Week 22: The one with the personal stylist

By Published On: October 13th, 2015

During my first three pregnancies I basically dressed like a […]

Week 22bDuring my first three pregnancies I basically dressed like a hobo. For some reason I was convinced that it wasn’t worth it to spend money on nice, good-quality maternity clothes. So instead, I wore cheap, ill-fitting maternity clothes that, by the end of each pregnancy, were so stretched out and misshapen from being worn and washed so many times, it wasn’t even worth keeping most of them. Don’t get me wrong; the clothes were cute, but they just weren’t good quality. And most of them weren’t really business attire, which made dressing for work … questionable, at best.

Now, had you asked us six years ago how many kids we planned to have, we probably would have told you two. (It’s not that we were lying; it’s more that we changed our minds. Although, if you ask my husband, he’ll tell you that I changed his mind for him but that is really neither here nor there). So I figured I wasn’t going to get a lot of wear out of whatever maternity clothes I did buy, which is why I thought I couldn’t justifying spending a lot of money on them.

It turns out that I had no idea what I was talking about. If I could go back in time, I would punch myself in the face for being so cheap and short-sighted. And then I’d go buy myself some nice maternity clothes. I mean, if I had just forked over the cash six years ago, I would definitely have gotten my money’s worth. Instead I chose to spend upwards of three years of my life wearing one pair of pants and old T-shirts that I found in my husband’s closet.

By the end of each of my pregnancies, my belly is so big that not even maternity shirts cover it. And there ain’t nobody wanting to see a 40-week-stretch-mark-covered belly hanging out underneath a stretched out cheapo shirt that probably has holes in it from being washed too many times.

Enter Stitch Fix.

Maybe some of you are already familiar with Stitch Fix and its undisputed awesomeness.  And if you’re not aware, then I’m here to tell you. There’s nothing better. Nothing.

When you sign up for Stitch Fix, you give them your info (height, weight, body shape, style preferences, etc.) and then they give you a personal stylist who picks out five items (pants, tops, jewelry, outerwear and bags) for you. Then they send it directly to your door. It’s like magic! You have three days to try everything on and decide what you want to keep.  Whatever you don’t want to keep, you plop in the prepaid envelope that Stitch Fix sends, and ship it back. There’s no commitment. You do pay a $20 styling fee, but then that money is applied towards whatever you decide to keep.

Week 22aSo, to sum up, you get a box of fun, fashionable clothing delivered to your door without any real effort on your part, and then you get to pick what you want to keep. Who can say no to that? Not me.

I signed up for Stitch Fix more than a year ago because with three kids I never have time to shop but am still expected to look like a respectable human being when I leave the house.  And then, right before I found out I was pregnant with Baby No. 4, Stitch Fix did me a solid and went ahead and started offering maternity clothing.

Now, I will say that the clothing I get from Stitch Fix is significantly more expensive than what I normally spend on … well, anything. But you just can’t beat the convenience factor.  And the clothes are high quality. For a fashion-challenged person like myself, it takes a lot of the pressure off to just have someone who is not fashion-challenged send me clothes.

I’ve received three maternity “fixes” so far, and I really could not be more pleased. I received several work-appropriate dresses (that I was also able to wear to a wedding that we attended recently), maternity jeans (that don’t cost $11 zillion like other designer maternity denim), leggings, and several tops that are easy to dress up or down. Oh, and a three-pack of camisoles that I’m confident will become the only shirts in history that can effectively cover my belly until the end.

Please take this opportunity to learn from my mistake. Don’t dress like a hobo. Buy yourself some good, high-quality maternity clothing. Do it now. It’s not too late. You’ll feel good about the way you look, and you won’t regret spending the money. Even if this is your “last pregnancy” (I’ve had my “last pregnancy” three times now, so anything is possible), it’s still worth the splurge.

There’s nothing worse than feeling like a stuffed sausage in ill-fitting maternity clothes.  Let Stitch Fix help!