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Road testing Stitch Fix: the personal styling service
Could this online service reinvent shopping? Lifestyle editor Harriet Hall and her partner Ryan put it through its paces
If 2020 has taught us anything (besides wash your hands and don’t touch your face), it’s the value of delivery services. Anyone with a covetable slot at Ocado on 23 March or a pre-existing grocery box subscription possessed an air of smugness felt throughout every neighbourhood WhatsApp group.
Of course, though online shopping is convenient during normal times – and essential this year – there’s nothing quite like the experience of a bricks-and-mortar shop, especially when it comes to clothes shopping. Helpful retail assistants and personal stylists introduce you to new items, and provide an invaluable second opinion. When we shop for clothes online, we are out in the fashion wilderness alone – and often end up battling for a slot at the Post Office having to return most of it.
Enter Stitch Fix, the online personal styling service that is aiming to reinvent the shopping experience, providing customers with curated collections of clothes selected by personal stylists who get to know each customer’s idiosyncratic sartorial preferences.
Launched in the US in 2011, the service came to the UK in 2019. Stitch Fix works with over 120 brands, from high-street (Mango, French Connection) to higher-end (Scotch & Soda, Free People). It uses a combination of human stylists and computer algorithms to analyse customers’ style preferences and eventually provide a bespoke service.
Users can subscribe to regular deliveries or just do a one-off order for an event or a wardrobe overhaul, though the idea is that the more you use it, the more the personal stylists get to know you, and the more frequent the success rate. After filling in an online survey on your fashion preferences – from cut to colour, trends and brands – the personal stylists get to work, and the customer waits for a surprise box of five items selected specially for them to arrive on their doorstep.
It sounds like a useful service for people who want to be smart and aren’t completely obsessive about their clothes, but how successful will Stitch Fix be when it comes to fashion lovers?
My partner, Ryan, and I both share a love of clothes – my style being more erratic and mood-based with a hefty dose of leopard print and his being strictly monochrome classics (for Ryan, a T-shirt with a pocket is a wild fashion choice). What better way to put Stitch Fix to the test than with two sartorial opposites? And how will the service differ when it comes to men's and women’s clothes? Will it nail our very specific respective personal styles or will we be left wanting?
We put it to the test…
Harriet
I’m a bit of an obsessive when it comes to fashion. My family has all but given up on trying to surprise me with clothes on my birthday because of the number of things I’ve exchanged, Rachel Green-style, the second they’re unwrapped. So, naturally, I begin my Stitch Fix journey with a hefty dose of scepticism.
I’m a little dubious too when I open the website. It looks closer to Land's End than high-end with catalogue-style posing and no clothes that jump out at me. But, as soon as I begin my questionnaire, I’m immediately impressed by the Stitch Fix interface.
It only takes about 10 minutes to set myself up, and during that time I am asked everything from how I usually wear my jeans, to the specifics of my body shape – which I particularly appreciate as someone who is short and pear-shaped (and therefore struggles to find a decent pair of jeans) – to how much I would usually spend on specific items and which brands I like.
The team at Stitch Fix have thought about everything: I’m asked what colours I would and wouldn’t wear, which prints I love (leopard, leopard, leopard) and if there are any items I wouldn’t want to receive (heels, skirts, anything too feminine).
At the end, I’m given the opportunity to write a little note to my stylist detailing which items I’d love to receive. I tell them I’m after some nice blouses for work (smart top-halves are essential in the Zoom era, after all), a summer dress and some new trainers – I’ll be glad to see the back of my ratty old Reebok Classics.
My apprehension returns when, at the end of my questionnaire I am asked to do a Style Shuffle – click through a series of outfits and rate them. I give every single one a thumbs down. Ryan jokes that I’m too picky for my own good, but it does make me think – will Stitch Fix be able to cater to my specific taste? The stylists certainly have their work cut out for them.
For the sake of the trial, we order 10 items each, as opposed to the usual five. Customers clarify a price range, pay a styling fee of £10 and then postage and returns are free. It’s an uncomfortable feeling – entering your credit card details but not knowing where the money is going. I calm my nerves by pouring myself a glass of wine.
The box arrives less than a week later. It has all the trappings of a luxury delivery: stylish branding and tissue paper wrapping. Shoes come in a canvas dust bag. I feel the familiar dopamine hit as I begin unboxing.
I’m pleasantly surprised by the pieces the team have selected for me. As requested, a pair of trainers – Superga ones (£80) with leopard print detailing on the back, win win – several blouses, a pair of jeans, a dress and a set of chunky gold hoop earrings.
Two of the blouses are an immediate no for me: a bright yellow sunflower print one from Fabienne Chapot (£99.99) that makes me look like a primary school teacher in a Disney movie, and a black one with printed flowers and frills down the front from Scotch & Soda (£119.95) that is a bit librarian-on-a-night-out. A black funereal dress is immediately dismissed too, along with some navy check culottes from Part Two (£69.95).
The third shirt is a winner. It’s an off-white silky waffled blouse from Baum und Pferdgarten (£119) with tiny black polka dots, a pointed collar and frilly cuffs. I’d said in my questionnaire that I liked traditional shirting with interesting details and with this item they nailed it.
I’m immediately into a pair of Samsøe Samsøe jeans (£130) too. They’re high-waisted, straight cut and cropped – exactly what I was after. I had been putting off buying for ages as I can never find jeans I like, so this is a real success. To top it all off I’ve been sent a blush pink chunky cardigan I can snuggle into once winter returns. I’ve ended up with five pieces I like – half my order – and am pleasantly surprised. I also eye up Ryan’s delivery when it arrives and spot a white Breton top which I will definitely be pinching.
Having approached Stitch Fix with cynicism, I can immediately see the benefits. Every item I keep is from a brand I probably wouldn’t have automatically gone to without the service and despite stepping out of my shopping comfort zone and letting someone else select items for me, I enjoyed the surprise element of the process. Though I would like to have been able to list the exact items I was looking for, since my order arrived, I’ve worn the trainers most days, the earrings every day and I know the jeans will be worn almost daily. Not bad for a first go.
Ultimately, though, as a fashion lover, I think I enjoy the process of being my own personal stylist a little too much to become a regular user, but I can definitely see the benefit for specifics events – to reduce outfit anxiety before a big work event, to attend your fourth wedding of the year or to curtail the pre-office-Christmas-party panic. And who knows, if I ever go on holiday again maybe I’ll turn to Stitch Fix to sort my summer wardrobe. I’m not sure my work-from-home attire will quite cut it…
Ryan
I am very particular about what I wear. I don't buy a lot of clothes and I don’t enjoy shopping, but when I do buy clothes, they tend to be classics, bordering on utility wear, favouring quality of fabric and cut over brand name.
Since much of the nation began working remotely, I have been served countless Instagram ads for “the most comfortable trousers ever created”: woollen suit-style trousers with an elasticated waist and drawstring. They may have been all over the AW20 menswear catwalks, but to me they just look like glorified tracksuit bottoms, and I struggle to see how any self-respecting work-from-homer could seriously wear these at their makeshift desk.
Well, Stitch Fix has shown me the error in my thinking. The soft, relaxed fit, navy blue 01.Algo trousers sent to me in my first Fix are a game-changer. I would never have considered buying a pair, but I practically melted the moment I tried them on.
The lounge trousers (£50) are not the only thing I’ll be keeping from my first Stitch Fix delivery. There is also a perfect Breton striped pullover by Libertine-Libertine (£95) – which Harri is also eyeing up (good luck to her) – and a pair of brown trousers by Scotch & Soda (£129.95). I haven’t worn brown trousers for over a decade, since Topman was offering a whole range of Jarvis Cocker-inspired tailoring in 2008 and I bought myself a pair of shocking tweed bell-bottoms. But here I am, once again.
Past fashion crimes aside, I have been monochrome for the better part of a decade, and so was surprised to find only two black or white items in my Fix, despite indicating my preferred colour palette at the start of the styling process.
The Stitch Fix website is very well designed with excellent UX. The site uses a Tinder-style rating system in which you are presented with a line-up of blokes, normcore to hipster, and you simply choose whether or not you’d be seen dead in what each guy is wearing. I spent a few minutes swiping through this line up of male models before calling it a day, kicking back to await my new looks.
What I received was a selection of clothes quite a way outside of my comfort zone. There was a mint green AllSaints T-shirt (£28), a white Farah T-shirt with black collar and sleeve detailing (£30), an indigo denim Fairlane & Sons shirt (£40) and a short-sleeve patterned Samsøe Samsøe shirt (£85).
There was a camo shacket by AllSaints (£98) and a dusty pink Tiger of Sweden sweatshirt (£119) that, despite being of a lovely quality is not something I’d ever wear. Pink was a bold decision given my stated preferences, but I had to give it to them for trying.
Aside from the two pairs of trousers and Breton top, I took a fancy to a black and white (what else) 01.Algo Hawaiian palm print shirt (£36) which, as it happens, was near-identical to a vintage one I’d worn to death. Unfortunately, it was a bit too fitted and I didn’t like the fabric, so back in the box it went.
The idea with Stitch Fix is that the results improve with use: the more time you invest in your profile, the more likely you are to receive clothes you like. In box one I kept three out of 10 items – a 30 per cent success rate isn’t bad – and I suspect were I to use the service a few more times, perhaps I’d end up with my entire winter wardrobe in one delivery.
My main gripe? I wasn’t quite clear whether these outfits were all supposed to be worn together. I could only find one pairing that I liked, but each of the pieces I kept mixed well into my existing wardrobe.
Stitch Fix did not nail my style the first time round, but it did open my eyes to a few items that I would not otherwise have considered, helping to expand my fashion horizons.
Of course, you only pay for what you keep, and the ordering and returning process is simple enough that you needn't judge the service on whether you would keep absolutely everything they send. I am left with two great pairs of trousers and a fantastic top, at prices I am happy to pay, and I would consider that a success.
I would recommend it to any man who finds shopping unenjoyable. Three or four boxes a year could take care of all your needs or set you up for an event, keeping you looking fresh without the effort.
To find yourself a personal stylist for £10 and book your first Fix, head to stitchfix.co.uk
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