Have You Heard of Stitch Fix?

Fellow busy ladies out there, I know that you can relate to this. Lately my life has been in super fast forward mode (like that mode that you hit on your DVD player that tells the movie to play at x32 speed, mode).

So busy that when I wake up in the morning, I all but throw my legs over the side of the bed, strap running shoes to my feet and go at nothing short of lightning speed until I hit the sheets again that night, dead to the world. I’m always occupied (in a good way! Kids and home and projects and work are all awesome right now) and the little things that used to bring me a great deal of joy – like a therapeutic trip to Nordstroms or Anthropologie just to browse and maybe find an awesome treasure – are things of the past. That sounds like a lovely vacation at this moment actually. Drop me off at a mall without kids for three hours and I will come back rejuvenated :).

iPhone shopping of items I’m considering – or badly want to diy – from back when I used to visit stores.

These days I rely on the convenience of online shopping 100% of the time. Heading to Amazon and clicking ‘Buy Now with 1-Click’ for what I purchase regularly has changed my life (and sadly, replaced trips to Target). It might be my favorite shampoo or a present for a kids party the next week, but the idea of not buckling two little ones into the car and driving to a brick and mortar store only to spend 5x as much as I intended and twice as many hours as I had hoped (all while battling from the cart: We neeeeeeed more pink socks and marshmallows and this new plastic doll) is so worth it. Even if I feel that I must soon plant a grove of trees somewhere to offset all of the recycled boxes that show up on our porch each week.

I don’t buy a ton clothing-wise (as Kevin jokingly loves to tell everyone, I’m an excellent returner :)) and since at this moment I don’t really have the luxury of online browsing of said favorite stores, my wardrobe creativity has been a little dry. Okay, a lot dry.

So I wanted to share this little online service that I came across recently. A Google display ad for Stitch Fix caught my eye a little while back and it’s kind of cool.

Stitch Fix promotes itself as a personal styling tool for those of us that are either too busy or are feeling a bit clothing uncreative. After a short style test to determine who you are (you also share personal information such as your Facebook page or Twitter link so that they can get you), they pair you up with a stylist who selects five unique items each month and ships them your way (a stylist! it sounds so wonderful and fancy). You try the items on in the comfort of your home, keep what you’d like (they average around $60 each) and return what you don’t in the same way they arrived. They also send you little outfit idea cards on ideas for each item (like the above).

You offer your stylist feedback and they customize the next order better to your liking. I especially love that they will offer items that I might not normally try, but that they think will fit in well with ‘my style’. The service is for the most part free. There’s a $20 charge for the stylist’s time and shipping if you don’t keep anything, but no charge if you keep at least one item.

I’m trying it out, it sounds kind of awesome.

How do you shop these days? Are you like me and either A. have abandoned retail shopping altogether out of craziness or B. stick to reordering perfectly great favorites (like these cardigans from J.Crew)?

PS The Stitch Fix link in this post is an affiliate link, I’ve ordered my first box and I’ll let you know how it goes!