As I've mentioned before, I've spent part of the last two years downsizing and improving my wardrobe. I did a lot of this (both disposal and acquisition) with the help of Poshmark, but I also decided to try Stitch Fix.
If you have somehow avoided being exposed to their ads, Stitch Fix is a personal styling service that will send you 5 pieces of clothing and/or accessories every 3 months to buy or return. They charge a $20 up-front styling fee each time that goes toward the purchase of any items you decide to keep. When you receive your Fix box, it includes a postage-paid pouch for returns.
To help determine your style, the software takes you through questions about your body type, fit and color preferences, budget, etc. You are shown "outfit" photos and asked to rate how well you like them. In addition, Stitch Fix suggests you set up a Pinterest board with items you like to give their stylists more specific guidance about your taste. A few months ago they also added a feature to their website where you are shown a selection of different clothing items each day and asked whether each one is your style or not, and you can leave a short note for your stylist before each Fix.
How well does this work?
First of all, let me be clear - I do not like IRL shopping. Occasionally I am forced to visit a brick and mortar store just to check the fit of a new clothing brand, but I was never a mall rat and prefer online ordering, so the mechanics of this process worked well for me. If your idea of heaven is spending the day browsing the clearance racks at Nordstrom's, this may not be the right service for you.
Over the past two years, I have been assigned a different stylist for almost every Fix. (The last two were both by the same person.) Two of the stylists - including the last one - nailed my style. A couple of the early ones were really off. I blame the vagueness of some of the initial style questions for this; for instance, I marked that I like green apparel, but the greens I typically wear are blue-greens; the olive sweatshirt in one Fix made me look newly embalmed. Over time, as I have made online comments about what I kept and what I returned and why, the Fixes have been getting better and better. I've also been pretty regular about going to the site for the daily "thumbs up/thumbs down" ratings on individual items.
Perhaps the biggest help, though, was when I added photos of most of my existing wardrobe to my Pinterest board so the stylists can see what I actually wear and determine where the gaps in my closet might be. That's when I started to receive garments that worked with all my other clothing. So, the more information you give the stylists, the better the end results.
Overall, I have been very happy with the service. By now they have sent me several items that I would never have picked for myself, but that I adored from the minute I tried them on. When I complained that two of the garments shrank in the wash, despite my following the laundering directions to the letter, they refunded my money with a note of apology.
Do I recommend the service? Yes, if you are willing to do the work to show the stylists who you really are. In fact, rating their items and uploading the pieces in my current wardrobe that I like the most helped me better define what my personal style actually is, which was wonderful. Will I continue to use them? Yes, but probably not as frequently - thanks in part to their efforts, my wardrobe works so well together now that I am only going to need additional pieces to replace things that wear out.
“Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” ―Rachel Zoe
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