Well, lookie there!

This lovely StitchFix box was on my front porch Saturday when I came home from my half marathon. And even though I really wanted to rip open the box, I attempted to exercise restraint because I wanted to do a video of me opening it. That way, I figured you could share in the surprise + first reactions, you know? Here are the 5 things I got…

I have to decide by Wednesday what I’m going to keep/send back. If I had to put the items in order of what I liked most, here’s what it would be:

1. black/white striped shirt
2. live sweater
3. jeans
4. gold necklace
5. black dress  … I hate to be harsh, but the dress doesn’t even register on my “like” scale. 

As I mentioned in the video, the only reason I tried StitchFix is because I had some referral credit – enough to snag 1 piece of clothing for free. So I figured I’d give it a go and see what the fuss was all about. Here are my thoughts about the process:

• Exciting – Having a box of 5 clothes/accessories especially picked out for you being delivered to your door? SUPER exciting!! I love looking forward to special things, so having this box scheduled for delivery definitely was more exciting than, say, picking out my own clothes at the store.
• Fun –  Like most of the world, I’ve never had my own personal stylist. So to try on clothes that someone else had picked out just for me was pretty awesome.
• Risky – Gotta be honest, if I had been in the store, I never would have picked out that black dress much less tried it on. That’s part of the beauty of StitchFix – you try on things you wouldn’t normally, so it takes you out of your normal zone. Sometimes that’s a good thing. In this case, it was a waste of the 5th item. womp womp.
• Expensive – Every time you get a box, there’s a $20 stylist fee involved. if you purchase anything, the $20 goes towards that purchase (yay!). But the clothes are pretty pricey. Especially for a girl who likes to shop at thrift stores and stretch gift cards. I have a hard time seeing the value of getting a regular shipment of pricey clothes I’m going to want to buy.

I have to decide in 2 days what I’m going to keep and send. If I keep nothing, I still take the $20 stylist fee out of my credit, so I’m planning to keep 1 item and am leaning towards the black/white striped shirt or olive sweater.

So that was my {very honest} review. Aaaand here’s my suggested alternative:

1. Pick a friend. Someone who dresses well and you think has great taste. I mean, if you’re their friend, they obviously have good taste, right??
2. Take them to a store. This could be the mall. Or a thrift store. Salvation Army half price day. Banana Republic. Whatever.
3. Pick out 5 pieces of clothes for each other with the stipulation that you both must try on everything.
4. Decide what to buy/put back on the rack. You don’t have to pay if you don’t keep anything. But maybe you should buy something anyway, especially if your friend with great taste says it looks good on you.
5. Buy each other coffee in lieu of a stylist’s fee. this is basically an excuse to have a coffee date with your friend.

And that, my friends, is how to do a form of Stitch Fix on the cheap.
You can improve your wardrobe, build a relationship on the way, and spend your $$ on something that matters a whole lot more than a great wardrobe.

Because a wardrobe – no matter how stellar – won’t last forever.