Abstract: Although many online shops allow users to search for clothes by categories or keywords, it is usually impossible to specify the details of the design. This paper presents a new technology for retrieving skirt images based on sketches. We first conducted a user study to investigate the typical features illustrated in a sketch. Then algorithms have been developed for automatically extracting those features from both the skirt images and the sketches. A prototype system has been implemented to retrieve and present the best matched skirts in real time when a user interactively sketches her imagined skirt on the canvas.