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How Stitch Fix gave me back my love of fashion

My bundle of Stitch Fix items, fresh out of the box and all wrapped up in tissue paper.
My pretty little bundle of clothes from Stitch Fix.

 

I’m a big fan of clothes and fashion, but I’ve grown to hate shopping. I used to love pawing through the endless rows of hangers, looking for just the right pair of jeans or for the perfect purple blouse. And shoes. Don’t even get me started on shoes.

Lately, though, it’s become so much of a challenge that I no longer enjoy shopping at the store. A typical shopping trip involves choosing a date ahead of time and going somewhere with my mom so she can help me find what I’m looking for. That means I need to actually know specifically what I’m looking for; browsing is largely a thing of the past. I usually ended up settling for something that was “good enough” because I was frustrated with the whole process.

I’d considered shopping for clothes online, but I was having trouble warming up to the idea. I like feeling the fabrics and trying things on, and I didn’t want to have to pay to ship any returns back.

Then I heard about Stitch Fix, and I knew immediately I wanted to try it out.

Stitch Fix is a subscription box for clothing and accessories. You fill out a style profile, sharing your sizes and selecting your preferred clothing style and price range. A stylist evaluates your choices with the help of algorithms and sends you five items you may like based on your style profile and any requests you may have made for certain items. Once your items arrive, you take a few days to try them on and decide if you want to keep them or not. If you do want to return something, you return it in a prepaid envelope, and then you check out online. You don’t even need to take the package to the post office, either, because you can arrange for your mail carrier to pick it up. Simple!

I’ve been using Stitch Fix for a few months now, and it’s going pretty well. The more Fixes you get, the more they improve, in theory, because you can provide feedback on all the items, whether you keep them or not.

Now that we got all that stuff out of the way, I want to show you what I got in my most recent Fix!

Liverpool Mira Skinny Jean- Black and Market & Spruce Cammy Deep V-Neck Ribbed Knit Top

Market & Spruce Cammy Deep V-Neck Ribbed Knit Top and Liverpool Mira Skinny Jean- Black
Market & Spruce Cammy Deep V-Neck Ribbed Knit Top and Liverpool Mira Skinny Jean- Black

I loved the top. It was so soft, and it was a great color, so I kept it. The jeans were too snug at the waist, but long enough, which was a small miracle.  Trying to find pants to fit a 35″ inseam is always a challenge, so I was disappointed they sent black jeans. I specifically say in my style profile NO SOLID BLACK. With three long-haired cats, it’s just not worth the struggle. So the pants went back.

Market & Spruce Lawford Knit Top

Cream tab-sleeve blouse with thin black horizontal stripes, paired with black pants.
Market & Spruce Lawford Knit Top

I just didn’t like this top. It didn’t feel like me, and I kept adjusting the neckline. I don’t love that style of neckline, anyway, and I didn’t like the color of the detail at the neckline. This one went back.

Just USA Anjuli Dark Wash Denim Jacket

Dark-wash denim jacket paired with cream v-neck tee and black jeans
Just USA Anjuli Dark Wash Denim Jacket

I liked the dark wash, and I had an old, out-of-style denim jacket I wanted to replace, so I kept this one.

41Hawthorn Rocco Faux Wrap Tank Dress

Navy faux-wrap tank dress
41Hawthorn Rocco Faux Wrap Tank Dress

I really liked this dress, but it was definitely made for a shorter person. The dress wasn’t necessarily too short, but it flared out too early on me with my height and made things look a little disproportionate. This photo doesn’t really show that, but trust me. I sadly sent it back.

I’m enjoying the convenience of great fashion at my doorstep. I love having someone else find things for me she thinks I’ll like, and I love how easy it is to return the things that don’t work out. If you want to give Stitch Fix a try, please use my referral link! I’ll get a $25 credit if you do.

*This post contains referral links.

The significance of Rare Disease Day, and why it matters to you

Rare Disease Day 2016

Today is Rare Disease Day, and I couldn’t let the day pass without acknowledging it. A disease is considered rare in the United States if it affects fewer than 200,000 people. About 1 in 10,000 people have Stargardt disease, so that means there are approximately 33.000 people with Stargardt disease in the United States. And Stargardt disease is only one of about 7000 rare diseases. Chances are you may know someone with a rare disease, whether you realize it or not.

Some common problems rare diseases face are lack of funding and lack of quality scientific research. Furthermore, it can be difficult to raise awareness of such diseases because so few people have heard of them and, as a result, have trouble relating to the life-altering effects these diseases can have.

It is for these reasons, and many more I will continue to share with you through this blog, that I ask you to consider participating in the national signature fundraising event of the Foundation Fighting Blindness: the VisionWalk. Join a team (my team!); donate money, goods, or services; or volunteer your time. If you’re interested in participating in any way, please reach out to me and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate people, or visit my individual page.

Please consider helping in any way you can. Here’s the details for the Jacksonville VisionWalk, but if you aren’t local, there are Walks all across the country!

 

Jacksonville VisionWalk

Date: Saturday, May 14, 2016
Time:  8 AM Registration and Walk Begins at 9 AM
Location: University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL

 

What does ‘blindish’ mean?

“You don’t look blind!”

Oh, if I had a nickel.

It still amazes me, though, when someone says this to me like I don’t already know it. Sometimes I think this person believes he or she is giving me a compliment, meaning to say I look “normal.” But blindness comes in varying degrees, and most people don’t know that.

I’m legally blind. My visual acuity is 20/260, which means I can see at 20 feet what another person can see at 260 feet. In other words, imagine seeing a person approaching you, and she’s about 20 feet away. If you have normal vision, you can recognize her easily. But now imagine seeing her from 260 feet away (nearly the length of a football field). You might have trouble recognizing her, and you probably wouldn’t be able to clearly see her face. Now imagine lots of other people coming and going, and it suddenly becomes really tough to spot your friend. That’s what my vision is like– as if things are too far away to easily see.

I have a large blind spot in my central vision due to a inherited retinal disease called Stargardt disease, which is a type of macular degeneration. A person needs central vision to see detail, which is why spotting things from a distance can be tricky. They’re either in my blind spot or appear blurry if I try to use the vision just outside of my blind spot.

I’m legally blind. My visual acuity is 20/260, which means I can see at 20 feet what another person can see at 260 feet. In other words, imagine seeing a person approaching you, and she’s about 20 feet away. If you have normal vision, you can recognize her easily. But now imagine seeing her from 260 feet away (nearly the length of a football field). You might have trouble recognizing her, and you probably wouldn’t be able to clearly see her face. Now imagine lots of other people coming and going, and it suddenly becomes really tough to spot your friend. That’s what my vision is like– as if things are too far away to easily see.

This photo gives an idea of what my vision is like. It shows a dessert table at a brunch buffet my husband and I went to recently.

My husband and I went to brunch recently, so I snapped a picture showing what the dessert table looks like to e.
My husband and I went to brunch recently, so I snapped a picture showing what it looks like to e.

As you can see, there’s a dark spot in the center. The area just outside the dark spot is blurred, and the outer edges of the photo remain clear. The red circle in the center indicates where you should focus to get the best idea of what my vision is like, and then you use your peripheral vision to look at the things outside the blind spot. Some items can be hard to identify because they’re too blurry when using peripheral vision. And to add another complication, my eye condition makes me photophobic, or light-sensitive, so I often wear dark glasses, even inside, because too much light can be painful. You can imagine the looks I get, especially when I do something since I don’t use a cane or guide dog. I can practically feel people trying to figure out if I’m actually blind or not.

So, there you have it. While I’m blind in my blind spot, I’m not completely blind. I’m somewhat blind.

Blindish!