I have loved Stitch Fix for years.
And I mean years.
Different sizes. Different houses. Different jobs. Different versions of myself. Different seasons of life. I’ve used it for my kids when they were younger. My weight has gone up and down. Trends have come and gone and, unfortunately, some have come back.
Stitch Fix has remained.
Because here’s the thing.
I do not like shopping.
I know there are women who consider a Saturday spent wandering around a mall, carrying seventeen things into a dressing room, and emerging six hours later with a new wardrobe to be a good time.
I am not one of those women.
As someone who was overweight for most of my adult life, shopping for clothes was never particularly fun for me. There was the optimism of carrying something into a fitting room, followed by the fluorescent lighting, the full-length mirrors, and the immediate realization that perhaps this entire outing had been a terrible mistake.
I prefer to look at my fish-belly-white belly in the privacy of my own home, thank you very much.
Enter Stitch Fix.
Clothes arrive at my house.
I try them on at my house.
With my mirrors.
My lighting.
My underwear.
And if I hate everything, no one has to know.
Honestly, I have been known to open the box in the garage before even bringing it inside, and I have absolutely no shame about this.
They Generally Get Me Right
Over the years, Stitch Fix has done two things exceptionally well for me.
First, they’ve stocked my closet with staples.
Jeans I actually wear.
Sweaters that go with everything.
Jackets I would have walked right past in a store.
The basic pieces that aren’t particularly exciting when you buy them but somehow become the things you wear three times a week.
Second, they’ve pushed me just far enough outside my comfort zone to keep me from dressing exactly the same way I did in 2014.
Left to my own devices, I will buy the same shirt in four colors and consider my work here done.
Stitch Fix will occasionally send me something I pull out of the box and immediately think:
Absolutely not.
And then I put it on.
Oh. Well. Okay then.
Apparently we’re wearing wide-leg pants.
Again.
That’s the sweet spot for me.
I don’t need someone to completely reinvent me. I just need someone to occasionally tap me on the shoulder and say, “Hey, we’ve moved on from that.”
They Also Have a Game
Stitch Fix has a little style game where you swipe through outfits and pieces and tell them what you like and don’t like.
You guys.
Gamify literally anything and I am in.
I will happily sit there rating outfits like my opinion is somehow critical to the future of fashion.
Yes.
No.
Absolutely not.
Wait, do I like that?
Theoretically, all that swiping also helps Stitch Fix learn my style, which probably explains why they’ve gotten better at sending me things I’ll actually wear over the years.
I don’t know how much of the algorithm is listening to me.
But I do know I enjoy telling it what I think.
It Keeps Me on a Budget, Too
This is another reason I’ve stuck with it.
I rarely spend more than $200 a month on clothes, and that’s on the high end.
I’m not wandering through stores adding random things to a cart because they’re 30 percent off.
I’m not buying five shirts because maybe one of them will work.
A box comes.
I decide what I love.
I send the rest back.
Done.
Now, am I above ordering a quick trend from Amazon?
Absolutely not.
If I need a cheap dress for an event I’m going to wear once, Amazon and I remain close personal friends.
But when it comes to actually filling my closet with the clothes I live my life in, Stitch Fix has done most of the heavy lifting for years.
My Kids Used It, Too
When my kids were younger, we used Stitch Fix for them, too.
It became a surprisingly fun way for them to start figuring out their own style.
A box showed up just for them.
They got to open it.
Try everything on.
Decide what felt like them.
It gave them some ownership over getting dressed without requiring me to drag everyone through a department store while slowly losing the will to live.
Everybody won.
I have yet to try the men’s version for my husband.
Mostly because Stitch Fix doesn’t appear to carry high-vis, and without a fluorescent yellow option I suspect we’re fighting a losing battle.
Where are my trades’ wives?
You understand.
So, About That Cute Outfit…
If you see me wearing a cute outfit, or even just a particularly cute piece of one, there’s a very good chance I had almost nothing to do with it.
It came in a box.
Someone else picked it.
I tried it on in the safety of my own home.
And occasionally, I didn’t even make it out of the garage first.
I have no shame about any of this.
I’ve reached a point in my life where I don’t need to do everything the hard way just to prove that I can.
I want systems that make my life easier.
I want fewer decisions.
I want someone, or something, else to tell me that apparently we’re wearing wide-leg pants now.
And I want to be able to try them on without fluorescent lighting anywhere near my fish-belly-white stomach.
Stitch Fix does all of that. ($25 off your first Fix with that link)
Which is why, after all these years, all these sizes, and all these different versions of me, I still get excited when I see that box show up.
