Shazam for fashion? I'll have what she's wearing

Snappy dresser: fancy an outfit from Gossip Girl? A new app makes it a couple of clicks away

Most of us, at one time or another, have coveted a T-shirt, jacket or pair of shoes that someone on telly is wearing.

Normally you would be forced to look on lustily and rue the fact that you’ll never know if a shirt came from Christopher Kane or Cos. But all that could be changing.

Shazam, the company that developed the app that allows you to identify a song playing nearby, is hoping to create a similar one for recognising fashion. “We have the ability to identify the product in a TV show so that when somebody Shazams it, they could find out where a presenter’s dress is from in one click,” CEO Andrew Fisher told The Observer.

It sounds like a sure-fire hit. The obsession with celebrity style has never been more pronounced; just look at the popularity of websites such as Asos.com (which began life as a way to buy clothes “as seen on screen”) and The Fashion Spot (for looking at the clothes of famous people). This new app could spell trouble for bank balances everywhere.