Stitch Fix Report

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my plans to try out Stitch Fix, a new online shopping/personal styling service. I promised to report back with how the process went.

The sign up process is easy and quick- they have an online form you fill out giving details of your size and style. Their method for assessing your style is pretty smart- they show pictures of collections of outfits and ask you what you think of them. You get to give a preferred price range, but be warned, this service is not for the super budget-conscious: the lowest range is what I'd call "Nordstrom level."  That's fine with me, though, so I went ahead.

I got my first box on Monday night, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the first fix turned out. There were five items in my box: one pair of earrings, one jacket, and three tops. There was also a page with the prices of the items and a personal note from my stylist, which indicated that she had checked out my blog (I'd provided my Twitter handle). She had read my post about my de facto uniform, and had used the information in it to help guide her selections.

I know you're curious, so, I'll show you what came in my box. I'll include pictures, but it will quickly become obvious that I have not missed a calling as a fashion model, and my husband has not missed a calling as a fashion photographer. Also, pictures without my head are just going to look a little weird. Sorry! Several people have commented here and on other posts wondering about the price, so I'll also include the cost of each item in my box.

I didn't take a picture of the earrings. They were pretty fleur-de-lis silver studs ($33). If I had decided to keep the other items, I would have kept these, too, and I would probably wear them. However, as we'll see, one of the other items didn't work for me, so I decided to send the earrings back. I have quite a few earrings already, and I tend to favor low key dangling earrings over studs.

The first piece of clothing I tried on was a jean jacket ($78).

I had no prior desire to own a jean jacket. To be honest, I associate them with my high school days, when I was never without one in my closet. So I was a little skeptical when I tried this one on, but I loved it. It is a flattering fit, I think it is a nice updated version of a classic look, and it is the perfect weight for San Diego. It was an obvious keeper.

Next, I tried on a black blouse ($65).

This is not a style I would ever have picked off the rack to try on, but I ended up loving how it looks with a favorite old skirt of mine. (The skirt, incidentally, dates from my graduate school days. I have tried many times to find a skirt I love as much as it, but have never succeeded.) The style card that came with the blouse indicates that I should wear it with a "statement necklace." I do not have such a thing! I tried it with one of my favorite necklaces (the rabbit necklace I described in an earlier post), but I don't think it is quite right. I still liked the blouse, so I decided to keep it, too.

I really wanted to love the next shirt in my box, a gauzy green top with very subtle, almost invisible purple stripes ($58). I loved the color and the fabric.

Sadly, the boxy cut was absolutely not flattering on me. So I reluctantly decided to send it back. As you can see from the style tag that came with the top, though, it would have been really cute on a different body type:

My final shirt ended the box on an up note, though. It was a plum-colored jersey top ($48).

The color isn't one that is super flattering on me, but it isn't a bad color for me, either. I absolutely love the way this shirt fits, and I like the detail at the neckline:

So I kept this shirt, too.

I checked out online last night, and put the rejects into the prepaid return envelope and dropped them in the postbox today. Overall, I liked the Stitch Fix experience- it was fun to get the box and go through it, and the hit-to-miss ratio was better than I expected. It was definitely less annoying than going shopping at the mall. My only complaint is that all of the shirts I got were dry clean only, which is suboptimal for me. I can live with that, though, so I went ahead and scheduled my next fix to come in a few weeks, and requested they send some bottoms this time. I suspect the hit ratio will be lower with bottoms than tops, because they are harder to fit, but I have the same problem when I go to the mall, so why not see what my stylist comes up with?

Ginger at Ramble, Ramble tried Stitch Fix, too, and liked it even though her hit ratio was lower than mine. Also, if you're tempted to try it out and want to give me credit for referring you, you can use this link: http://stitchfix.com/sign_up?referrer_id=3042032.

Diaper Delivery #1

Towards the end of last year, when I was feeling especially worn down by the ugliness in the world, I decided I should pick one thing and make it better. The thing I picked was the fact that there are parents in this country who cannot afford to buy sufficient diapers for their kids. I picked that because the thought of a parent choosing between food and diapers is heartbreaking, and also because I suck at potty training, and having monetary stress added to the cosmic stress of that situation just seems like adding insult to injury. So I decided that the proceeds from this blog (which come from Amazon Affiliate links and ads) should go to buying diapers for other people's kids.

I wrote to one of my favorite local charities and asked if they'd be interested in getting sporadic diaper deliveries. They were, and specifically requested newborn, size 1, and size 2 diapers.

And then I had to wait until I accumulated enough credit on Amazon to get a gift card from them, and then wait three months for them to pay out that gift card.

I got my gift card on Sunday, so last night, I bought a pack of 76 newborn diapers, and told Amazon to deliver them to my chosen charity. I was going to make a cute graphic showing the number of baby bum- months I'd contributed to keeping clean and dry, but by my calculations, the average newborn goes through roughly 10 diapers per day, so my contribution last night is responsible only for one quarter of one clean and dry baby bum-month.

But that's better that nothing. One thing, made a tiny bit better.

What Does Success Look Like?

A couple of weeks ago, my sister brought over a section of our local newspaper for me. I don't subscribe, and I've mostly ignored my local paper since it went behind a paywall online. She correctly guessed, though, that I'd be interested in this article- it was a big write-up, complete with a cool 3/4 page picture, of one of my graduate school classmates. This classmate has gone on to a solid academic career, working on interesting science that may eventually be medically useful. It was a very flattering article, and I have no doubt it was well deserved.

A small part of me felt a bit of a sting upon seeing this article- no one is likely to write a big, flattering article about me in my local paper, after all.

But mostly, I didn't care, beyond being happy for my classmate. And since I'm the introspective type, I immediately started wondering about why I didn't care, particularly since I've been full of career-related angst lately.

I think it is related to the career advice I've found myself giving a lot recently: know what success looks like for you. My classmate is very successful, but that life is not what success looks like for me.

So what does success look like for me? I think that if I really had that figured out, my career angst would solve itself. Despite the fact that I tell other people that figuring out what success looks like to them is an important first step to figuring out what sort of career options will be viable, I can't fully describe what success looks like for me. I have the broad outlines, though. Success for me is to be always learning new things. I am starting to suspect it also involves creating things, which surprises me. It is having the recognized expertise in some field to make other people want to learn things from me. It is feeling like I'm doing something useful for other people. It is having a lot of autonomy in my work, and feeling like I can make the decisions that matter to me. And it is having a job that provides both the funds and the flexibility to live the lifestyle I want.

The reason my classmate's success is not the success I want is in that last bit- that particular type of academic career path doesn't provide enough flexibility for my tastes, and doesn't offer a reasonably likely path to that flexibility until quite late in the career, if at all.

But the more important questions of whether some aspect of my definition of success is missing from my current career path, and if so, which aspect is missing? Those still elude me. I'm working on that.

What does success look like for you? Are you on the path to achieving it?

Quotable: Conspiracy

"Conspiracy theories and the occult comfort us because they present models of the world that more easily make sense than the world itself, and, regardless of how dark or threatening, are inherently less frightening."

-William Gibson, in Metrophagy, and essay in Distrust That Particular Flavor

I'm finding this explanation of conspiracy theories helpful right now, when so much ugliness in my country is traceable back to people who believe the most unbelievable things.

Weekend Reading: The Good Stuff from My Blog Reader Edition

January's been a bit of a loss. I think there were 5 days in there when I wasn't sick. The first cold I had turned into a secondary infection and required two days off work, one at the start, and one at the end, with antibiotics. The latest cold I've had has lingered and lingered. And then I had to stay home Tuesday this week with a tummy bug Petunia brought home- and I almost never get tummy bugs. (On the bright side, we seem to have stopped the spread with me. A large amount of bleach has been used in this house this week.) I feel OK now, but tire easily and my voice is still a wreck. I alternate between husky and wispy, with the occasional croaking frog or complete loss of sound thrown in. I have no idea what is going on with my voice, and will probably have to take another trip to the doctor if it doesn't sort itself out soon.

So, if I seem to have disappeared from blogs I usually comment on, this is why. I am, to put it mildly, behind in almost all aspects of my life. Also, since I haven't had time to read widely, I don't have the usual thematic collection of links for you this week. Instead, I thought I'd link to some posts that just showed up in my blog reader and that I liked.

First of all, Antropologa has a really thought-provoking post about refugees settled in rural Sweden.

Nicoleandmaggie had an interesting post about gazingus pins. I'm still trying to figure out what mine is. At one point, it was probably shoes, but it isn't anymore.

Laura Vanderkam had a good post about things to think about if you're considering starting a home-based business. If I ever do try to go out on my own, I would be starting a home-based business. So it was interesting to read and think about, even though right now I am a corporate drone and likely to stay one.

Speaking of being a corporate drone, this HBR article about when to quit your job brought me up short. I do not, in fact, want my boss' job, at least not at this particular company. I don't think that means I should quit, though. I'm still learning useful things.

Scalzi had a really nice memoriam for Richard Stern. I like the idea of not being a good enough student for some teachers you meet in college- I know I can look back on some of the classes I had at the U of C and recognize that I'd get a heck of a lot more out of them now. I also laughed out loud at his description of his classmates.

This post from Wil Wheaton is just nice... and a nice reminder that even people the rest of us think of as famous have career ups and downs.  The commercial in question came out today. I was watching for Wil Wheaton and I still had to watch the thing twice to catch him. He's right where it makes sense for him to be. I must have blinked at an inopportune time the first time through!

That's all I have this week. I'm sure there are more great posts waiting in my blog reader- I am not at all caught up. Happy weekend, everyone!