ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Robert Siegel. Picture this: You've spent weeks looking for the perfect gown to wear to a particular formal event. You show up, and someone else is also wearing that very dress. I hate it when that happens. Actually, I couldn't care less, but it's a vital premise of the interview that follows, so let's say I do. If you're planning on going to one of the balls at presidential inauguration time later this month, you don't have to live out that social nightmare - you may not, at least. Andrew Jones tells us why not. He is co-founder of the Web site DressRegistry.com. Tell us about what the Web site tells us.
Mr. ANDREW JONES (Co-founder, DressRegistry.com): The Web site was created about 10 years ago when I was on a plane flight with my wife, and she was mentioning all the efforts that she was going to go through to buy a dress for a local charity ball. So, I thought there had to be a better way to deal with this.
SIEGEL: Now, at the Web site, DressRegistry.com, I can go to a list of all of the inaugural-related events, click on Constitution Ball, which is one of the official inaugural balls, and there are about eight or nine people who've registered what gown they're wearing. It says who the designer is, the color, the length, the neckline, so I guess you can see before you buy it, is the idea, I assume, that somebody is else is taking that dress to the - is going to wear that dress to the ball.
Mr. JONES: The idea is that women who have already purchased a dress would register, so that when other women are out there looking what they're going to get, that they are going to see that, oh, that someone else has already registered that particular garment.
SIEGEL: Now, the people who are selling the gowns would have an interest in more than one person buying the same gown to an event as big as the inauguration in Washington, don't you think?
Mr. JONES: Well, that's true. And the idea of having duplicate dresses is really epitomized by what happened to First Lady Laura Bush in December 2006, where she wore an Oscar de la Renta gown to an event, and three other ladies were wearing the same gown, and she immediately left and changed to a different gown. But it was all over the evening news.
SIEGEL: Now, how far afield are you from your day job here, with this activity?
Mr. JONES: My background is in corporate investment banking, so I'm very far afield from my day job.
SIEGEL: On the other hand, it's a good season to look for a new kind of work, for a...
Mr. JONES: You may be right there.
SIEGEL: Yeah, OK.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIEGEL: Well, thank you. Thank you very much for describing DressRegistry.com and the thinking behind it.
Mr. JONES: Well, thank you very much.
SIEGEL: That's Andrew Jones. He tells us that even though his wife's experience inspired the Web site, she is not planning to attend any inaugural balls.