clinique, Urban Decay and other cosmetics and accessory giants are also participating.

As an added bonus, Fashion Trip takes young women on a wild ride through the fads and trends of each decade from the 1910s to the 1980s, with vintage outfits from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Vintage clothes can be seen in the virtual mall and tried on in the dressing rooms for a unique fantasy dress-up experience.

For young women checking out the Internet for the first time, Fashion Trip includes a copy of an Internet browser plus a free 30-day online subscription through EarthLink.

Fashion Trip is available on CD-ROM for Windows 95 and 98 at an estimated street price of $39.95. Fashion Trip is available at local software retailers or by calling Sierra Direct at 800/757-7707.

Published by Sierra Home

Fashion Trip is published by Sierra Home, the home productivity division of Sierra On-Line. Sierra On-Line Inc. is part of Cendant Software, one of the largest PC consumer software groups in the world, and a leader in entertainment and educational software. Cendant is the world's premier provider of consumer and business services.

Cendant operates in three principal segments: Alliance Marketing, Travel and Real Estate Services. With headquarters in Parsippany, N.J., the company has more than 40,000 employees, operates in more than 100 countries and makes approximately 100 million customer contacts annually.

Developed by ModaCAD

ModaCAD is a premier developer and supplier of digital content management technology enabling advanced product visualization for electronic commerce. For the past 10 years it has leveraged its core, patented rendering technology into a variety of electronic merchandising products primarily targeted at the home design, home furnishings, apparel and industrial design industries.