ONLINE prêt-à-porter
Fashions you order on the internet come customized to your doorstep
When Michelle Romero arrives home to find a heavy box sitting on her doorstep, it feels like Christmas. And it’s a celebration the San Jose resident looks forward to enjoying once a month as she extracts and tries on the tissue-wrapped tops, pants, sweaters and accessories.
She’s usually so delighted with the results, it’s hard to imagine Romero’s fashion fix comes courtesy of a human stylist and high-tech algorithm.
Having a computer and a person you’ve never met choose clothes for you working off a style questionnaire and your social media photos (Instagram and Pinterest) seems an odd concept. But the rapid growth of San Francisco’s Stitch Fix since launching in 2011 points to a trend that may be here to stay.
Stitch Fix — with women’s, maternity, petite sizes and a recently launched men’s division — joins a growing cadre of virtual clothing styling, subscription and rental services. All have similar goals: to make your life easier, help you stay stylish, and, of course, sell you some clothes.
Before the digital era and sharing economy, you could hire — and usually pay — a personal shopper, or enlist a department store’s free shopper. But Stitch Fix and other services are disrupting that model, bringing a data-driven and social media approach to the process. YouTube is filled with recipients’ “unboxing” videos, showing off their hauls. Others post social media photos, looking for friends’ and followers’ thumbs up or down.
My Subscription Addiction reviews just about every online styling service under the sun. Founder Liz Cadman says Stitch Fix, Fabletics (Kate Hudson’s athletic wear) and Gwynnie Bee (plus size) are readers’ favorites. Some require a monthly subscription, and you don’t get to choose the garments. Others (e.g. Stitch Fix) offer on-demand services, charging modest styling fees that can be applied to clothing purchases. Some are rental only.
“I don’t have time to go to the mall and try things on,” says Romero, who is not alone in her dislike of going to the mall.
“Why not let someone else who is really good at shopping do it for you,” says Stitch Fix COO Julie Bornstein. “The idea is someone can save me time and shop better than I can for myself.”
Above all, Bornstein says, Stitch Fix is about personalization, and that works well for Napa Valley winemaker Alison Crowe.
“I told Stitch Fix I’m a busy winemaker and mom with two boys,” Crowe says. “I don’t want clothes I have to dry clean or that wrinkle easily. Most items meet those standards.”
To fulfill Crowe’s and other clients’ needs, Stitch Fix headquarters occupies five Union Square high rise floors. Amid clothing racks and style inspiration boards covered with fabric swatches, photos and color palettes, some 70 data scientists tap away at computers, crunching client feedback to improve their proprietary clothing-pairing algorithms. Then, more than 3,000 stylists review algorithm suggestions for their client’s style profile, selecting the final five-piece fix.
Before a single box goes out, clothing samples come into Stitch Fix headquarters, from partner brands such as Michael Stars, Trina Turk, Equipment, Bailey 44 and for men, Scotch & Soda and Penguin, plus six inhouse labels.
Getting the right fit is virtual styling’s biggest challenge, so a team examines each garment on a fit model. Approved items are photographed for each box’s “how-to wear it” styling card. Meanwhile, the clothing is ordered from the vendor and sent to one of five warehouses across the country, from South San Francisco to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. When it’s time to fill a fix, employees pull items chosen by the algorithm and stylist, then wrap and ship them out. Clients keep items they like and pay full retail price, or send them back.
Renting is another option — and today’s choices are nothing like shopping mall formal rental stores. San Francisco public relations professional Rena Rameriz needs a variety of clothes for events and client meetings and subscribes to Le Tote and Rent the Runway. “It’s a waste buying new beautiful outfits,” she says, “so I rent.”
Ramirez has also been taking advantage of Le Tote’s maternity wear option. “The clothes are pretty stylish, young and hip and are items I wouldn’t want to buy or wear forever,” she says.
Le Tote co-founder Rakesh Tondon’s pregnant wife was his inspiration. “She was swapping clothes with friends or work colleagues to have more variety,” he says. Co-founder Brett Northart’s wife had a formal clothing swap group; they tracked trades on Google docs. “I thought we could take this offline behavior and put it online,” Tondon says.
The San Francisco-based company operates solely on computer algorithm recommendations. You surf clothing options and build your “closet.” The program crunches your choices and data points, including weather in your zip code, to fill your five-item tote. You can wear everything, then return it. Le Tote takes care of the cleaning; you get another tote.
“I try to do three totes per month, so the $59 monthly subscription fee is worth it monetarily for me,” says Oakland resident Evita Broughton.
But virtual stylists don’t suit everyone all the time. Fashionistas looking for unique clothes may find the garments and accessories too basic. Some clients don’t need more clothes after a few boxes. Then there’s the boredom factor.
San Francisco teacher Amy Kleckner stopped using Stitch Fix after 18 months.“Towards the end, it was monotonous,” she says. “Even though I changed my preferences and wrote my stylists emails, I was getting the same stuff in different colors.”
Ultimately, selection is limited to the service’s inventory. Stitch Fix and Le Tote say they’re broadening