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Personal styling service Stitch Fix comes with a snazzy social media presence, an impressive 4.4-star rating on TrustPilot and approval from famous faces like Venus Williams and The Girls Bathroom podcasters, Sophia Tuxford and Cinzia Zullo.
It initially caught our eye when we featured it in our round-up of the very best subscription boxes available in the UK.
Curious to learn more, we invested in the service for nine months and have compiled a complete Stitch Fix review to help you learn more about the clothes shopping service.
What is Stitch Fix?
Photo: Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix
Pros & Cons
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Personalised styling
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A convenient way to explore new styles
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Reasonably priced
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Cost of box taken off the total price of items you keep
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Can take a few boxes for stylists to fully understand your style
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Same stylist not guaranteed for every fix
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Only a seven-day return window
Stitch Fix is one of the most unique ways to shop fashion.
It’s essentially a subscription service where personal stylists pick out clothes for you based on your individual wants and needs.
The brand was founded in 2011 and according to its site, its mission is to ‘change the way people find clothes they love by combining technology with the personal touch of seasoned style experts.’
Which brands are available through Stitch Fix?
Loads of trendy names are available at a variety of price ranges. But, to mention a few, you can expect to receive pieces from the likes of:
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Whistles
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Boden
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Vero Moda
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Sweaty Betty
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Levi’s
How does Stitch Fix work?
Signing up
To begin, you first need to complete your style quiz.
The questions are extensive and thorough to ensure your style profile is as detailed as possible.
You’ll be asked all sorts of personal information about your style taste, size and fits that feel comfortable for you.
At this stage (and throughout the Stitch Fix process), you have the opportunity to leave your stylist a note. You can ask for particular items of clothing, patterns and even request outfits for workwear or summer holidays — it’s totally up to you.
Once you’re all set, a Stitch Fix stylist will look over your profile, and any requests, and then select five items for your box.
We found the sign-up process very comprehensive and quite fun. We loved how exhaustive the questions were and the fact that we were able to personalise our requests so much.
For our first fix, we decided not to leave our stylist with any specific notes so they could have free reign over their picks. The only thing we did specify was that we would like to see more affordable items around the £30 mark, as investing in too many pricier pieces wouldn’t be feasible for us long term.
Finally, you’re able to decide how often you’d like to receive a delivery, from every three weeks to once every three months. We opted for once every three months.
Previewing the Fix
About five days before our box was due to arrive, we received an email from the Stitch Fix stylists inviting us to preview a series of hand-picked items of clothing. From this selection, you then choose five items for your box. This is an optional feature that you can ignore if you’d like your stylist to pick your five pieces as a complete surprise.
On your account, you also have the option to play these fun style shuffles. Like a dating app for outfits, you swipe right on looks you love and left on the ones you don’t. These also influence your fashion fixes.
Photo: Stitch Fix
As we’ve had three Stitch Fix boxes over the past nine months, we’ve had the opportunity to review a range of previews.
And, since we’ve had a different stylist for each box, we’ve found the round-ups to be quite mixed. While for two of three boxes, none of the pieces appealed, one of the previews was bursting with so many fabulous options, we struggled to select only five to sample.
If you don’t like any of the offerings, your stylist ends up choosing five brand-new surprise pieces and sends them straight out to you via Royal Mail.
Included in the box, are some personalised styling notes from your stylist with suggestions on what to pair your pieces with and the occasions they would work well for. This was a lovely and useful touch, especially if you’re someone who usually struggles with mix-and-matching items.
Photo: Ava Patel
Providing feedback
After receiving your box, you have seven days to try on your pieces and decide what you’d like to keep. Once we’d made our decision of what we’d like to save from our box, we headed over to the Stitch Fix site where we could leave our stylist feedback and let them know what we would be keeping.
Once again we were really impressed with the level of detail we were able to provide our stylist. From the sizing to the fit preferences to the style to the price, you’re able to comment on every aspect of every piece.
We found that with each of our boxes the stylist had listened to us and done her best to stick to the £30 price point — which was really appreciated on our end.
The returns process
As we mentioned above, from the time of receiving your Fix, you have seven days to return the items you don’t want.
And, in our opinion, completing the return couldn’t be easier. We simply popped the items we didn’t want to keep back into the box and took it to the Post Office. No awkward searching for drop-off or collection points.
Bonus points: expect free shipping, returns and exchanges, always.
How much does Stitch Fix cost?
Each box costs £10 and includes five items.
Photo: Ava Patel
If you choose to keep any of the pieces from your Fix, you do, of course, have to pay for these using the debit or credit card assigned to your account..
However, the great news is that the initial cost of the box — £10 — is taken off the total amount of the clothes you wish to keep. So, if you decide to keep aynthing the box and service is essentially free.
Pretty cool, right?
So, what’s the catch?
Honestly, based on our Stitch Fix experience, there isn’t one.
For only £10 a box, this digital service provides a human element by supplying personalised styling as well as the opportunity to try new pieces you might not have picked out for yourself. Of course, there’s always the chance nothing in your Fix will work for you but, at such an affordable price point, this isn’t a dealbreaker in our opinion.
The final verdict: is Stitch Fix worth it?
Out of the three boxes we’ve received so far — containing 15 items in total — we’ve only kept one piece of clothing.
While that’s not a brilliant success rate, we have actually had a lot of fun and been really impressed by Stitch Fix’s service. Plus, each Fix seems to be getting better which is likely down to how well the stylists listen to our feedback on previous boxes.
Photo: Stitch Fix
The note and feedback options were in-depth and detailed, allowing us to open a dialogue between ourselves and the stylists, ensuring they understood exactly what fashion we liked, disliked and were interested in exploring.
Having had three different stylists, we found each incredibly lovely and bubbly in our communication with them. They were grateful for feedback and provided some fun styling tips in each box.
However, we would recommend sticking to the same stylist for each Fix if you find one who seems to understand your needs best. You have the option to request the same stylist after each Fix (depending on their availability) and we definitely regret not sticking with the stylist of our second box, who really nailed her selection.
If you’re very particular about the clothing you like and the styles that work for you, Stitch Fix might not be a wise investment. But we suggest everyone try a one-off box without committing to a regular subscription, as you may be surprised by how much you enjoy the experience.
Will we be ordering again?
Most definitely. We’re eagerly awaiting our fourth Stitch Fix box and looking forward to viewing our preview as soon as it comes through.
Has this Stitch Fix Review piqued your interest?