As soon as I heard about personal shopping/subscription box services a few months ago, I was instantly all in. I generally hate shopping and if someone can do it well for me, I'll totally pay them!
So far, I've tried 3 of these kinds of services. I'm joining the chorus of bloggy reviews of subscription boxes. Here are my thoughts about Gwynnie Bee (GB).
GB targets size 10 and up. The bad news is that because of my weight loss, I'm almost too small for their service. Hooray for weight loss, but boo because I might be losing GB.
Overall, I love GB. They operate like the classic Netflix model. You choose a plan (1 garment at a time, 2 garments at a time...); you select specific garments that you want sent to you, and then you start getting garments (but not necessarily in the order that they appear in your list.) When you send a garment back to GB after wearing it many times or no times, another garment gets sent to you.
Before they send your next garment to you, you get an email letting you know what is on its way. This eliminates any element of surprise which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective.
One thing to note is that GB seems to frequently take garments out of circulation. So, suddenly some items may disappear from your list. I think it's good that GB gets rid of stuff that has been worn too much or has had complaints about it, but it's somewhat frustrating if I was excited about getting an item and then it completely disappears from my list.
Another negative for me is that they are really targeting the plus size market. They have some items in size 10, but nothing smaller than 10, and some of their garments start at size 0x or larger. I should be thankful that this is my problem, right?
One thing I love about GB is that there is an active group of GB subscribers who write honest reviews about the garments they've received. This makes is much easier to get a full perspective of the garment and its true size/color/fit instead of just relying on how the pretty model looks in it.
If you have a GB item at home, you can choose to buy it. One of the GB items I have right now is a black sweater/jacket thing which I've worn once; I'll wait a few weeks before wearing it again and then send it back. This sweater/jacket retails for $238; the one I have at home has been worn a bunch and they'll sell it to me for $120.92. I'll pass on buying it, but it's nice to wear a few times!
So far, I've received 7 GB items. Three I returned right away without wearing them. One of those was a short sleeved spring time dress which I received in the middle of winter. It was my fault because I should have put it on my "on hold" list which is good for seasonal items you want to receive in a different season. One was a shimmery t-shirt which would have been appropriate for New Year's, but I received after New Year's. And, one of them the cut made me look like I was wearing a huge tent. The others, I've worn a few times before sending back.
I love GB. It's a great service to make my closet seem deeper than it is without investing too much money.
Great review! Thanks for all the info. I actually had no idea what "on hold" meant just looking at the website. I wish it were more explained on there, as I found it all quite confusing. I think more should be done to explain the "on hold" process and also that you can't specifically request certain items. I understand why their business model doesn't necessarily allow for that, but, especially when you have a particular event in mind and want a specific kind of dress for it, it's hard to plan accessories, coordinating shoes, etc. when you're not quite sure what you're going to get unless you have it shipped pretty far in advance. Not sure I'll continue after the 30 day trial, but I'm looking forward to seeing the outfits that come.
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