For months now, I’ve been watching friends receive boxes filled with fashion goodies from Stitch Fix – a service designed to be a personal stylist for you – based entirely on a profile you fill out with details like your height, weight, basic clothing size, fashion trend preferences, things you love, hate and what you might be willing to try.
Once a month a stylist sends you box of five items to try, complete with a style guide for each item personalized specifically for you. You try everything on, keep the items you love and send back what doesn’t work in a pre-paid envelope.
This was my style guide….complete with a personal note from Catherine explaining why she chose these specific items for me.
Catherine sent me a variety of things to try – four clothing and one jewelry. I was given skinny jeans, a white jeweled t-shirt, a cobalt blue tank, a black and white striped dress with a yellow belt and a pair of hot pink stone earrings.
Before I even tried them on, I suspected the cobalt tank (love the color!) and the striped dress would be my favorites. The whole process is so much fun…I took pictures of everything and posted them on both Facebook and Instagram to get feedback.
Since this was my first Stitch Fix, I was excited to hear the feedback.
I think what I loved most? How willing my friends were to share their opinions AND how varied the opinions were on each item.
Ultimately, I decided to go with my gut on each item…especially knowing that the feedback I offered on each item would be helpful for my next ‘fix’.
The earrings were pretty, but not me. I rarely wear studs, so they weren’t the best investment.
The skinny jeans fit (I mean really fit!) but I didn’t feel comfortable in them. And the white top, while it could be considered a wardrobe staple, didn’t feel like ‘me’. It was a bit too basic. I LOVED the color of the cobalt tank, but it was quite big on me, so it felt boxy. I felt the pleat in the front would make it impossible to belt, so that went back too. That left me with my favorite – the dress. I loved the style and it was comfortable, but ultimately it was too big. When I put the belt on, the dress gathered, so I didn’t want to invest in something that wasn’t ‘just right’.
Here’s the thing – I sent it all back, but I still love everything about the service and the process. I love that there is a stylist matching fashion with my personal style using my preferences, sizes and even a Pinterest board that gives them a feeling for my fashion flavor.
I recommend a few things:
- Be VERY detailed AND HONEST when you fill out your profile. Don’t fudge on your sizes, don’t say you’d like to try a new color or a new style if it is outside your comfort zone if you really can’t handle it.
- Set pricing restrictions if you have them so you aren’t surprised (or disappointed) when you fall in love with an item that is simply too expensive for your budget.
- Create a Pinterest board that showcases your true fashion sense so the stylists can match the very best fashion to you.
My next Stitch Fix will be here the first week of April and I’m hopeful that the feedback I provided on each item will mean that I keep all five in my next box. For reference – the items in my box were priced between $36-120. The dress was the most expensive.
Have you tried StitchFix? I would love to know your experience? I ultimately learned about them via my friend Rachel. The links I have provided here do include a referral code from me – so let me know if you decide to try it out.
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