This is now my fourth Stitch Fix! I did put in a request this month for a summery maxi dress and cardigan, and of course, Lana delivered. As usual, she wrote me a little note about the pieces included.
Hi Melissa! Hope you had a great holiday weekend. The way you paired that yellow skirt with that denim shirt looks so fabulous on you. I see you are looking for a summer maxi dress, and I know you like polka dots, so I chose for you the Gilli Knit Maxi Dress which also has that empire waist you love. Layer it with the white crochet cardigan and pair with your favorite sandals for a stylish look perfect for your next summer event. I spotted the Beauport Off The Shoulder dress on your Pinterest board, so I also included it today. It has that vintage vibe you can rock with a fun colored head scarf and some wedges. I also chose the Brixon Ivy lace overlay blouse for you which you can pair with your black Makers skinny jeans for a night out with your husband. Enjoy and please let me know if you have any summer requests next time! XO Lana
LOL it’s always good to know you’re on the right track with styling ideas when your Stitch Fix stylist compliments you on your pairing choices! I didn’t mention it last month, but the fact that these clothes come to my door and I can dig through my closet for things to pair them with is probably one of the greatest things about the service. Say you go out shopping. You find a few tops you think might work with pants or skirts you have at home. You bring them home, find out that they just don’t jive with the colors and pieces you already have, and after you have them on again at home, you end up going all the way back to the store to return them. It’s a hassle and wastes gas and time. With Stitch Fix, I get to play around with the clothes I have in my closet and the only gas I’m using is a stop at the post office while I’m out running other errands anyway. I’m much more certain of the pieces I keep from Stitch Fix than I have ever been with brick-and-mortar store-bought clothes!
Okay, so this month’s fix. When I opened the box and saw what was inside, I thought uh oh, this is going to be another 5-piece-winner box, because everything looked so perfect. And, it is all perfect in theory, but there are some fit issues, and I’m having trouble justifying keeping everything when the fit isn’t that great. I’d love to say, oh sure, I’ll just hem or alter these pieces to make them work, but knowing how busy things are getting, it’s not going to happen in time to wear them before the end of summer, so I need to be a little more picky about fit this time around. Photos are inside again since it’s raining .. AGAIN. Or STILL. I’m not quite sure which one it is anymore!
Item: Brixon Ivy Willard Lace Overlay Blouse
Cost: $54
Paired With: Makers Lianne Skinny Jean (last month’s Fix), sandals (mine), cardigan (mine)
BLUE! Blue is my favorite color, and this is such a pretty shade of blue. The top is sleeveless so adjusting my preferences worked to get me sleeveless tops. I’m still going to toss a cardigan over them since I don’t like my arms, but it’s nice to have the flexibility to go either way. This really does go nicely with the jeans from last month, and the lace detail at the top is really cute. I honestly don’t have too many nice tops like this – during the summer, I find it’s easier to throw on a dress and cardi, so it’s nice to fill in that style gap in my wardrobe with tops that can really be worn any season. It is a little sheer so I do have a cami on underneath. The fabric is polyester in the front with a black rayon/spandex blend for the back and is made in China. This is definitely a keeper.
Item: 41Hawthorn Carla Crochet Detail Blouse
Cost: $58
Paired With: Makers Lianne Skinny Jean (last month’s Fix), sandals (mine), cardigan (mine)
I think we have another winner of a top! This pretty green top is really sheer so I do have a cami on underneath. This top is sleeveless as well and the crochet detail runs around the outside edge of the arm openings to the back. I paired this with a cardigan again because, cardigan. It fits nicely and drapes well too. The fabric is 100% polyester and is made in China. This one is a keeper too.
Item: Gilli Grace Knit Maxi Dress
Cost: $74
Paired With: Michel Studio Calantha Crochet Detail Cardigan (this month’s fix), wedges (mine)
Oh boy. I LOVE the idea of this dress, and I did ask for a maxi dress this month. The polka dots, neckline, empire waist – it’s all perfect. But.. once I put it on? It just doesn’t work for me. For the photo, I dragged out the 4″ high ankle-breaker wedges, and you can’t even see them because the dress is so long (or I’m so short). The top is HUGE and gapes at the arm openings around the bust, but then it’s just a little too snug through the lower abdomen. Usually dresses with an empire waist open up so that the hip sizing is free and open, but this was pretty fitted straight down to the top of my thighs where the skirt finally started to open up. If I sized up so I had more room through the middle, it would be MUCH too large in the bust. The fabric is problematic too – it’s a polyester/spandex knit with a viscose/spandex lining that only goes to about knee-length. It’s one of those stretchy, jumpy, bouncy fabric blends that doesn’t drape nicely and shows off every last lump and bump, especially the ones in my midsection (you can’t tell in a straight-on photo, but the side view, even with shapewear, just .. no). It kills me because this is GORGEOUS, but I’m awful with crazy high heels like that, and it’s just a little too form fitting through the middle for me to feel comfortable. I might have been able to take up the skirt at the empire waist, but the lining is sewn to the dress at the waist seam which would mean separating the two so that I don’t shorten the lining too far, and it’s just too much work. I would’ve absolutely kept this if it was a cotton blend and if it wasn’t as fitted through the middle, but with the fabric and fit issues, I’m going to have to pass. It’s really a shame because this is spot on a great dress and the style idea is a match to what I like to wear, but the fabric and fit issues make it a return, unfortunately!
Item: Michel Studio Calantha Crochet Detail Cardigan
Cost: $54
Paired With: Jeans, flats, black top (all mine)
I did ask for a cardigan, and Lana delivered! I didn’t quite like this paired with the dress, so I tried something different, and I’m still not sure I like the sleeves. The crochet detail at the edge of the sleeves is super cute, but the sleeves are way too wide and a weird inbetween length. The sleeves don’t taper down along the arm but stay the same width the whole way, and the length falls between 3/4 and full length. The crop length of the body is perfect (Hi, I’m short), but overall I think this may be a little too big. I could probably exchange for a size smaller, but .. those sleeves just aren’t doing it for me.. the extra sleeve fabric doesn’t hang nicely and there’s so much extra fabric on the arms that I don’t think it looks terribly flattering either. There’s a seam that runs under the arm and down the side, so it would be fairly easy to take that in to a shape I like, but for $54, I’m not feeling like doing so much extra work to dramatically alter a cardigan. The fabric is a visocose/polyester/spandex blend, made in Cambodia. I’m kind of 50/50 on this right now, but probably leaning just a little to the return side of things.
Item: Beauport Isabell Off The Shoulder Dress
Cost: $78
Paired With: Flats (mine)
I did have this on my Pinterest board! That big buffalo check seems to be everywhere this season, and I just love it. The dress is a nice weight woven rayon with a polyester lining, made in the Philippines. I included that second picture because man this is sized SO big that you might be able to fit a second me inside the dress. The waist is elastic, but when I had it on, the elastic wasn’t even stretched at all around my waist – it was just hanging loose. This is a 2x, and I think going down to the 1x wouldn’t be enough (it was REALLY loose in the top/waist), but it’s not available in standard sizing, or at least, the website is showing those sizes as out of stock. I really wish they posted size charts for the different brands online because that would make it so much easier to tell if the smaller size would fit or not. I may try the exchange anyway though because I do like the dress between the print and fabric, and did I mention it has POCKETS?! I’m a sucker for pockets on a dress. The verdict is still out – I may try to email support to see if they can tell me the waist measurement on the 1x before making my final decision. (also, say hello to my weird tan lines [hi, weird tan lines!] – some dummy forgot sunblock earlier in the season and got a little sun-roasted wearing something with a different neckline. oops!)
The total cost of all five items comes to $318. If I kept all five, the 25% discount brings the box down to $218.50 after taking off the styling fee credit. I’m definitely keeping those two tops, but the maxi dress is going back, and the cardigan and other dress may be going back too, but I’m going to take a day to confer with friends (and probably Instagram) and think on it. It’s nice that I get a few days to think it over and decide whether or not I want to keep the pieces I’m not sure about. For the record, too, all the pieces were the same size, but none of them fit at all the same – the last dress was about two sizes too big and the maxi dress was probably just a size too small in the bottom half. Both tops were a good fit, but then the cardigan was too big. I feel like Goldilocks and the three dresses with clothes sometimes – I could pull three dresses the same size from different brands, but one is too big, one is too small, and every once in a while, one is just right. I’ll be sure to update the post once I do decide, and if you have any thoughts about any of the pieces, I’d love to hear from you! In case you’re thinking about trying Stitch Fix and want to give me a little love, here’s my referral link!
EDIT 13 June 2017: I contacted customer service regarding that last dress. They didn’t have the exact measurements on that specific dress, but they were able to tell me that generally, sizing runs about 4″ different in the waist on plus sizes, and if the exchange didn’t work out, they could email me a return label to return the dress at no cost to me. That’s a really generous exchange/return policy, so I went for the exchange. The smaller size actually fits rather well! It’s still a little big in the top, but not so much that it looks like it’s hanging off me like the size I was originally sent. Clothes sizing, how does it even work?! It still boggles my mind how wildly different clothes sizes can be across manufacturers and even within ‘fit’ styles for a single manufacturer (one company makes 5 different ‘fits’ of jeans all with slightly different waist/hip/rise ratios). *sigh*