Most of you have heard of subscription boxes by now. So many of them are gaining popularity and they are conveniently delivering everything from makeup samples to dog toys right to your front door. My first experience was with a beauty subscription box- Glossybox. It was 21 bucks a month and they promised that you would receive a full size high end product with every box.  I have to admit I was a little skeptical about it at first. But, I do love beauty products and it seemed like it might be a good idea to have a small box of new products delivered monthly. My daughter was doing it first (she keeps me up to date on these things) and as usual, I finally gave in after she showed me her cool new beauty selections.

I signed up for  Glossy Box for about 6 months, and  I actually enjoyed trying new products, some of which I still use today as staples, but I grew weary of receiving a box every month and didn’t like the idea of all of these products building up in my vanity drawers. If you have followed along with other posts you know I have a penchant for minimalism and having 10 different mascaras and 9 sample size moisturizers didn’t fit with my minimalist world view so Glossy Box and I parted ways; amicably of course.

When my daughter told me about her new clothing subscription box I was in no way interested. First of all I subscribe to a capsule wardrobe, so why would I want new clothes showing up all the time? Also, we consider ourselves pretty stylish people. We used to own a designer consignment clothing business and she currently owns a vintage 90’s clothing business unfadedera.com so why would we need a stylist to pick out our clothes? She also told me that the company she was using- Trunk Club, was a Nordstrom’s company now. Now, I love Nordstrom’s, but it seemed a little out of budget for my young entrepreneur H&M loving daughter and even I, with a larger clothing budget allowance, didn’t exclusively shop there. None of it made sense but she had an answer for everything.

“It’s great!” she exclaimed “You tell your stylist all about yourself and she picks looks that she thinks you will like. You get to see her picks and then select items that you would like to have in your trunk. Then you get to try everything on and then ship back whatever you don’t want. And you don’t pay a monthly fee, you don’t pay shipping and UPS will pick the package up from your front door,” she explained.

My MomDar starting going off immediately. “This all sounds too good to be true.” I told her. She sent me pics of her new haul and raved about the few items she did decide to purchase.  A week or so later she called me to complain that she had been charged for a jacket she didn’t keep. “Ah hah, I told you so!” I said. But that issue was quickly resolved and she became her old Trunk Club loving self again.

A few months later she received another trunk. It just so happens that she was on her way to my house the next day for an overnight visit, so she brought the trunk along. Okay, I love nice packaging (another weird fact about me) and the trunk itself was so cute and neatly packaged! It was love at first sight. I really enjoyed watching her try on every outfit and model them in my comfy bedroom instead of a cramped dressing room. It was really quite a show. Her stylist had done a pretty good job. I was ready to give it a try. Every season I like to add (and remove) a few items to my capsule wardrobe (you can read more about that here  and here.)  So, maybe this would eliminate trips to the mall  or time wasted shopping online during those times when I feel a need to add. Someone else would do the bulk of the work. I thought about how I always wanted a personal assistant and while the stylist most likely won’t get me a latte, this service might just save me some time.

My daughter helped me set up my account through the Trunk Club website (see it here ) and suggested that I ask my stylist to email me instead of calling, so that I would have time to really review my answers and make sure my stylist had a good idea of my personal style. I even sent her a link to my blog so that she could learn a little more about me. A few weeks later my trunk came. My stylist had done an amazing job! Again, I loved trying on things that I might not have necessarily picked up on my own and really enjoyed trying them on in the privacy of my own home.

I only purchased 3 items from my first trunk. I wanted to add a few blouses and date night dress to my current wardrobe, so I chose a short sleeve Vince Camuto Blouse, a 3/4 sleeve breezy NYDJ blouse (which I am wearing today and receiving tons of compliments on) and a white Halogen fitted sheath for date night. I would have purchased a pair of jeans- my gluttony item from my Seven Deadly Sins Post (you can read it here). But, they were a little too big so I didn’t keep them. The best part is 2 of the 3  items I purchased had gone on sale by the time I was billed. Score!

So far, this service has been great and the only down side (kinda) is I have another trunk on the way. Although, I could decline the trunk entirely, or not purchase anything, I am not sure if the idea of having revolving trunks come so often will be a good thing for me. I would ideally like to have them come once a season.

Here are the Trunk Club Highlights:

Convenience-I love the convenience and ease of receiving and returning the trunks

Ease-I like online shopping but I really love how easy it is to have someone else choose for you and you just give it a thumbs up or down

Budget-I gave her my maximum budget per category and my stylist does a great job selecting things within that range. Every now and then something pops up out of budget but you can always decline it before it even ships

Quality-I am a huge quality girl and I like that I know the quality of the products I am receiving, as I am very familiar with Nordstrom brands.

Surprises-even though I first scoffed at the idea of having a stylist I like the idea of someone else picking out things that I might not have considered. It is nice to shake things up a bit so that you don’t get into a wardrobe rut.

Let me know if you have ever tried a clothing subscription service and what your thoughts on them are.

Until Next Post,