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My husband just mentioned he needs to go jeans shopping, which got me thinking about how I DON’T need to go jeans shopping.
Which is good, because I HATE jeans shopping.
Every brand seems to run on completely different sizes, and none of them have me in mind. Plus, the not-even-new-any-more-but-I-still-haven’t-caught-up wide leg jeans just don’t make sense to me. Or appeal to me. Or work for me.
Ugh.
I told my husband I thought he should do what I do instead of driving 45 minutes to find a pair of jeans he may or may not like, after wandering through a bunch of stores and wasting a perfectly good afternoon in which he could go biking in the sunshine instead.
I told him that if he asked, they’d send him six different pairs of jeans in his exact size, taking into account his requests in terms of color, fit, formality, style, and durability.
Then he could try them all on when he had time at home, pick the one(s) he liked, and send back the rest in the pre-labeled ready-for-drop-off package that would come with the jeans.
Five minutes of investment would get him his jeans, instead of 5 hours. Well, maybe 15 minutes the first time, since he’d have to sign up.
That’s still a pretty great trade in my (very busy) book.
I started using Stitchfix when my kids were 1 and 5, and going shopping just felt like the dressing room circus. I’d try things on as fast I could while doling out snacks and picking up toys, buy something I sort of liked out of desperation, and wait to repeat the cycle again soon when I STILL didn’t have whatever I needed for whatever I was going to do.
When I heard about Stitchfix, I figured I had nothing to lose (besides those amazingly fun shopping trips, of course).
So I signed up, played their little games on my phone where I would hit the thumbs up on the clothes I liked – which I found weirdly entertaining – and wrote my first note to my first stylist, explaining what I liked in clothing.
I loved getting a box of clothes tailored to me.
I’ve had a dozen or so boxes since then, and a lot of my favorite clothes have come out of them. Here are a few of the things I’ve bought over the years.
That black and white “Coatigan” in the top right just came last week, when I asked in my note for clothes to help me cope with the wacky temperature swings in my new climate, where I often wake up to 35 degrees and see 70 by afternoon. Never thought I’d wear something with such a goofy name, but actually I love it.
It’s the latest in a series of my favorite clothes to come from Stitchfix. In fact, you might have seen a lot of them here on my website. Somehow I always seem to lean on Stitchfix when it comes time to take photos for work.
Anyhoo, just to get to the point, this chat with my husband made me think you might like to do my 5 minutes for 5 hours trade too. Stitchfix gave me a code that gives you $25 off checkout from your first box.
If you decide to use it, here’s how it works for me at the time I’m writing this for you:
1. You register with Stitchfix and let them know your favorite sizes, colors, stuff like that. You also tell them what NOT to send (no dresses? no blazers? etc.). You can leave a note for your stylist, making specific requests like “I need comfortable long sleeve tops for teaching all day and I love stripes. I’d also like a long sweater or two in black or beige for when I have to open the windows to air out my classroom!”
2. You schedule for a delivery date.
3. Your clothes will come (6 items in a box), at which point you can try them on and decide what to keep. As long as there’s one thing you like and keep, you don’t pay a fee for the styling and shipping. You send everything back (within 3 days of getting the box) that you don’t want, in the pre-labeled pouch that comes in the box.
4. You hop onto your account (within 3 days of getting the box) and let Stitchfix know what you’re keeping and what you’re sending back. They charge you for what you’re keeping.
5. You can decide whether to keep getting a steady stream of boxes on a certain schedule, get one occasionally when you feel like it, or switch from boxes to just choosing things you like on their website and buying them. I’ve done it all.
OK, good luck! Remember, this link will give you $25 off your first box, if you’re going to try it!
