That Time I Finally Tried Stitch Fix and Didn’t Hate it After All

Hi there.  I’m Karyn, and I’m a Stitch Fix avoider.

Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s a fabulous idea.  I love surprises.  I love packages in the mail.  I love surprise packages in the mail.  I’ve been Stitch-curious for months – I’ve watched videos and read blogs and almost clicked that schedule button so many times, but you know what has been holding me back?  Pink chevron.

Wait.  I’ll explain.

I feel like there’s a particular Stitch Fix blogger style that, don’t get me wrong, is adorable – it’s colorful and chevron-y and full of lovely feminine embroidered things and sunshine and smiling faces – and it’s so, so not me.  I’m Pollyanna through and through, but I dress like a rain cloud – it’s gray tshirts and dark jeans and plaid button downs around here, clean, simple, no pink, no chevron.  Could Stitch Fix hang with my picky, depressing, dark Portlandy self?  I was skeptical.

I really don’t love pink chevron.

But August is my birthday month, so I thought heck – let’s try it.  I answered all the questions, I pinned lots of dark, leather-trimmed things, and I wrote my stylist-to-be a very detailed note about specific events and my stormy preferences and please oh please no pink chevron things, and I scheduled a Fix.

For those who don’t know, Stitch Fix works like this: You give them $20, they send you five handpicked items they think you will love, you try them on, decide what you’d like to keep, and send back what you don’t want.  If you keep anything from your Fix, your $20 is applied to your purchase and they charge you the rest of the balance.  If you send it all back, you’re out $20.  If you keep it all, you get 25% off.  And no, I’m not sponsored by Stitch Fix – I bought my box myself.  I’m pretty sure they heard about my pink chevron thing and saw how awkward I look in clothes-modeling pictures and thought “Um, no, we’re not going there.”

Let’s get to it, shall we?  Here’s what was in my box:

Okay.  Okay.  I’m actually really pleasantly surprised here.  Justine, my stylist?  Guys.  SHE GETS ME.  No pink chevron, no perky floral things.  I tried to make myself sound super edgy by mentioning that I had, like, art openings and CD release parties to go to (TRUE.), and maybe it worked, because girlfriend nailed it.  Mostly.  My expectations were absolutely exceeded.

I was surprised to see the earrings, since I was pretty sure I’d set my Fix settings to “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT SEND ME JEWELRY,” but there they are.  More on that later.

This is the part where I model these things for you, right?  Super.  Here we go.

I really, really liked this top.  The cut was cute – boxy but not overwhelmingly so – and I loved the little peekaboo trim action down the front.  Black and white is always a win for me.  Justine.  Girl.  Yes.

This one was disappointing – I LOVED it when I pulled it out of the box, but on me, it was just too tent-like and boxy and just really, really not flattering.  But I absolutely would have taken this off the rack in a store and tried it on.  So kudos to Justine again.

I’d apologize to you for the less-than-stellar quality of these pictures, but I have a toddler and a house to clean and I put on entire outfits for you, love bug, like a champion.  I changed my pants four times.  I’m not sorry.  I also didn’t sweep the floor.  Deal with it.

Gahhhhh this cardigan.  I love everything about this cardigan except the way it zips.  The fabric is heaven.  The cut is adorable.  Asymmetry is my JAM.  But the zipper sticks and the layer of fabric underneath gets really bunchy because there’s no way to secure it, and for $68, I just can’t hang with fiddly.  Which is the saddest, because oh man.  So soft.  So good.

This was the only piece in my Fix that I thought totally missed the mark (sorry Justine).  I just don’t get this shirt – I’m not an open weave knit kid, the cut is strange, it’s way stretchy, the stripes are SO DANG adamant about their stripiness – nope.  But really, considering I was sure I was going to get a big box of pink chevron, one miss is pretty darn acceptable.  And I can understand why someone who looked at my Pinterest boards might choose this for me – I pin a lot of stripes.  Just, ya know, quieter stripes.

Seriously, stripes, calm the hell down.

So that was my first Stitch Fix!  And I owe Justine an apology, because even though I really liked so many things in this box, I only kept one thing.  I keep a tiny capsule wardrobe, so I can only buy things I really, truly love, and while a couple of these came close, they weren’t quite there.

Except the earrings.

Touchè, Justine.  Touchè.

Closing thoughts: Consider me officially impressed.  Stitch Fix did a pretty darn good job of nailing my personal style, and the things they sent fit well.  The experience was easy and fun and a nice treat for $20, which then morphed into a cute pair of earrings that I’ll probably wear every day forever.

I’d do it again.  And if you’d like to try it, you can click here ——–> CLICKING HERE WILL TAKE YOU TO STITCH FIX AND SCORE KARYN REFERRAL DOLLARS SO SHE CAN TRY IT AGAIN.  (What?  I’m not going to lie to you.  You don’t have to use that link.  You can Google, and I’ll still love you.  But who doesn’t like free stuff, I ask you?  You’d do it too.)