Yahoo buys fashion website Polyvore

Financial details of the acquisition of the Silicon Valley-based startup were not disclosed.

Polyvore is an 8-year-old startup that specializes in connecting merchants with consumers browsing for ideas on clothing, health, beauty and home decor products. Polyvore, according to Yahoo, will strengthen its verticals and digital magazines via both commerce and community. Good Housekeeping magazine once dubbed the service a “fashionista’s playground”.

Polyvore allows users to shop for and “favorite” fashionable items in categories like maxi dresses or gladiator sandals, as well as viewing outfit collections put together for certain looks (like stealing actress Blake Lively’s style). The results have been lackluster so far.

Polyvore, which was founded in 2007, has received $22.7 million in funding across three rounds.

“The combination of Yahoo’s industry-leading digital content with Polyvore’s expertise in community and commerce has outstanding potential”, Simon Khalaf, a Yahoo senior vice president of product and engineering, said in a statement. “Overall, I think this accelerates Yahoo’s growth strategy”.

Revenue from Mavens made up about one-third of the company’s total revenue in the quarter ended June 30.

Polyvore’s other co-founders also have a Yahoo connection: software engineers Pasha Sadri, Guangwei Yuan, and Jianing Hu worked at the Sunnyvale Web pioneer before starting Polyvore. Sales from Yahoo’s traditional moneymaker – display, or banner, ads that run on desktop websites – continues to fade.

What this ultimately means for Polyvore’s customer remains to be seen (it’s worth noting that the deal is subject to “customary closing conditions”), but for the fashion bloggers and stylists who showcase their fashion skills at the site, having Yahoo as the parent company will probably have them saying…