My Honest Review of Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix. It's one of the hottest subscription boxes out there delivering five clothing pieces to subscribers on a bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Simply take the style quiz, add a note for your stylist and viola, you're good to go.

While this all sounds peachy keen, there's one issue potential fixers face while deciding whether or not they should take the styling service leap, almost every review on the top Google search results is a paid ad for the service. Whether it's a bold statement at the top of a blog or the fine print near the bottom, finding an honest review of Stitch Fix where the writer isn't shilling out an affiliated link is frustratingly difficult. I know this because before I signed up for the service earlier this year I was in the same boat, I knew the reviews were biased, but I was still curious. It was finally a nudge from one of my coworkers and an add on the Jenna & Julien podcast that set me over the edge, I took the style quiz and waited for my first box to arrive.


My first box came and I was pleasantly surprised, it was evident that they stylist looked at my Pinterest board for inspiration and none of the pieces were too far out of my comfort zone (black and dark green). I was pretty hyped and despite the high price tag, I kept everything in box number one which consisted a few tops, a jean jacket and a pair of pants and was really excited for my next shipment to arrive the following month.

Month two was also pretty successful, however, this month I ended up keeping everything in my box despite disliking a piece due to the 25% discount you get if you keep all five items. Again, I thought the pieces seemed a little overpriced, I had set my price range in the $25-50 range for tops and both shirts were reaching the higher end. For bottoms, my range was set to $80 max (I justified this by saying to myself that I was holding out for a pair of great jeans) and I received a pair of shorts priced around $60. The total was adding up quick, but my stylist seemed so sweet and she did a pretty good job styling me and who am I kidding, I was enjoying getting a big fat present delivered to my door each month. The item that I kept from this fix that I wasn't too hot about was a white dress, as I mentioned before my comfort zone falls more towards the black end of the spectrum but the style of the dress was kind of cute so I reasoned with myself and said that I might wear it to work (even though I knew I never would) and made sure to leave a comment telling my stylist to veer away from picks like this in the future.


On fix number three my woes began, white, white and more white. Ok, one of the shirts was cute and I have worn it a few times to this day, but was my stylist even listening to me? I said no more white and was met with a box looking like a fresh coat of snow. The prices in this box continued to be too steep for my liking and aside from a killer pair of shorts that fit my buns like a glove (seriously, all of their bottoms fit magically), I was beginning to have some sizing issues. Now I know I can't blame this entirely on Stitch Fix considering I was buying clothes from an online styling service but still, I was getting frustrated. Despite this, I still bought most of my box because I apparently like wasting my money. 

Somewhere around box three I was offered what Stitch Fix calls a "Style Pass" which allows for users to skip the mandatory $20 styling fee and order fixes as frequently as they'd like. I snooped around a bit on Reddit to see if I should accept the offer and found mixed results. The first thing I learned is that it seems like SF only gives the pass to big spenders (yay for wasting my money) and two almost everyone who got the pass found that their fixes went downhill ever since. So what did I do? You guessed it, I said yes to the Style Pass.

And indeed my fix went downhill. Maybe it's a conspiracy or maybe I should throw away my tinfoil hat but between a frumpy fall shirt in the middle of summer and an ill-fitting wedding guest dress, my fourth fix was disappointing. This fix did, however, have one redeeming quality and that is that it brought me to my beloved pair of pastel purple Toms that I will cherish forever. I sent almost half of the pieces back from stitch four, I loved my new Toms but I was getting hesitant about SF.

Finally, after much humming and hawing about if I should keep the service or not, I decided to dip. Here are my final thoughts:

The price - 
The price is too damn high for what you get. Yes, you can set a price range for stylists to follow but plan on each piece nearing the top of your allotted budget.
The quality - 
Eh, not always the best. This one is tough, many of the brands I received in my fixes seemed to be in-house names that I had never heard before. Aside from my Toms, I questioned if the quality of some of the items were worth the price.
The style - 
Each box felt less and less like my style the further I went into this service. While some of the pieces are trendy, it seems like a lot of the clothing is very minimalistic and "basic". For example, I set one of my style profile preferences to "edgy" and received nothing of the sort, I don't think SF has an edgy bone in its inventory. That being said, the service is nice for building what some may consider wardrobe staples, I just can't confidently say that it's worth the price.
The verdict - At the end of the day I'm happy that I tried Stitch Fix for a few months but found the price to be too high and the clothing didn't match my style.