I’m finally purging my closet. There are items in there that haven’t fit me since before my first child was born. It’s time to go. Maternity wear, nursing tops, 3 sizes too small J Crew shorts that really, really won’t ever fit me again – gone.
I find I have a uniform these days. Jeans and a neutral top. Short-sleeve tee shirt in warm weather, long-sleeve tee shirt in cool weather, neutral colored sweater in cold weather. I recently went to J Crew to fill in – tee shirts in white, gray, olive green and navy. Dark jeans, black jeans, a cashmere sweater. So I got the staples – the bread, flour and rice of my wardrobe, but I’m still missing the delicacies.
So I decided to try Stitch Fix – the personal shopping service that sends a personalized box of clothing and accessories to your doorstep every month. I love clothes, shopping, shopping for clothes and I thought it would be fun to see what they sent me – if I hated it the worst that could happen is I’d send everything back and lose $20. It’s a fun concept. I love the element of surprise – what will I pull out of the box this month? I like that I can write notes to my “stylist” to get her to “know me” better. If I have an occasion coming up I can specify that in my notes. If I hate wearing yellow I can ask that the color not be included in my items. I was curious and so I signed up, filled out a lengthy profile, and waited until my first box arrived.
I told some fellow 3s moms about this and they told me they wanted to know all about it. I’m not sure if they knew quite how involved in my experience they would all become, indeed, how involved you would all become. What follows is my first experience with Stitchfix.
The box arrived February 8th and looked just like a box. Giddy as a kid on the first night of Hanukkah I took my box and ran upstairs to my closet to try it all on.* This is what I found inside. 
*Wait. Did anyone think it was slightly weird that I’d just be able to drop everything and run up to my closet to try things on? Yeah. That would never happen. Truly, I got the box, brought it inside and stared at it for hours until P did homework, the kids had dinner, and I got them in bed. Finally – let the fashion show begin!
I was pretty happy – folded up it looks exactly like clothes I would wear. Come to think of it, not folded up it looks exactly like clothes I would wear. Love the purple boots, love the jeans, love the black and white of the shirts and dress (despite momentarily wishing they had sent me something colorful, I remembered that I actually only seem to wear shades of black and white or the most boring colors these days..)
I tried on each item starting with the shoes. I don’t have a picture of me trying on the shoes because 1) I forgot and 2) They didn’t fit and 3) When I remembered that I hadn’t taken a picture I decided that no one needed to see me shoving my foot into a too-small boot like an ugly stepsister or something….So I’m sure I could have exchanged the boots for a bigger size but it so wasn’t worth the hassle. Returned.
Next I tried on the black shirt. I’ve since learned this is called a dolman shirt. The more you know. I have a few thoughts about what you’re about to see – see if you can guess:
If you said – “that came straight out of your closet” you’re right. If you said “what’s going on with your arm in the second picture?” you also win. Finally, if you’re wondering if this is my first time taking pictures of myself in clothes I’m trying on – yes. It very clearly is. See the bent knee in the first and second pictures? I clearly am trying to take a decent picture….but back to the clothes. I love this shirt. It’s slouchy and comfortable and, as I said, basically could have been yanked from my closet (there I am standing in my closet – if you look closely at the shelves you’ll probably see something similar). And because you can never have too much of a good thing, the shirt is a Keep.
Next up, the black and white shirt.
Look! I figured out I can stand a bit closer to the mirror to get a better shot of the shirt. And I took my hair down for this one just for some variety. So I like this shirt – it’s me. I can see myself wearing it to…. and then also….. or maybe when I go…..
…and that was my problem with this shirt. I like it but I just don’t see myself wearing it. It’s the kind of shirt I would buy in a store thinking it’s great for when I go to a board meeting or out for dinner but when it comes time to get dressed for the board meeting or dinner I always without fail choose something different. Plus I wasn’t wild about the material – it felt a bit cheap. Returned.
The penultimate article of clothing was the dress:
You’ll notice I’ve now put my hair into a third hairstyle (if you can call it that.) Now I’m not loving my body these days (YES I have 4 children YES the smallest is just 9 months YES I’m still nursing him NO I don’t hate myself YES I know what a gift it is to carry and feed these babies NO I’m not ashamed of my body – I just am not thrilled with the way I look right now) and this dress does nothing for me. I feel like a shapeless blob in a pretty garbage bag. It’s pretty. I like the design. I like the concept. I just don’t like me in it. Returned.
Finally I tried on the jeans. Now I have to admit I almost didn’t try them on so I wouldn’t be tempted to keep them. Since losing enough baby weight to be able to fit into normal jeans (but not enough that I fit into my old jeans) I have purchased three pairs of jeans. All of them have been dark wash high waist skinny jeans. These fit the mold exactly. At least I’m consistent and my stylist certainly got that right. But I’ll be damned if I was going to keep a 4th pair of the exact same jean. Nevertheless here I am (the shirt is just a shirt)
If I hadn’t just bought 3 other identical pairs of jeans I would have kept these. But I did buy 3 identical pairs. So, returned.
And there you have it. My very first Stitchfix box. My analysis? It’s weird. It’s all my style but 3 of the 5 items are things I would normally buy but regret and one thing is so me I literally already have 3 exact items. The shirt was worth it because I paid a $20 styling fee no matter what and if you buy an item you get to subtract $20 from the amount so the shirt came out to a whopping $16. Worth it.
The problem is, I was sort of hoping to get things for my wardrobe that weren’t staples but were more exciting or maybe even (gasp!) trendy! Well, there’s always next month. And because I have an addictive personality and sponsored Facebook posts are dangerous in the wee hours of the morning, I will now also be getting boxes from Trunk Club and Wantable. It’s okay though because one of them doesn’t have a styling fee…
So I’ll keep you posted. And in the meantime, what other subscriptions boxes should I look into? 😉
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
just kidding.
Until next time…
Mama Mader at Home 