Lately, every time I see my mother or my sister, they are so stylish and every time I say so, they always reply, "Oh, its from Stitch Fix!"

Now,  I've tried Stitch Fix before with okay results. However,with not one but two ladies in my life getting such fantastic results, I kept thinking I should give the company another go too. Luckily, The Boy seemed to have been listening when I said this, because he gave me Stitch Fix credit for my birthday. All that was left was for me was to get a Fix ordered! But what is Stitch Fix, for those uninitiated?


Think of Stitch Fix as a stylist-by-mail. When you sign up for their services, you fill out a style survey, which includes both words and visuals, to help a stylist get an idea of your tastes. You also provide measurements, information about what parts of your body you would want to highlight or have covered, and what your lifestyle is like (as a teacher, for example, my life does not require an overabundance of cocktail dresses. My sister, who lives in LA, might want more fancy dresses). You also specify what type of price brackets you are looking for for any given type of garment. You can also share your social media (they especially encourage you to link to any Pinterest pages you have!), and there is a comment section where you can write to your stylist about things you are looking for, want/don't want, or even about special upcoming events in your life etc.  They can even style you if you need petite clothing; they also have a maternity clothes styling option, if you are pregnant! The stylists use all this information to pick out items they feel you would like and mail it out to you.

There is a twenty dollar styling fee for the services the stylist provides, and you are charged for any clothes you decide to buy. Any items you decide not to keep can be returned to Stitch Fix via a prepaid ad labelled mailing bag. The advantages of Stitch Fix is that the dressing room is your own room. You can try on the clothes at your connivence, see how items work (or don't!) with clothes already in your closet etc. A few days after you receive your clothes, the company emails you with a reminder to check out. At this point, you let them know which items you are keeping or returning. They also provide you with an opportunity to rate clothing for style and fit, which can help stylists with any future clothing picks for you. You also have the opportunity to leave detailed feedback about the box. The first two times I tried Stitch Fix, this feedback seemed like it had the most impact in influencing future boxes.  At checkout, the cost of the items you kept is charged to your account. The twenty dollar styling fee will go towards any item you buy, if you choose to purchase items, and you also get a discount of twenty percent, if you choose to buy all the items in your Stitch Fix.

Getting my box- my first Stitch Fix in over a year- I was incredibly impressed to see they clearly had looked at social media, in addition to looking at the styling survey. This was reflected in both the letter written to me personally from my stylist, Brenda, and in the choices she made and her reasons behind each pick (which were reiterated in the letter). This level of personalization was impressive, even considering the service is getting a stylist. As for Brenda's picks- three were well done and two were sort of puzzling, but overall, it was a great experience.

I was sent a purse, coat, pants, sweater and a dress. I'm not sure why a coat or purse were sent. They were expensive, and not items I needed, nor had ever indicated needing. With how cold is gets here, I need to pick out coats myself (and they are likely to be heavy-duty ski coats because negative temps are Not Fun), and the purse was large- which isn't bad, just not my taste. The dress was an adorable striped number, chosen for its "vintage vibe." It ultimately went back because of a very low back. I would mostly likely wear a dress like that to work, and am just not sure such a low back would be appropriate for my work place. This is my fault; the survey specifies if there are any body areas that you'd prefer to have covered, and I didn't think to say "back" as one of them. Stitch Fix always seems to require a bit of a learning curve for you and the stylist to figure out what the information shared means to the other person. I'll be adjusting my style survey to reflect that! The last two items were ones I ultimately kept, and am pleased to say they'll work for both work and casual wear. I love stripes so the top was great, and the cut of the pants definitely fit my style. Both items were in the forty to sixty dollar range, which, while not cheap, did not seem unreasonable for a sweater or a pair of pants. Stitch Fix also tends to stock items bought wholesale, meaning they aren't for sale to individuals in an online store. This means you are getting more unique items, but it can also mean its harder to get information about the clothing companies, which may be problematic if you are trying for ethical clothing. In my case, I was able to find out, with some internet research, that my striped top from Market & Spruce, was made in America. Kut from the Kloth, the company that made the cropped pants, does have a social responsibility policy, though their items are not made in the US. To be quite frank, their policy could, in essence, boil down to following local laws, but I felt in reading the policy over, a commitment to keep to the spirit of more ethical sourcing. While I cannot be sure all clothing companies Stitch Fix works with are  socially responsible, it was nice to know at least these two do.

Overall, while not as wildly successful as my mother and sister's experiences with the company seem to be, I did enjoy using Stitch Fix. It felt personalized and I have a feeling that the success will only grow the more Fixes I get, as both I and the stylists better understand how to share what I'm looking for. To keep things from getting too dangerous for any checkbooks though, you can schedule when you are getting your "Fixes", rather than getting them monthly, or on some predetermined schedule. If you've used Stitch Fix, what's it been like for you? If you haven't but want to take the plunge, you can try signing up right here!