It's no secret that I hate shopping. It's also no secret that my
"style" has always been: jeans + t-shirt+ boots. If I'm on-stage,
change to dress + boots. I can't stand the magazines, and I'm just
honestly not interested in fashion.
That said, I've
felt like a slob lately. I teach preschool and toddler music classes and
piano lessons, and I walk everywhere. That combination makes yoga pants
or leggings so comfortably acceptable that, unless I'm onstage, that's
all I wear anymore. I know it's unhealthy to compare myself to the moms
who show up to my classes, but they really truly all look like they are
so put together. I mean, they even have
accessories on!
Recently my friend and favorite blogger,
Joy, wrote about a personal shopping service on her blog. I loved the clothes they chose for her so much that I decided to try out
StitchFix for myself. I'd heard about it before, but I wasn't ready.
You
see, I don't spend money on clothes. I just don't. My clothes all come
from Goodwill or my fashionable friend's hand-me-down bags. I've always
felt that new clothes are wasteful for the environment and also for my
budget. I've got "friends" who tell me it
must be nice that I go to Europe every year I wish I had that kind of money.
And I bite my lip and don't say what I'm thinking, which is: you spend
more on clothes every year than I do on plane tickets. (Or substitute
"clothes" for all the other things I go without: a car, haircuts, hair
color, random Target trips, etc) Anyway, the point is that I've always
made a conscious choice not to buy new clothes, so
this StitchFix thing is a real leap for me.
My review? It
was super fun, and my stylist did a great job. I don't think I would
have picked out any of the pieces that "Grace" chose for me, but her
choices weren't off-the-wall or anything. She browsed my Pinterest style
board, which consists mostly of dresses I long for and a few boots and
sweaters images I threw on there to show her that I sometimes wear
things besides dresses. She also paid attention to my career -- the fact
that I need nice clothing to wear both on stage (meaning I can get away
with some sparkle or flash) and in the classroom setting or on a date
night. She also worked in my request for
comfort above all.
The
box arrived on a Friday afternoon, when both my husband and I were
working from home. This meant drop everything and have an immediate
dress-up party! Between the two of us, he is the stylish one. He pulled
each piece out of the box and had me try it on while he scratched his
chin, nodding, and deciding which items I would keep and which would go
back. (Not everyday is like a 7th grade sleepover at our house, I assure
you.)
My favorite piece was a
pink and navy shirt dress with some funky geometric designs. Had you said those exact words to me, I would
never
have believed I would like it. But a shirt dress? Perfect combination
of slightly dressy, but super comfortable. I wore it on Friday night
with some cowboy boots to the Loretta Lynn concert with my husband.
Black pants:
These are the pants I have been looking for my whole life. I live in
jeans or leggings. These are casual enough to wear anytime, but they
have just enough design/interesting cut to make them look waaaaay nicer
than leggings. It'll be an easy way to dress up my go-to casual outfits,
and help me out of my leggings rut.
KEPT.
|
Thicker than leggings, but servers similar purpose. |
|
This detail is what differentiates them from leggings. |
Burgundy shirt:
I would not have noticed this shirt at all in a store. It's dull, to be
honest. But it's both casual and nice enough to wear out with the right
accessories. The color is neutral, so it goes with everything. And the
fit is super flattering -- it hides my cookie stomach, which is probably
a good thing. Out of the box, it was my least favorite thing, but
having owned it a week now, I've already worn it twice. So I guess I
like it.
Paisley kimono: I
love that it goes with the burgundy shirt and the trousers. I love that
it's lightweight and has a pretty pattern that is just spicy enough to
spruce up my otherwise boring outfit choices. I'm still experimenting
with how to wear it (do I let it drape and keep it open? do I put a belt
around it? I just don't know!), but it's a winner.
Brown tunic: I'm
going to have to fight hard to keep this from becoming my new uniform.
The color choice is great (despite my lifelong desire to be a "winter," I
am most definitely an "autumn.") and it goes with everything. It's long
enough to wear with leggings if I really wanted to, but also looks
great over jeans. I also really like that the front is slightly shorter
than the back. That detail keeps it from looking like a frumpy 1980s bad
knitting job.
When
asked about my budget for clothes, I definitely said that I would
prefer "the cheaper, the better," so I'm assuming they could have sent
me much more expensive items. Still, the five pieces were a total of
$214 (I got a 25% discount because I kept all the pieces.), which is so
much more money than I ever spend on clothes that I am shuddering and
having major buyer's remorse as I sit here and type those numbers to
you. But I also know that I am 36 years old, and maybe I should actually
own some clothes that were chosen just for me and didn't come from my
friend's closet. I have put my StitchFix on hold because there is just
no way I can justify spending that much on clothes several times a year.
I may be a once-or-twice-at-the-most-a-year customer because, again,
I'd rather buy a plane ticket... But it is a really useful, helpful, and
good service. I'm hard to shop for, so I was pretty impressed.
Anyway, you are under no obligation to keep any of the clothes they send you -- they even include a self-addressed stamped package envelope to mail anything back that you don't want. David said they all looked great on me, so I kept it all. I'm not sure what I would have done had he not been there to prod me towards buying something nice for myself. I think the guilt would have won over, and I would have sent it all back. Well, I might have kept that shirt-dress. But anyway, it's a cool service, and I will likely use it again.
For the record,
StitchFix didn't ask me to write about this, and I didn't get anything for free, I assure you. I do get a referral perk, however, if
you click on my StitchFix link. So maybe if enough of you sign up, I'd get enough of a discount to try another box ... and next time I might actually put
pictures of me in the clothes rather than just hanging on the door.
But, hey, I don't own a full-length mirror, and I'm terrible at selfies.
Next time?