my first Stitch Fix

So, I signed up for Stitch Fix at the suggestion of several people. It's a clothing styling service. You fill out your style profile online, pick how often you want to receive a "fix" (box of five items) and you pay $20 for each fix you receive. You can have a fix shipped to you every two to three weeks, every month, every other month, or every three months. You can even opt to schedule them manually, which is to say whenever you want one.  You get three days to decide if you want to keep anything. If so, you just go online and checkout. If not, you send them back in the postage paid envelope.  If you buy one or more of the items, that $20 goes towards your purchase. If you buy all five items, you get 25% off the total purchase.

I got my first box this weekend.  It was pretty surprising to see all the items fit in this one little box. The clothing was wrapped in paper and the box included an outfit suggestion card, along with the pricing and a Welcome note.

Here's the invoice. As you can see, the $20 "Styling Fee" is deducted from whatever you decide to keep. Shown is the total price if I keep everything. A few of the items are definitely a bit more than I'm used to spending, but others were about on par.

This is the outfit suggestion guide. As you can see, each outfit suggestion contains one of the five items.

Here's everything that was in the box, including the postage-paid return envelope.

OK, so here's what I got in my first Fix.

I got a pair of earrings ($44). They’re really not me, as they’re kind of big, but they actually look pretty good on me. That said, I’ll be sending them back, because I don’t have anything to go with them and $44 is a lot for costume jewelry (IMO). I may have kept them if I felt they were a good match for another outfit.

I got two blouses. This one is kind of a light grey with a lighter grey and yellow pattern ($54). It has a neck tie and fluttery sleeves. I didn’t like it when I pulled it out of the box, and it looks awful on me. It’s going back. Bob said it looks "old."

The other one is sleeveless, navy blue with a golden yellow pattern, and also has a neck tie ($44), though it's not as obnoxious as the one above. I think it would look better on me if it was a Misses XL rather than a Women’s 1X. It’s slightly big around the middle, but not swimmingly so. I may exchange it. If they don’t have XL then I'll have to decide if I'm keeping it or not. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, as I kind of cringed when I pulled it out of the box.

I received a pair of jean leggings that on the checkout page they call “skinny jeans” and they’re $78. The fit and length is perfect. Given that I’m 5’11”, that’s impressive! The color is too dark, though (I lightened the picture a bit so you can at least see them). I have a lot of cats I don’t want something that has to constantly be lint-rolled. I won’t be keeping them, both because of the price and the color. Sorry, but I’m not willing to spend $78 on jeans at the moment. If I had no jeans or was struggling to find ones that fit and look good, then I might do it. But that's not the case right now.

I got a long duster-length cardigan in light tan, though the color looks a little off here due to the lighting in the room. I was surprised at getting a XXL, but when I put it on I realized that it’s close-fitting. It’s lightweight and has a hood. I really like it and plan to keep it. It’s $58, but since I paid $20 for the box already, it will just be an additional $38.

To wrap up, I ended up keeping the blue blouse and the cardigan.  They didn't have a Misses size for the blouse; however, I decided that it's not so big that it looks terrible or doesn't fit well in other areas.

Here's what I liked:

• It gave me inspiration and ideas when going to the store this weekend. I tried on a few sleeveless blouses that are a departure from what I would normally give a second look at. 
• It's shipped to me for free. Also, return shipping is free.
• I can edit my profile any time I want so items are customized better for me. I also like that I can share my Pinterest board so the stylist can see they kinds of things I like. I created a category just for this and then shared the URL on my Stitch Fix profile.

What I didn’t like:

• Although they provided a card with outfit suggestions and the items *seem* to all go together (I think–I suck at matching colors and such), it showed only one piece along with a bunch of different items I don’t have to make an outfit. I would have preferred a card showing at least two of the items together so I know that, yes, these things do all match and look good together. It’s probably not an issue for a lot of women and is maybe nit picky, but I struggle and always have to check with my sister or a friend as to whether colors match or pieces look good together. 
• The time frame to make a decision is a bit short--only three days. 
• Once you go through checkout, it doesn't seem as though you can review your past orders; however, this was my first time and I didn't devote much time to poking around the website like I normally would.

I will definitely try it a few more times, though. I’ll make sure to give really detailed feedback so the choices get better. From what I understand in talking to others who use this service, detailed, specific, brutally honest feedback is crucial to getting what you like and will wear.