stardust☾

I decided to try out Stitch Fix a few weeks ago after my boyfriend had signed up for himself. We ended up having pretty different experiences, and mine didn't turn out at all as I'd hoped. I can't say I was surprised, for a few reasons I'll get into later, but my box ended up being a total disappointment.

Sign Up

The sign up process was pretty straightforward. One thing that stood out to me immediately was that I was unable to select multiple sizes for each category. As I'm sure most women are aware, how a size 2 fits in one brand can be entirely different from another brand. With Rent the Runway (my favorite fashion subscription so far), you're able to choose as many sizes as you'd like.

You're then shown about 7 images of outfits and you respond "yes", "no", or "maybe" to whether or not they match your style. I said no to like 5 of them and maybe to the other 2. There's no possible way they have distilled women's fashion into SEVEN. FREAKING. OUTFITS.

There was a little text box where you could write a bit more information about your style. I ended up saying that my style was somewhere between California Boho and Parisian Rock n Roll. I'm not sure if that would make any sense to anyone but me but you never know. 

So off the bat I was pretty skeptical. When my boyfriend signed up he was able to add his social media profiles so that his stylist could get a better idea of his lifestyle and current fashion. My sign up process didn't allow that, and I found out later that you can add pinterest boards as well, which would have maybe prevented this whole thing from happening in the first place.

They also had a bunch of mini style games where you could thumbs up and thumbs down different clothing to help them understand your style more. I did literally all of them because I wanted to give them (and their algorithm) as much help as I could. They only let you do a certain amount a day (again, why?) so you'd have to go back daily to add to your style profile.

After signing up you can add a note to your stylist, I added a note saying I was going to Mexico soon and would love to have some "tribal or jungle inspired" pieces. That ended up being the biggest mistake of all, because I'm pretty sure they just typed the word "boho hippie" into their database and called it a day.  

Shipping

My box ended up being delivered a day earlier than they originally estimated, so that was a plus in my book.

Delivery

The day the box arrived was actually the same day my boyfriend's fix arrived. I ended up opening his first by accident because I was so excited, oops! When I first opened the box there was an envelope with the return packaging, price list, and a note from the stylist. I didn't want to be spoiled on the contents of the box so I put those aside and got to opening. 

What was inside:

Kimono

I abhor 99% of patterns, especially paisley, which I specifically put under the "do not want" category in the pattern section of my style profile. If this had been in a solid color, it'd be a maybe, but I didn't feel that the quality at all justified the price.

High Waisted Denim Shorts (Madewell) 

These shorts were actually cute and if they had not been entirely too big for me I might have kept them. They were listed as a size 4, which is what I normally am in bottoms, but in high waisted clothing I would need to go with my waist size, which I think should be pretty obvious...

Navy Blue Tank

Pretty much the same as above, this had yet another paisley pattern and was in a color I marked as not wanting.

 Off the Shoulder Dress

Again, a pattern >.<, and whats more, it was super unflattering to my body. My style profile shows that I'm curvy around my hips and smaller around my waist, why on earth would I be sent this??

 Free People Dress

This one was cute, I'm not gonna lie. Free People is one of my favorite brands for sure, but I also tend not to buy them at retail prices because the quality is pretty much on par with urban Outfitters. Was I going to spend $100 on this dress when I could (and did) get a Mara Hoffman maxi for $100 on ebay? Hell no.

Pricing

I work in fashion. I see the wholesale price before it becomes a retail price. YOURE GETTING RIPPED OFF. I understand paying more for a brand that you love, but paying these prices for Stitch Fix's private label brands? Makes zero sense to me. My entire box would have cost $240, and probably about $50 at TJ Maxx for the same exact clothing.

Customer Service Response

I ended up reaching out to customer service to share my disappointment. I sent everything back the same day and asked if it would be possible to receive a new box by the end of the week (it was a Monday). The CS representative's only response was that it can "take several boxes" for them to understand your style. So I'm meant to spend $20 a month to give their algorithm more data on my style?? Bitch please. They did not offer a credit, nor expedite a new box. 

After all that I decided it wasn't worth my time to keep the subscription and pay them money to guess at what clothes I like. Boy, bye.