A new search engine called Tagwalk, could drastically change the way that the fashion industry views and categorises each season’s collections. The service was founded by 27-year-old stylist turned tech entrepreneur Alexandra Van Houtte and it’s the first free online fashion search engine in the world. The concept was sparked by frustration and necessity. Like many other fashion editors, stylists, and journalists, Van Houtte would spend hours manually clicking through show imagery in order to single out seasonal trends or to locate a particular key look. Her solution came in the form of a complex computer back-end tagging system, which came to be known as Tagwalk in the beginning of April 2016. Using the tag system, Tagwalk allows users to browse looks from Paris, London, New York, and Milan Fashion Weeks by typing one or more keywords into a search bar. The words could be related to brands, fabric, colour, season, or to a city – or to a particular style such as ‘military’, punk’, or ‘nautical’. After clicking ‘enter’, the search results populate with related show imagery, which can then be saved as an online mood board if users have a Tagwalk account, converted into a PDF, or directly printed out. A secondary feature on the site is a section titled Tag Trends, which pulls together the most tagged and searched keywords into one place. The section is interesting because it’s updated in real time and offers a new way to approach researching the most popular trends of that very moment. This means that editors and perhaps even retailers, can react in a much quicker manner to the needs of fashion readers and consumers. Tagwalk allows users to search womenswear, menswear, and accessories and is updated around the clock with show imagery throughout each Fashion Week season. It’s currently available to view in English, French, and Italian, and is the first site of its kind to make such a plethora of information readily available to everyone, as opposed to industry insiders-only. For editors, the concept feels like a vital development in an industry that demands immediate, reactionary content following each and every fashion show because it will allow them to save time and serve audiences with a larger number of to-the-minute reports. The variable search function is also exciting, because it offers the opportunity to view the collections collectively, which could give rise to a larger number of designers getting their turn in the spotlight. Google has recently added its own department dedicated to curating fashion-related searches, though for a broader audience, so it will be interesting to see which engine the fashion thirsty reader will gravitate to.